We are delighted to invite you to the fifth lecture of the American Studies Colloquium Series in the 2024/2025 Fall semester!
Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ
(University of Vienna)
Between The Mundane and the Heroic: Vietnamese Presence in State Socialist Poland
Thursday, December 19, 2024
at 4:45 p.m.
You can get 3 OZN points for participating in this event.
Where?
Dobra 55, room 2.118
(the building features some mobility accommodations: ramp and lift)
What?
The history of Poland’s involvement in the state-building process in newly decolonized Democratic of Vietnam from 1955 onwards is long and intricate. Operating on multiple scales, these collaborations also resulted in the first presence of the (North) Vietnamese in Poland on such a scale. This presence was both mediated, symbolic and real. This talk will examine the depictions of the (North) Vietnamese as freedom fighters within the context of the state socialist public sphere and the everyday life of Vietnamese students in Poland across generations. From idealized wartime reportages to mixed-race couples, the Vietnamese presence was marked by a multifaceted experience of adaptation, challenges, opportunities, and dynamic, interactive bonds with Polish society. This history continues to exert a profound influence on the contemporary Vietnamese diaspora and Polish-Vietnamese relationships.
Thục Linh Nguyễn Vũ is a cultural historian of Poland and Vietnam. Her research interests include connections between Poland and Vietnam amid postcolonial reordering and history of racism. Nguyễn Vũ works at the Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET) at the University of Vienna. Nguyễn Vũ earned her PhD from the European University Institute in Florence and has held visiting fellowships at Columbia University, NYU and Harvard University. Linh’s work has appeared in, among others, Cahiers du Monde Russe, East European Politics and Societies and a special issue on racism that she co-edits will appear in March in Geschichte und Gesellschaft.
