Engaging With Vietnam

2018 marks a milestone for Engaging With Vietnam – its 10th anniversary. We would like to invite you to the 10th Engaging With Vietnam Conference to experience another stimulating and enriching gathering that will take place all the way from Ho Chi Minh City to the city of Phan Thiet in Binh Thuan, a coastal province in Central Vietnam. A ride on an express train between the two cities promises a pleasant trip with amazing scenery that will stimulate both reflections and conversations. We are very delighted to have this opportunity to continue to tour Vietnam with the 10th conference participants. The conference venue at the University of Phan Thiet is close to the coast. How wonderful to engage in meaningful and rigorous academic sessions while being refreshed with ocean breezes and natural scenery!

To continue its interdisciplinary engagement, this 10th conference focuses in particular on dichotomies, the dichotomization of knowledge, and the discursive constructions of dichotomies in Vietnam-related knowledge production and scholarship. Dichotomies and dichotomization often come in the form of ‘Self and Other’ and/or in pairs of contrasts, such as ‘global – local’, ‘traditional – modern’, ‘Western values – Asian values’, ‘Vietnamese women – foreign women’, ‘nationalism – cosmopolitanism’, ‘developed – underdeveloped/developing’, ‘urban – rural’, ‘privileged – disadvantaged’, ‘active – passive’, ‘critical thinking – passive and rote learning’, ‘Global North – Global South’, and ‘Vietnam – ASEAN’, etc.