Uyen T. Nguyen
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Uyen T. Nguyen is a historian of modern Vietnam whose research and teaching focus on historical transitions through interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives. Born and raised in Vietnam, Nguyen earned her B.A. in International Studies from Yonsei University (Seoul) and her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Berkeley. Before joining Harvard, she taught at the National University of Singapore.
Her current book project, Beloved City, Depraved City: Communist Takeovers and Socialist Transformations in North Vietnam’s Cities (1949–1958) examines the communist takeover of previously French-controlled cities in North Vietnam and the political, economic, and socio-cultural transformations that took place in these cities between 1949 and 1958. Drawing on a wide range of underutilized Vietnamese-language sources, including archival documents and oral histories, Nguyen reconstructs and seeks to understand the perspectives and actions of both Communist “liberators” and members of the urban society “liberated” by Ho Chi Minh’s forces. Her second book project will be a comparative study of modern Korea and Vietnam, examining their historical convergences and divergences in the 20th century against the backdrop of significant political and cultural influences from China.
Nguyen’s broader scholarship seeks to situate Vietnamese experiences within frameworks that reach beyond national borders and the disciplinary boundaries of history. In addition to her work on state-building and urban transformation, she has a longstanding engagement with literature. Her most recent article, “Writing and Policing: Rethinking Memories and Sorrows in Crossroads and Lampposts and The Sorrow of War,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 21, no. 1 (2026): 1–51", is part of a larger project on how Vietnamese literature registered the profound political and economic upheavals of the late twentieth century.
Inspired by her time at NUS, especially the vibrant scholarship on Southeast Asia through STS, environmental, and biodiversity frameworks, Nguyen has begun to explore questions and approaches in the environmental humanities as a secondary line of inquiry alongside her main research. She is currently working on a book chapter that explores pig raising in urban North Vietnam during the late 1970s and early 1980s, arguing that the presence of livestock in cities and the popularity of household pig raising were not merely signs of economic hardship but also significant markers of deeper reversals in key politico-economic structures established by the communist state over the previous three decades: the command economy, the subsidy system, the urban–rural divide, and revolutionary discourse.
In both research and teaching, Nguyen aims to foster curiosity and appreciation for East and Southeast Asia among students and wider audiences from diverse backgrounds. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of History and the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations.
