USC College Department of English


Viet Nguyen

Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity

Contact Information
E-mail: vnguyen@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-3746
Office: THH 404D

LINKS
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Website
 

Biographical Sketch

Viet Thanh Nguyen is an associate professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America (Oxford University Press, 2002). His articles have appeared in numerous journals and books, including PMLA, American Literary History, Western American Literature, positions: east asia cultures critique, The New Centennial Review, Postmodern Culture, and Asian American Studies After Critical Mass. He has held residencies, fellowships and scholarships at the Fine Arts Work Center, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. His short fiction has been published in Manoa, Orchid: A Literary Review, Best New American Voices 2007, A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross-Cultural Collision and Connection, Narrative Magazine, and Gulf Coast, where his story won the 2007 Fiction Prize. He is currently working on two book projects, a collection of short stories and a comparative study of American and Vietnamese memories and representations of the American war in Viet Nam, focusing on the literary and visual arts.

Education

  • B.A. English, UC Berkeley, 5/1992
  • B.A. Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley, 5/1992
  • Ph.D. English, UC Berkeley, 5/1997

Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History

  • Associate Professor, University of Southern California, 2003-2008  
  • Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, 1997-2003  

Description of Research

Summary Statement of Research Interests
Professor Nguyen's research interests include race and ethnicity; multiculturalism and identity; transnationalism and diaspora; Asian American literature and culture; international and comparative approaches to the Vietnam War; the Vietnamese diaspora; and fiction writing. He has an ongoing interest in multimedia and pedagogy, ever since teaching several multimedia courses at USC and being involved with the Visible Knowledge Project of Georgetown University.
Research Keywords
Asian American literature and culture, American studies, race and ethnicity in US culture, film studies, multimedia, multimedia literacy project, race and resistance, Vietnam, the Vietnam War, Vietnamese Americans, Southeast Asia, Southeast Asian Americans, race, ethnicity, multiculturalism, identity, transnationalism, diaspora.

Conferences and Other Presentations

Conference Presentations
  • "On the Dead’s Own Terms: Viet Nam, Cambodia, and Visual Culture", Association for Asian American Studies, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Chicago, 04/19/2008  
  • "Impossible to Forget, Difficult to Remember: The American War in Viet Nam", Comparative Literature Symposium on War, Empire and Culture, Keynote, , Lubbock, TX, Texas Tech University, Invited, 04/11/2008  
  • "The Authenticity of the Anonymous", transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Seoul, South Korea, ARKO Art Center, Invited, 01/18/2008  
  • "On the Dead’s Own Terms: Dinh Q. Lê’s Secondhand Memories", I/M/Migration Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Los Angeles, CA, Loyola Marymount University, Invited, 10/30/2007  
  • "The Uses of Cosmopolitanism: On War, Empathy, and Narrative", Multicultural Narratives and Narrative Theory, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Columbus, OH, Project Narrative, Ohio State University, Invited, 10/26/2007  
  • "Reflections on Race: Japan and the American War in Viet Nam", American Studies Association Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Philadelphia, PA, American Studies Association , 10/13/2007  
  • "The Art of Dinh Q. Lê", Talk/Oral Presentation, , Bellevue, WA, Bellevue Arts Museum, Invited, 09/09/2007  
  • "A Correct Life", Talk/Oral Presentation, , Los Angeles, CA, Visions and Voices, University of Southern Califor, Invited, 07/09/2007  
  • "Speaking for the Dead: Viet Nam, the United States, and Memorialization", Talk/Oral Presentation, , Tokyo, Japan, Center for Pacific and American Studies, Universit, Invited, 06/19/2007  
  • "Speaking for the Dead: Viet Nam, the United States, and Memorialization", Inaugural Lecture, , Tokyo, Japan, Center for the Study of Peace and Reconciliation, , Invited, 06/18/2007  
  • "Race and Resistance: On Asian American Cultural Politics", Talk/Oral Presentation, , Osaka, Japan, Kansai University, Invited, 06/14/2007  
  • "Memories of the Bad War: Ethnicity and Empathy in Viet Nam", Japanese Association of American Studies, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Tokyo, Japan, Japanese Association of American Studies, Invited, 06/09/2007  
  • "Not Like Going Home: On Ambivalent Returns to the Source", Look East Symposium, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Los Angeles, CA, University of Southern California, Invited, 04/20/2007  
  • "Little Shop of Horrors: Harrell Fletcher and the War Remnants Museum", Talk/Oral Presentation, , Los Angeles, CA, LAX>
  • "Ghostly Stories, Haunted Memories: South Korea and Viet Nam", American Studies Association Conference, Talk/Oral Presentation, , Oakland, CA, American Studies Association , 10/13/2006  
  • "The Limits of Identity: Asian Americans and the American War in Viet Nam", American Literature Association Symposium, Talk/Oral Presentation, , San Diego, American Literature Association, Invited, 09/30/2006  
  • "Memories of the Bad War: Viet Nam in the American Imagination", Multiethnic Alliances , Plenary Speech, , Santa Barbara, CA, Center for Black Studies, University of California, Invited, 05/13/2006  
Other Presentations
  • "Literary Reading", Scholars Reading, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Middlebury, Vermont, 08/16/2008  
  • "Literary Reading", Where Art Originates, Palo Alto Art Center and Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Palo Alto, CA, 05/01/2008  
  • "Literary Reading", Vietnamese American Smithsonian Touring Exhibit, Viet Art Center Foundation, Garden Grove, CA, 10/21/2007  

