Nu-Anh Tran

Associate Professor

---

Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

Areas of Specialty

Southeast Asian history, Vietnamese history, nationalism

Current Research Interests

Republic of Vietnam (1955-1975), Vietnam War, communism and anticommunism in Southeast Asia

Biography

Growing up among Vietnamese-Americans inspired Nu-Anh’s interest in studying Vietnamese history and the Vietnam War. Her current research interests encompass the political, intellectual, and cultural history of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) from 1955 to 1975. Her first book, Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam, examines factionalism among anticommunists and the political culture of authoritarianism and democracy during the presidency of Ngô Đình Diệm. Her second book project, Nationalists at War: Tales of Revolution and Betrayal in the Republic of Vietnam, explores the development of anticommunism in the RVN in the 1950s and 1960s, with particular attention to propaganda, literature, and the government’s persecution of suspected communists. She has also coedited a collection of scholarly essays about the history of Vietnamese republicanism from the late colonial period to Ngô Đình Diệm’s tenure. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and her BA from Seattle University. Before coming to UConn, she was a visiting scholar at the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, and taught at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Selected Publications

Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam. Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. University of Hawaii Press, 2022.

Building a Republican Nation in Postcolonial Vietnam, 1920-1963. Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2022. Collection of essays co-edited with Tuong Vu.

“Will the Real Caravelle Manifesto Please Stand Up? A Critique and a New Translation.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 18, no. 3 (summer 2023): 1-55.

“Denouncing the ‘Việt Cộng’: Tales of Revolution and Betrayal in the Republic of Vietnam.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 53, no. 4 (Dec 2022): 686-708.

“‘Let History Render Judgement on My Life’: The Suicide of Nhất Linh (Nguyễn Tường Tam) and the Making of a Martyr in the Republic of Vietnam.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 15, no. 3 (2020): 79-118.

“South Vietnamese Identity, American Intervention and the Newspaper Chính Luận [Political Discussion], 1965-1969.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1, no. 1-2 (February/August 2006): 169-209