On this episode of Asian Voices Radio, we welcome Vietnamese Activists and Educators, Dr. Thuy Vo Dang & Dr. Tu-Uyen Nguyen. They both share their experiences as immigrants that had faced racial discrimination at a young age and later become community builders and preservers of history and culture.
Thuy Vo Dang holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego and has conducted research and taught courses on race and ethnicity, oral history, cultural studies, immigration, and refugee studies. She is currently a curator for the UCI Libraries Southeast Asian Archive and research librarian for Asian American Studies.
Thuy serves on the Board of Directors for Arts Orange County and the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association, both nonprofit arts organizations. She was featured in the OC Weekly’s Inaugural People Issue as the “Studs Terkel of Little Saigon” and received the “Public Image Award” from Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Part of a research team awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grant in the community anchors category, she researches the intersection between ethnic studies theory and community archives practice.
Dr. Tu-Uyen Nguyen was born in Vietnam but escaped with her family as a “boat person” in 1979, and she grew up mainly in Southern California. She received her undergraduate degrees in Biology and Comparative Literature from UCI, and her Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Public Health (Community Health Sciences) from UCLA in 2004. Before coming to CSUF, Dr. Nguyen taught as a lecturer at UCI and UCLA. In addition to teaching and research, she enjoys volunteering as the faculty advisor to the CSUF Vietnamese Student Association and as a board member of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA); Project MotiVATe (a youth mentoring and tutoring program); and the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA). She feels the happiest to be at CSUF and to be able to learn from inspiring students, colleagues, and members of diverse communities locally and nationwide.
