Mimi Thi Nguyen
Mimi Thi Nguyen (née Thanh-Huong Thi Nguyen; born in 1974) is a Vietnamese-born American scholar,[1] punk[2] and zine author.[3]
Mimi Thi Nguyen | |
---|---|
Born | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | June 22, 1974
Occupation | Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies |
Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
Notable works | Evolution of a Race Riot zine |
Website | |
mimithinguyen |
Biography
Born in 1974 in Ho Chi Minh City to Hiep and Lien Nguyen, Nguyen earned a bachelor's degree in Women's Studies and a doctorate in Ethnic Studies from University of California, Berkeley. Her master's degree was in American Studies from New York University.[4] She grew up in Minnesota and relocated to San Diego, California, where she was drawn to the D.I.Y. punk scene.[5]
Appointed in Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies, Nguyen earned tenure in 2012 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[6] She is a frequent conference keynote speaker or invited panelist,[7] and received the Outstanding Book Award in Cultural Studies from the Association of Asian American Studies, 2014[8] for her first single-author monograph, The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt and Other Refugee Passages.
Nguyen is possibly best known for her compilation zine Evolution of a Race Riot first published in 1997 with a second issue in 2002,[9] in which she and contributors of color challenged racism in the punk scene.[10] She also publishes the zine Slander and is a former Punk Planet columnist and Maximumrocknroll contributor. In June 2013, Sarah McCarry's Guillotine ("a series of erratically published chapbooks focused on revolutionary non-fiction") released PUNK, a conversation between Nguyen and Golnar Nikpour, which later informed a 2016 exhibition at the Arnolfini called "Moving Targets."[11]
Nguyen also cofounded a fashion blog with Minh-Ha T. Pham that discusses the politics, history, and aesthetics of beauty and fashion.[12]
Riot Grrrl
Nguyen lists the Riot Grrrl movement as one that is important and yet problematic. In her essay "Riot Grrrl, Race, and Revival", Nguyen discusses the work the Riot Grrrl movement has done in calling attention to how a woman's personal experiences with sexual abuse, heteronormativity, and intimacy with other women are tied up with the political and social. Collectivity among women being one of Riot Grrrl's goals, Nguyen addresses race as an obstacle to that collectivity, highlighting the marginalization of women of color.[13]
Evolution of a Race Riot zine
Nguyen created Evolution of a Race Riot as a compilation zine based in North America. Nguyen originally put out the first flier for zine submissions in August 1995 and the first issue was published in 1997. The entire zine is written by people of color mostly in the punk and Riot Grrrl scene.[14] According to Nguyen in her introduction to the first issue of the zine, most of the submissions are written by mixed race or Asian-American people of color.
Selected works
Books
Zines
References
- "Mimi Thi Nguyen". University of Illinois. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "about thread & circuits". 2009-07-27. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "Mimi Thi Nguyen". OCLC. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "MIMI THI NGUYEN, Associate Professor Gender & Women's Studies, Asian American Studies, Unit for Criticism". Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- Vasquez, Tina (2013). "Revisiting the Riot: An Interview with Punk Veteran Mimi Thi Nguyen". Bitch Magazine. 59.
- "MIMI THI NGUYEN, Associate Professor Gender & Women's Studies, Asian American Studies, Unit for Criticism". Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- "MIMI THI NGUYEN, Associate Professor Gender & Women's Studies, Asian American Studies, Unit for Criticism". Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- "GWS Professor Mimi Thi Nguyen awarded by the Association of Asian American Studies". University of Illinois. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- Evolution of a race riot. OCLC. 1997. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- "Evolution of a Race Riot". ZineWiki. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
- "Arnolfini 2016 Exhibition "Moving Targets"". Retrieved 3 October 2016.
- "Threadbared". wordpress. 2010-04-06. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
- Nguyen, Mimi Thi (12 December 2012). "Riot Grrrl, Race, and Revial". Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. 22 (2–3): 173–196. doi:10.1080/0740770X.2012.721082.
- Nguyen, Mimi Thi (1997). Evolution of a Race Riot. Berkeley, California: editor.
- "Alien Encounters: Popular Culture in Asian America". Duke University Press. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- "The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages". Duke University Press. Retrieved 27 March 2014.
- Aim Your Dick. OCLC. 1992. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- Evolution of a Race Riot. OCLC. 1997. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "Guillotine Series #4: Punk". OCLC. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "Race Riot". OCLC. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "Race Riot Project Directory". OCLC. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- Nguyen, Mimi Thi (1999). "Slander". Slander. Retrieved 19 March 2014.
- "Slant". OCLC. Retrieved 19 March 2014.