Cindy Nguyen

Assistant Professor

Dr. Cindy Nguyen is assistant professor in the Information Studies department and Digital Humanities program at University of California, Los Angeles. Her book manuscript, “Bibliotactics: The Social Life of Libraries and Colonial Control in Vietnam, 1865–1958” reveals how the library reading room became a space of urban sociability, cultural imperialism, and self-directed education. She specializes in Southeast Asian print culture, digital humanities, critical data studies, and histories of the book and information. Nguyen is also a public scholar and community artist exploring themes of memory, translation, and migration. To learn more about her historical scholarship, teaching, and digital humanities work, see her website: cindyanguyen.com

Awards, Honors and Fellowships

  • 2022 Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography Rare Book School
  • 2022 The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
  • Research Development Grants for BIPOC Scholars
  • 2021 University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • 2021 Phyllis Dain Library History Best Dissertation Award – American Library Association
  • 2020 Pattana Kitiarsa Southeast Asia Council Prize, Association for Asian Studies, “The Social Life of the Hanoi Central Library: Reading Cultures & Public Space, 1919-1941”
  • 2020 Center for Khmer Studies Senior Fellowship, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • 2019 National Endowment for the Humanities Institute – Colonial Experiences and their Legacies in Southeast Asia, East-West

Education

  • Ph.D., History, University of California, Berkeley
  • M.A., History, Michigan State University
  • B.A., History and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Select Publications