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Vinh Nguyen

Adjunct Lecturer in Vietnamese

Office Hours: Tuesday 4-6PM

Office: Lerner 569 (or Kent 502F)
Email: vqn2103@columbia.edu

Educational Background

BA: Harvard University
MA: Harvard University

PhD: Harvard University (2024)

Research Interests

Late Premodern Vietnam, Vietnamese Literature and Cultural History, Hán-Nôm
Philology, Historiography, Literary Theory, Translation Studies, Gender and Queer
Studies

Nguyễn Quốc Vinh received his BA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations (EALC),
MA in Regional Studies – East Asia (RSEA) and PhD in History and East Asian
Languages (HEAL), all from Harvard University. He has done research in Vietnam under
fellowships from the Fulbright Program and the Social Science Research Council
(SSRC). The title of his dissertation is “From dynasty to nation: a historiography of the
dueling portraits of Nguyễn Huệ and Nguyễn Ánh.” His areas of specialization are the
Tây Sơn period in late eighteenth-century Vietnam, the transition from traditional
dynastic to modern nationalist historiography, nôm literature and gender/queer studies.

Selected Publications

“Nguyễn Ánh in the construction of a discourse of glorious restoration in nineteenth-
century Vietnam.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies (forthcoming in 2025)
“Narrative containment of the same-sex underworld in contemporary Vietnam. A critical
exploration of the police presence and function in Bùi Anh Tấn’s fiction.” Cultural
Studies 35:1, 44-63 (2021).

“Cultural Ambiguity in Contemporary Vietnamese Representations of Homosexuality: A
New Historicist Reading of Bùi Anh Tấn’s Fiction.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol.
10 No. 3 (Summer 2015). A revised Vietnamese version “Sự mập mờ văn hóa trong các
biểu thị về đồng tính luyến ái tại Việt Nam đương đại: Thử đọc tiểu thuyết của Bùi Anh
Tấn theo chủ nghĩa Lịch Sử Mới” is published in Tiếp cận văn học châu Á từ lý thuyết
phương Tây hiện đại [Asian Literatures Read through Modern Western Theories], ed.
Trần Hải Yến. Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House, 2017.

Vietnamese edits and translations of the lectures “Thời tiền hiện đại trong văn học thế
giới” [The premodern in world literature] and “Những khuôn mặt trong đám đông”
[Faces in the crowd] by Stephen Owen, “Lý thuyết văn học: Từ chủ nghĩa cấu trúc đến
hậu cấu trúc” [Literary theory: From structuralism to post-structuralism] by David
Damrosch, “Lý thuyết chấn thương” [Trauma theory] and “Tính liên văn bản hay Cộng
đồng di dân” [Intertextuality or Diaspora] by Karen Thornber, in Lý thuyết và ứng dụng lý
thuyết trong nghiên cứu văn học (Tập bài giảng và tài liệu tham khảo) [Literary theories
and their application (Lectures and Readings)], edited by Trần Hải Yến. Hanoi: Social
Sciences Publishing House, 2016.

“Quang Trung – Nguyễn Huệ với phong trào Tây Sơn: Những di sản và bài học cho Việt
Nam trong thế kỷ 20 [Emperor Quang Trung – Nguyễn Huệ and the Tây Sơn
movement: Legacies and lessons for 20 th -century Vietnam].” Closing essay in Quang
Trung Nguyễn Huệ: Những di sản và bài học [Quang Trung Nguyễn Huệ: Legacies and
Lessons]. HCMC: Xưa & Nay and Hồng Bàng, 2012.
Translated the full English text of the bilingual book Văn bia thời Lê xứ Kinh Bắc và sự
phản ánh sinh hoạt làng xã [The Stelea of the Kinh Bắc Region during the Lê period:

Reflections of village life] by Phạm Thị Thùy Vinh. Tủ sách Việt Nam [Bibliothèque
Vietnamienne] VIII. Hanoi: École française d’Êxtrême-Orient, 2003.
“Confucianism in Tonkin (Northern Vietnam) at the end of the eighteenth century:
dynastic fortunes and cultural capital in decline,” in Confucianism in Vietnam. HCMC:
Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City Publishing House, 2002.
“Deconstructing the historical authorship of Cung-oán Ngâm-khúc [Lament in a Royal
Harem]: Canonical reading as dialectical emplotment of literary history.” Vietnam Forum
14 (1994), pp. 144-210. New Haven, CT: Yale University Council on Southeast Asia
Studies.

Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc Gifts Inscribed 15-Volume History of Vietnam to Columbia

Left to right — Professor Lien-Hang Nguyen, Lecturer Vinh Nguyen, Assistant Professor John Phan, Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, Lecturer Phuong Chung Nguyen, and Ambassador Ha Kim Ngoc.

By: Ariana King, Weatherhead East Asia Institute Communications Coordinator

In a formal gathering on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc presented an inscribed a complete set of Lịch Sử Việt Nam [History of Viet Nam], a significant recent study of the nation’s history, to faculty of Columbia University. In remarks during the ceremony, which took place on September 22, 2021 at the Vietnam Permanent Mission to the UN, President Phúc recognized the contributions of the Vietnamese Studies at Columbia for promoting greater understanding between Vietnam and the United States. This recognition was part of President Phúc’s goodwill mission that recognized the contributions of the Vietnamese-American community, including Columbia, for promoting greater awareness of Vietnam, for the outpouring of assistance during COVID, and for strengthening relations between the two countries.

President Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc inscribing the complete set of *Lịch Sử Việt Nam* [History of Viet Nam].

Receiving the gift on behalf of Columbia, Vietnamese Studies cofounder and Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia Lien-Hang Nguyen highlighted the initiative’s incredible success to date in educating students and shaping the wider field of Vietnamese studies. Professor Nguyen concluded, though, that their job is not complete and emphasized the need to raise funds for a Center for Vietnamese Studies at Columbia. Also representing Columbia at the ceremony were John Phan, Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures; as well as distinguished language instructors Phuong Chung Nguyen and Vinh Nguyen.

The exchange follows a series of successful events underscoring Columbia’s growing reputation as a destination for scholarship on Vietnam, including a discussion on “Trauma and Memory in Vietnamese America” that attracted the attendance of more than 700 online participants. Since its inception, the Vietnamese Studies initiative has brought together students and scholars through academic programming, events, and workshops. While Vietnam studies in the US have historically focused on the Vietnam War and its repercussions, Columbia’s initiative seeks to foster deeper understanding of the language, culture, and history of Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora, and puts into context the country’s strategic position as a cultural and geopolitical bridge between East and Southeast Asia. Read more about Columbia’s Vietnamese Studies initiative here.

A Vietnam Plus article about the event (in Vietnamese) is available here. Watch Vietnam TV’s coverage of the event (in Vietnamese) here.

Left to right– Lecturer Vinh Nguyen, Professor Lien-Hang Nguyen, Lecturer Phuong Chung Nguyen, Assistant Professor John Phan

Vietnamese Studies Faculty meet the Vietnamese Prime Minister!

(Left to Right) Chung Phuong Nguyen, Professor Lien-Hang Nguyen, Prime Minister PHAM Minh Chinh, Vinh Quoc Nguyen, and Minh Quang Pham.

A Columbia delegation of WEAI’s Professor Lien-Hang Nguyen, Director of the Vietnamese language program at Columbia Chung Phuong Nguyen; adjunct lecturer Vinh Quoc Nguyen; and WEAI Fulbright scholar Minh Quang Pham met with Vietnamese Prime Minister PHAM Minh Chinh at a recent ceremony hosted by Vietnam’s UN ambassador, DANG Hoang Giang.

For more coverage on this event, please visit the Weatherhead East Asian Institute website or watch the video of the event (in Vietnamese) here.