Stanford Humanities Center
Phong Nguyen is a Vietnamese American cultural worker, political performer, and senior majoring in Asian American Studies and minoring in Human Rights. Born in Vietnam and raised in Chicago, he has extensive experience advocating for the Asian American community and expanding access to Asian American Studies in PK–12 education. His research explores the transformative potential of theatrical performance as an abolitionist practice and critical counter-narrative to confront the Southeast Asian American deportation crisis. Phong hopes to create a legacy of accessible education and radical joy within the Asian American community. In his free time, he enjoys live music, devising social justice centered plays, and reading Vietnamese history.
SHC Project
Bắt Đầu Từ Đầu, Embodied: Vietnamese American (Re)Constructions of Abolitionist Counter-Theater
Advisors: Thaomi Michelle Dinh and Eujin Park
What is the focus of your current research?
My research examines how Vietnamese American political performers engage in the reversal of the traditionally white-dominated theater by reimagining these spaces as sites of resistance. This work interrogates the American theater as a “new site for the transnational collective,” where Southeast Asian American radicals reorient the centering of white-hegemonic and pro-militaristic subjectivity, becoming agents of their own liberation.
What drew you to this topic?
As a lifelong theater maker, I have come to realize the power of performance art in reshaping our social landscapes. Engaging with scholars working at the intersection of arts practice, abolition, and Asian American Studies—such as Dr. Patricia Nguyen—has inspired my understanding of art as a tool for envisioning liberation for Vietnamese and broader Asian American communities. Dr. Nguyen, for example, describes performance as a form of resistance against “historical amnesia” in the aftermath of war and forced migration. Her work has not only grounded my research, but also pushed me to consider how those at the margins, including young people, are vital contributors in disrupting dominant narratives and reimagining collective futures rooted in abolition, healing, and care.
How are you conducting your research?
I am conducting my research through semi-structured interviews, focusing on the use of theater as a method to capture Vietnamese American diasporic accounts of identity and truth. Rooted in critical refugee studies, performance studies, Asian American Studies, and abolitionist theory, my project addresses methodological questions such as: How is our community actively contributing to its own liberation? How are they curating art that is inherently political?
What would people be surprised to learn about the topic you are working on?
This project posits an abolitionist framework rooted in everyday presence and practice, challenging the white supremacist, carceral logics of time, progress and subjectivity. Examining the role of Asian Americans in the abolition movement necessitates an interrogation of the Asian American relationship to the anti-Black nation-state. For instance, framing anti-Asian violence through language of “Stop Asian Hate” often leads to increased support for policing and criminalization. To cultivate a radical, solidarity-based future, Asian American community builders must confront how issues like systemic racism are framed as the fault of individual actors rather than as structural problems.
In your view, why is it valuable to study this topic?
The academic shift leading to increased visibility of Asian American artists over the past few decades has transformed the landscape of authentic storytelling within the Vietnamese American diaspora. Given the contemporary shift towards digital streaming for films and television, my work examines the possibilities of the traditional American theater for the articulation of Vietnamese (re)tellings of history and exploring artistic freedom. Amid a violent and ongoing deportation crisis that disproportionately affects the Southeast Asian American community, theater serves as a space for re-imagining social realities for Asian American bodies.
How is your honors thesis impacting you academically and/or personally?
Academically, undertaking a long-term research project has been instrumental to my intellectual journey, deepening my engagement with Asian American Studies and the work of abolition. Also, the thesis strengthens my capacity for independent research and builds a foundation for potential doctoral studies. On a personal level, exploring strategies of collective organizing and community-building, as well as contributing to research on Asian American resistance, empowers me to cultivate a vision for solidarity that transcends my own experience. I hope to actively contribute to a growing project of Southeast Asian American liberation and carry forward a legacy of radical care.
How do you anticipate the fellowship will be able to support your research?
A year at the Humanities Center would be invaluable, not only for the dedicated space and financial resources that will nourish my thesis, but for the chance to be in community with fellow undergraduates who share belief in the radical power of the humanities to transform the world we live in. With a deep commitment to providing accessible education for and about the Southeast Asian American community, this fellowship will help me intentionally ground and refine my political work, anchoring it in honest curiosity. The Humanities Center will serve as a trusted resource and home for the evolution of my thesis.
