Le Minh Khai's SEAsian History Blog (+ More)

Last year I had the honor of bringing to completion, together with my friend and colleague Gerard Sasges, an edited volume called Vietnam Over the Long Twentieth Century: Becoming Modern, Going Global. This book was published as part of the “Global Vietnam: Across Time, Space and Community” book series that...

THE 15TH ENGAGING WITH VIETNAM EVENT SERIESANNOUNCING THE GRAND EVENT: “Knowledge Production, Creative Industries, Education, and the AI Age in Vietnam: Looking Back and Moving Forward”, 10-13 December 2025, Hanoi, Vietnam Engaging With Vietnam in Collaboration with the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University Hanoi (SIS-VNU Hanoi)...

This year, Phan Lê Hà and I, with the support of a wonderful team of associate series editors, editorial board members and a series editorial assistant, launched a new book series with Springer Nature called “Global Vietnam: Across Time, Space and Community.” Four volumes have already been published, and several...

The 13th Engaging With Vietnam conference will be held next week, with the main academic part of the conference running from 26 – 28 October. To get a sense of what the conference will be like, please see the program here: EWV #13 Program

For the past month, we have been in Vietnam preparing for the 13th Engaging With Vietnam conference (23-31 October 2022). Like our previous EWV conferences in Vietnam, this one will be a combined conference / event / (life-changing) experience. For updated information about Engaging With Vietnam #13, please follow this...

You can always count on Engaging With Vietnam (EWV) to think and act “outside the box.” The 13th Engaging With Vietnam conference will be no exception, as it will begin with a “Jazz Keynote.” This keynote event will follow the path of the introduction and development of jazz in Vietnam,...

The 13th Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue conference will be held from 23-31 October 2022. This video provides information about the conference and the conference theme. More information about Engaging With Vietnam and the conference can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoiyJU5UFGc

The call for proposals for Engaging With Vietnam #13 has been announced. For more information, please follow the link below:http://engagingwithvietnam.org/ewv-13/

We have launched a new book series with Springer Nature called “Global Vietnam.” Please follow the link below to learn more:http://engagingwithvietnam.org/global-vietnam-book-series/

“Vietnam at the Vanguard.” Yes, we know what comes to your mind when you hear those words. You think of that legendary night. October 25, 1962. The Village Vanguard in Manhattan was packed with a who’s who list of jazz greats. Miles Davis was there. John Coltrane was there. Chet...

In 2016, we invited multi-instrumentalist Ngô Hồng Quang to perform at the 8th Engaging With Vietnam conference in Honolulu, Hawaii. That encounter led to a collaboration between Ngô Hồng Quang and EWV founder, scholar and poet Phan Lê Hà which resulted in an album called Nhìn lại (Looking Back). Essentially...

The 12th Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue conference will be held next week, 24-28 August 2021. To see the conference program, please visit the conference website.

The 12th Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue conference is set to begin in just over a month. All of the pieces are starting to come together, and we’re looking forward to seeing the exciting work of the many participants. For a sneak peek of the conference, please click here...

The 12th Engaging With Vietnam conference will be held in conjunction with ICAS 12 in Kyoto this coming 24-27 August 2021. The two conferences will be integrated together, so participants of EWV will be able to attend ICAS sessions, and vise versa. The theme of the conference is “Engaging with...

Engaging With Vietnam is pleased to announce the call for proposals for the 12th Engaging With Vietnam conference to be held 15-18 October 2020 in Brunei Darussalam. The conference theme is “Engaging with Vietnam, ASEAN and Brunei: Mobilities and Identities in an Age of Biocultural Transformation.” For detailed information about...

I’ve been in conference-organization mode, but the conference is now ready for takeoff. For anyone interested, the program for the 11th Engaging With Vietnam conference is available here.

The 11th Engaging With Vietnam conference will be held this July 15-16 in Leiden, the Netherlands, in conjuction with the 11th ICAS (International Convention of Asia Scholars) conference, July 16-19. The deadline to submit a proposal is 5 April (http://engagingwithvietnamconference.org/). The theme of the conference is “Vietnam in Europe, Europe...

Let’s meet some of the scholars who have been invited to speak at the upcoming 10th Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue conference in HCM City and Phan Thiet.

Last summer, in preparation for the 10th Engaging With Vietnam conference, we had a conversation with Dr. Khuất Thu Hồng, founder and director of the Institute for Social Development Studies (ISDS, Viện Nghiên cứu phát triển xã hội) in Hanoi. Dr. Khuất Thu Hồng will be a keynote speaker at...

The theme of the upcoming Engaging With Vietnam Conference (15-21 December 2018) is “Beyond Dichotomies: Vietnam from Multiple Perspectives.” For more information about the theme, and to see Le Minh Khai run away from monkeys in Brunei. . . please see the following video:

We would like to announce that the 10th Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue Conference will be held from 15-21 December 2018 in Hồ Chí Minh City and Phan Thiết, Bình Thuận. The theme of this year’s conference is “Beyond Dichotomies: Vietnam from Multiple Perspectives.” The deadline to submit individual...

The 10th Engaging With Vietnam will be held from 15-21 December 2018. For more information, see engagingwithvietnam.org.

There is a new hotel in the heart of Saigon that is unique. It is called “The Myst Dong Khoi,” and what makes it unique is that it demonstrates that I would call a “trans-contemporary approach to heritage.” Let me explain what I mean by that.

Engaging With Vietnam, the only annual Vietnam-focused multidisciplinary conference in the world will hold its ninth conference in Hồ Chí Minh City/Bình Dương/An Giang from 27 December 2017 to 4 January 2018. Please see the program below for details. 9th Engaging With Vietnam Program

Last summer Phan Lê Hà (founder of the Engaging With Vietnam conference series) met with curator Nguyễn Như Huy (founder of the art space Zero Station/Ga 0 in Hồ Chí Minh City) and talked about art, philosophy, linguistics, literature and travel. I filmed the conversation and made the following three...

This is an announcement for the Engaging With Vietnam Hackathon!!