This 300-level course provides an overview of the development and evolution of concepts of “cultural heritage” over the past century and around the world, examines the existing international legal framework, and analyzes Vietnamese responses (legal and regulatory as well as practical). The course approaches heritage from the perspectives of anthropology and critical heritage studies, combining intensive analyses of heritage policy with case studies of how such policies are applied on the ground. Special attention will be given to examining recent controversies in Vietnam over different aspects of cultural heritage. The focus will be on built cultural heritage (monuments and relics) and intangible cultural heritage.

This course examines film and short fiction as vehicles for the production of Vietnamese cultural identities in the modern era. Vietnam’s tumultuous modern history—marked by colonial rule, wars, division and unification, emigration, and economic reform—has led to constant reassessments of national identity. This course explores how fiction and film reflect and shape these identities across time and communities. We begin with short fiction from the late French colonial period, then analyze depictions of the Vietnam War by foreign and Vietnamese artists. Finally, we explore postwar media from both the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and diasporic communities.

This course surveys Vietnamese civilization from prehistory to French colonization in the 19th century, with a focus on the development of independent kingship. Topics include: ethnolinguistic diversity in the Red River plain, the Đông Sơn culture, Vietnam under Chinese rule, nation-building and wars with the Mongols and Ming, French colonization and its cultural impacts. The course examines Vietnamese culture as continuously redefined under foreign influence and historical change.

Although introductory, this is more than just simply a survey course since it introduces students to several crucial aspects of Vietnam Studies as an inter-/trans-disciplinary field and a part of regional studies. Students will first learn what “transdisciplinarity” and “area/regional studies” are, what regional studies we are talking about when talking about Vietnam, and why they are playing important roles in our understanding of the country and its people. Key concepts in social sciences and the humanities (such as “power,” “society,” “culture,” “nation-state,” “national identity,” “national pride,” “colonial mentality,” “inferiority complex,” or “globalization”) will be discussed to create a basic theoretical foundation for further understanding of multiple “Vietnams” in the making.

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to Vietnam as a multi-ethnic nation. Through the lenses of anthropology, history, cultural studies, and linguistics, students explore the formation of Vietnam’s diverse ethnic communities and the socio-cultural dynamics that shape contemporary Vietnamese society.

For over 30 years from the end of World War II, a series of interconnected conflicts occurred on the Indochina peninsula. The wars in Vietnam evolved from an anti-colonial struggle into a superpower confrontation and were central to the decades-long global encounter known as the Cold War. As conflict in Vietnam grew in intensity and complexity, it took on increasingly global implications, drawing in a diverse range of rival states and non-state actors.

Adaptation studies from literature to cinema have many apparent changes in the context of postmodernism. Based on the complexity of the theories such as intertextuality, translation studies, cultural studies, deconstruction, and reception theory, adaptation studies allow audiences to consider the film adaptations as independent films with respective creativities of filmmakers by their cinematic language. Because adaptation studies are interdisciplinary, this course will not only instruct students on how to read books and movies but also move beyond comparisons of sources and film adaptations. Adaptation studies can be considered as a methodology and a field. Therefore, the class will concentrate on communicating film adaptations with the texts they are adapting.