Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam

The Information Studies Colloquium & Center for Southeast Asian Studies invite faculty, staff, and students to a book celebration and reception for Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam, written by Dr. Cindy Nguyen.

Libraries in French colonial Vietnam functioned as symbols of Western modernity and infrastructures of colonial knowledge. Yet Vietnamese readers pursued alternative uses of the library that exceeded imperial intentions. Bibliotactics examines the Hanoi and Saigon state libraries from colonial to post colonial Vietnam, uncovering the emergence of a colonial public who reimagined the political meaning and social space of the library through public critique and day-to day-practice.