I am a writer, translator and educator.
I first came to Hà Nội in 2005. Internet cafes and bicycles still festooned the streets. Complete language immersion was fundamental to living. Nói tóm lại, it was a radically different atmosphere of city life and cultural exchange.
Subsequently in 2008, I received a Fulbright Scholarship to study Vietnamese language and visual culture in Hà Nội. Little did I know the cosmos of chém gió; kiểu cách chơi chữ; văn hóa vỉa hè; mấy đàn bà buôn dưa lê bán dưa chuột, vân vân (word play, slang, and sidewalk culture) that would come to subsume my life and thinking.
After completing my research, I continued to live and work in Hanoi through 2010 and completed a book project entitled Hà Nội Trong Mắt Một Người Mỹ (‘Hanoi Through American Eyes’). I then returned to the U.S. to pursue a Ph.D. in Vietnamese History.
In 2012 I graduated with my M.A. in History from Yale University, and in 2019 completed a Ph.D. in Art History at Stanford University. I have studied and taught at some of the best universities in the world, and currently teach courses at the Chicago School of the Art Institute (SAIC).
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