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Jul 2, 2024

VNU-USSH Lecturer Embarks on Journey to the United States as Visiting Scholar

Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet, a lecturer and PhD candidate at VNU-University of Social Sciences and Humanities, will be the first candidate to participate in the Visiting Scholar Program under the USAID Partnership for Higher Education Reform project. Her research centers on colonial cities in Southeast Asia from the 16th to 19th centuries, with a particular emphasis on the urban history of the Philippines and the broader history of Southeast Asia during the early modern period.

During her forthcoming research fellowship in the United States, Ms. Nguyet will advance her PhD thesis and her paper entitled The Transformation of Southeast Asian Coastal Urbanities in Early Modern Period: From the Native’s Hub to the Stranger’s Land. Her research focuses on the transformational development of two communities. The first is Manila in the Philippines—a once vital trading and political hub of the Spanish—and Ha Tien in southern Vietnam, a municipality that emerged as a key strategic port during the Nguyen dynasty.

Her research employs memory studies and collective memory, examining how individual recollections and the reconstruction of memory influence the development of social structures and infrastructure. This perspective aims to provide a deeper understanding of how historical narratives and collective memory shape urban landscapes.

Ms. Nguyet will spend three months at the Department of History at San Diego State University. This exchange will afford her access to extensive library resources and public archives in the U.S., enabling her to gather crucial secondary sources and archival records to enhance her research. Additionally, this experience will allow Ms. Nguyet to expand her academic and professional network and seek insights from leading experts and scholars in Southeast Asian Studies. Ms. Nguyet’s ultimate objective is to complete her research during her time at San Diego State University and submit her findings to international journals, contributing to the field of Southeast Asian urban history.

Participating in the Visiting Scholar Program will not only help Ms. Nguyet enrich her research materials to complete her PhD thesis with the best quality possible, but is also an opportunity for her to expand new research directions in the future, marking an important milestone on her scholarly path.

The Visiting Scholar Program (VSP) under the USAID Partnership for Higher Education Reform project supports scholars from (1) Vietnam National University, (2) the University of Danang, and (3) Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City. The goal is to improve the research and teaching capacity of scholars across Vietnam while expanding partnerships with higher education institutions in the United States. In the Summer and Fall of 2024, the VSP will send a total of 21 scholars from Vietnam’s three major public university systems to host institutions in the United States for academic research and exchange experiences.

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