Publications

Book
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2002). Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America/Oxford University Press.
Book Chapter
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2008). The Authenticity of the Anonymous: Popular Culture and the Art of War. pp. 58-67. Seoul: Arko Arts Center, Arts Council Korea: transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2007). Impossible to Forget, Difficult to Remember: Viet Nam and the Art of Dinh Q. Le. pp. 19-29. Bellevue, WA: A Tapestry of Memories: The Art of Dinh Q. Lê/Bellevue Arts Museum.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2006). Theresa Cha, Dictee. pp. 209-212. Encyclopedia.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2005). Wounded Bodies and the Cold War: Freedom, Materialism, and Revolution in Asian American Literature, 1946-1957 printed in Authority and Identity in Early Asian American Literature. Temple University Press.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2004). What is the Political? American Culture and the Example of Viet Nam printed in Asian American Studies After Critical Mass. pp. 19-39. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2004). Marxism After Ho Chi Minh printed in Collective Action: A Bad Subjects Anthology. pp. //bad.eserver.org/issues/1999/45/nguyen.html. Pluto Press.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2003). How Do We Tell Stories? printed in Engines of Inquiry: Approaches to Teaching, Learning, and Technology in American Culture Studies. pp. 363-396. Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2001). Le Ly Hayslip: A Teaching Guide printed in Resource Guide to Asian American Literature. pp. 66-77. Modern Language Association.
Book Review
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2007). After the Massacre: Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and My Lai. Journal of Asian American Studies. pp. 215-218.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2006). Urban Triage: Race and the Fictions of Multiculturalism. Amerasia Journal. 32.1. pp. 136-139.
Journal Article
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2008). At Home With Race. PMLA. Vol. 123 (5), pp. 1557-1565.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2007). Seeing Double: The Films of R. Hong-an Truong. Postmodern Culture/University of Virginia Press. Vol. http, pp. //muse.jhu.edu/journals/pmc/toc/pmc17.1.html.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2006). Speak of the Dead, Speak of Viet Nam: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Minority Discourse. The New Centennial Review/Michigan State Univ. Press. Vol. volume 6, pp. number 2.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2000). The Remasculinization of Chinese America: Race, Violence, and the Novel. American Literary History/Duke University Press. pp. p. 130-157.
  • Nguyen, V. T., Chen, T. (2000). Editor's Introduction. Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies/North Carolina State University. Vol. http, pp. //social.chass.ncsu.edu/jouvert/v4i3/ed43.htm.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (1999). California, the Pacific Rim, and Asian American Literature. Western American Literature/Western American Literature Association. Vol. (Summer 1999) 159-165
  • Nguyen, V. T. (1997). Representing Reconciliation: Le Ly Hayslip and the Victimized Body. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique/Duke University Press. pp. p. 605-642.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (1995). The Postcolonial State of Desire: Homosexuality and Transvestitism in Ninotchka Rosca's State of War. Hitting Critical Mass: A Journal of Asian American Criticism/University of California, Berkeley. pp. p. NA.
Short Story
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2008). Someone Else Besides You. pp. 16-33. Narrative Magazine.
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2007). The Other Woman. pp. 193-211. Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts/To be reprinted in A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross-Cultural Collision and Connection./ Champaign, IL: OV Books/University of Illinois Press..
  • Nguyen, V. T. (2007). A Correct Life. (John Kulka and Natalie Danforth, Ed.). pp. 97-117. Best New American Voices 2007.

Honors and Awards

  • Suzanne Young Marray Fellow, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, 2008-2009   
  • Residency, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, 2008  
  • Alan Collins Scholar, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 8/13/2008-8/24/2008  
  • Fiction Prize, Gulf Coast Journal of Literature and the Arts, 2007  
  • USC or School/Dept Award for Teaching, Teaching Has No Boundaries Award, 2006  
  • Fiction Fellow, Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, MA, 2004-2005  
  • USC Raubenheimer Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Outstanding Research, Teaching, and Service, 2002  
  • General Education Teaching Excellence Award, 2001-2002  
  • USC or School/Dept Award for Teaching, Teaching Award; Resident Faculty of the Year, 1999-2000  
  • USC Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund Award, 1999-2000  
  • Huntington Library Research Fellowship Recipient, Mellon Foundation Fellow, The Huntington Library, 1999  
  • Gamma Sigma Alpha Professor of the Year, 1998-1999   

Service to the University

Administrative Appointments
  • Director of Graduate Studies, American Studies and Ethnicity, 2007-2008   
  • Director of Undergraduate Studies, English, 08/01/2005-07/31/2008  

Service to the Profession

Editorships and Editorial Boards
  • Editorial Board, American Literary History, 03/01/2008-  
  • Contributing Editor, Heath Anthology of American Literature, Sixth Edition, 2007-  
  • Advisory Board, Encyclopedia of Asian American Literature, 2006-  
  • Editorial Board, Journal X: A Journal in Culture and Criticism, 1998-2005  
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