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Assistant Professor
Y Thien Nguyen specializes in the study of modern Vietnam and Vietnamese refugee experiences. His work examines the ideological, political, and institutional connectivity between the Republic of Vietnam and Vietnamese America. He received his PhD in Sociology from Northwestern University and previously served as a Teaching Fellow in South East Asian History at the University of Leeds, UK and a Research Associate for the US-Vietnam Research Center at the University of Oregon. He is currently completing his book manuscript entitled Diasporic Legacies: The Making and Remaking of Vietnamese Anticommunism, exploring the genealogy and history of anticommunist nationalism in South Vietnam and Vietnamese exile communities. Beyond his immediate academic duties, Dr. Nguyen also serves on the Board of Director for the US-Vietnam Research Center, as well as Boat People SOS鈥擟enter for Community Advancement. He also regularly collaborates with the Vietnamese Heritage Museum on a number of projects and events, including the building of a research database for the museum鈥檚 extensive collection.
Peer-Reviewed Journals
鈥�(Re)making the South Vietnamese Past in America.鈥� Journal of Asian American Studies. 21, no.1 (2018): 65-103.
鈥淩einterpreting the Interregnum Period during the Republic of Vietnam (1963-1967).鈥� Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 21, is. 3/4 (2026), 79-121.
Peer-Reviewed Chapters
鈥淯nderstanding the Historical Foundations of Vietnamese American Conservatism,鈥� in Politics of the Multiracial Conservatism, ed. by Daniel Martinez HoSang and Joseph Lowndes. New York University Press, (in production, exp. Spring 2027).
鈥淎nticommunist Nationalism in the Vietnamese Diaspora,鈥� in Routledge Handbook of Asian Diaspora and Nationalism, ed. by Ajaya K. Sahoo. Routledge, 2025.
鈥淟egacies and Diasporic Connectivity: Dialogues and Future Directions of Vietnamese and Vietnamese American Studies,鈥� in Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory, ed. by Linda Ho Peche, Alex Thai Vo and Tuong Vu. Temple University Press, 2023.
鈥淲hen State Propaganda Becomes Social Knowledge,鈥� in Building a Republican Nation in Vietnam, 1920-1963, ed. by Nu-Anh Tran and Tuong Vu. University of Hawaii Press & Columbia University鈥檚 Weatherhead East Asian Institute, 2022.
Book Reviews
Roundtable Review Routledge Handbook of the Vietnamese Diaspora by Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen (ed.). Journal of Vietnamese Studies. 21, no. 1 (2026): 151-156.
Review of Vietnam: A War Not a Country by Ron Eyerman, Todd Madigan, and Magnus Ring. H-Diplo. (July 17, 2024).
鈥淰ietnamese Refugees, Political Agency, and U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Vietnam,鈥� Roundtable Feature, Review of After Saigon鈥檚 Fall: Refugees and US-Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000 by Amanda Demmer. Texas National Security Review. 6, no. 4 (October 17, 2023): 127-132.