My research informs my personal life. My life inspires my art. My art transforms my research. I create and iterate.

MIS-READING | A feminist library.

CURRENT PROJECTS

MẸ, TRANSLATED

“Mẹ, Translated” is a mixed-media art project on love, language, memory and everything lost in translation in between.

BIBO-XINHXICH

Xinh

Xich

Translation is an interpretive act. Based on context, gestures, tone-room-feeling of an uttered word, we create meaning. That meaning of the word changes each time we attempt to explain it. New iterations, contexts, interpretations, and feelings attach to the word, breathing new life and meaning.

MISS

“mis-” a prefix applied to various parts of speech, meaning “ill,” “mistaken,” “wrong,” “wrongly,” “incorrectly,” or simply negating: mistrial; misprint; mistrust.

My current projects MISS meditates on the meaning of all things deemed ‘mis-‘ –wrong, dirty, broken, ‘abnormal.’ From misfits to misreading, misunderstandings to mistakes, MISS/MIS confronts the categorical imperative of labeling things as good/bad, yes/no, men/women, appropriate/not. I pause, ponder, and ask why? Join me on this journey

> See all MIS-READING projects

Essays

The Slow Undoing of Velcro Shoes (2017)
Imagining ‘America’: My Mother’s Refugee Journey to America (2017)
Presenting my work, Presenting myself in Vietnamese (2016)
How I had a feminist Asian American wedding (2016)
I was raised on stories of a war-torn Vietnam (2016)
Vietnamese: The foreign language I’ve always known (2014)
Bilingual Friendships: Making friends in Vietnamese and English (2014)
Vignettes of Contemporary Conversation (2012-present)
Meditations on the Medium (2013-present)

Haptic Industries

I built HAPTIC. (EST. 2016)

HAPTIC means ‘relating to the sense of touch and proprioception.’ HAPTIC honors the meaning of ‘touch’ by making artistic tools, educational resources, and collaborative platforms. HAPTIC also inspires the making of art that touches others and uplifts our spirits.

HAPTIC PRESS | CREATIVE PLAYGROUND AND PUBLISHER
- See my full portfolio: CINDY NGUYEN – ARTIST, CURATOR, FILM
FORUM | COMMUNITY
TOOLS | CREATIVE PRODUCTION

Follow Haptic Industries on Instagram.

“Take What You Need” Marseille, France Photo Book– Full Online Book

Stories about Family Photography Project

Recent Talks

On Slowness: A World Building Provocation for Teaching and Research

In the past, I was frustrated by how slow my work moved. I was impatient that my critical inquiry, confusion, curiosity forced me to constantly revisit sources, translations, historical contexts. Market pressures to publish and produce (a talk, an article, a dissertation, a book, teaching, digital resources) with the promise of professional security perpetuated a…

The Politics of ‘Good Reading’: Libraries and the Public in Late Colonial Vietnam Talk at Yale

Last spring I was invited to give a virtual talk at Yale’s Southeast Asia Seminar. It was an honor to present a portion of my manuscript Misreading at the Yale seminar, and to be part of the vibrant Q&A, which due to its virtual format spanned institutions and continents. Thank you to Quan Tran for…

Teaching Resources

[TEACHING] On Digital Teaching During and After COVID-19

On November 9, 2020 I was invited to speak on the topic of digital teaching as part of the History Department, Center for Digital Scholarship, and 21st Century PhD Series at Brown University. The talk was well attended on Zoom from faculty, staff, and students from all over campus. I talk through concrete activities, tools,…

Translating Across Time and Space: Film Screening, Artist Talk, and Creative Translation Activity at Harvard

I was invited to speak at an innovative event on translation and creative expression organized by the scholar Catherine H. Nguyen from the Committee on Degrees in History and Literature and the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights at Harvard University. Together with poet-scholar Quan Tran, we shared our scholarship and arts practice. I spoke…

Why Study the History of Colonial Indochina? Talk at Middlesex Community College 2020

https://youtu.be/WtddoZpRCMU I recently delivered a talk to 150 college students at Middlesex college through the Asian Studies Development Program. I was encouraged to prepare a talk which spoke to diverse students who might not have a background on Asian history. In preparing for the talk, I took a long time reflecting on the simple question,…