Hunter College Graduate Student Wins Fulbright to Study Evolution of Theater in Her Native Vietnam
Date: December 2, 2002
Contact: Marisa Osorio (marisa.osorio@hunter.cuny.edu)
Phone: (212) 650-3736
Trinh Nguyen, a Hunter College anthropology graduate student, was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to study theater in Vietnam. Nguyen will return to her homeland in March and research the last 100 years of Vietnamese theater and its effect on that nation's culture.
The 29-year-old Park Slope resident entered Hunter College's masters program in 2000 after spending 18-months in Vietnam. During her stay, she relearned the culture while working with farmers in Hanoi, helping them establish local co-operatives.
Nguyen was born in Vietnam, but raised in France and the United States. Nguyen's father fled Saigon in 1975 during the fall of that city to communists and went to Maine. Nguyen and her mother went to France a few months later. The family reunited after seven years and settled in Massachusetts.
As an undergraduate student Nguyen attended Mount Holyoke College, majoring in politics and economics. During that time she began to develop a great interest in her heritage and identity.
"I did a lot of soul searching about my identity," Nguyen said. Her questioning led her to service work. She began doing leadership training for people who didn't speak English. She worked mainly with refugees from Southeast Asia and used visual and performing arts as a means to communicate with them. Through her work, she taught them about healthcare, housing and labor policies.
After receiving a Ford Foundation grant, Nguyen moved to Montreal to assist organizing textile workers with the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
. The majority of the workers were Vietnamese females, fueling her desire to return to her birthplace.
Nguyen's academic focus is anthropology, yet her passions include all aspects of the performing arts. She recently performed with the Indonesian Dance Company at Lincoln Center and is also studying theater at Hunter College.
While researching the connection between theater and culture in Vietnam, Nguyen will be living out her dreams. "I don't want to just write about the arts, but to experience them," Nguyen said. After completing her research in Vietnam, Nguyen plans to pursue a Ph.D. in performance studies or Southeast studies.
-HC-