Engaging With Vietnam #15 Grand Event
Engaging With Vietnam (EWV) is pleased to announce that the GRAND EVENT in its 15th-anniversary series will be a major conference held in collaboration with the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University Hanoi (SIS-VNU Hanoi) on 12-16 December 2025.
Knowledge Production, Creative Industries, Education, and the AI Age in Vietnam: Looking Back and Moving Forward
For 15 years, Engaging With Vietnam: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue (EWV) – founded by Phan Le Ha and later joined by Liam C. Kelley – has served as a dynamic platform where scholars, policymakers, professionals, and artists from across the globe engage with Vietnam in all its richness—as a nation, a culture, and an idea.
Since its launch in 2009, this initiative has passionately nurtured the exploration of knowledge production and has sought to illuminate diverse perspectives on Vietnam’s past, present, and future.
Across 14 conferences held in Vietnam, Australia, the United States, the Netherlands, and Japan, EWV has woven a tapestry of rigorous dialogue, innovative scholarship, and enduring connections that mirror Vietnam’s evolving role in the global environment.
As we celebrate the 15th anniversary of this extraordinary journey, we are delighted to introduce the main conference of the 15th Engaging With Vietnam Conference Series, themed “Knowledge Production, Creative Industries, Education, and the AI Age in Vietnam: Looking Back and Moving Forward.”
This milestone event honors our unwavering dedication to interdisciplinary inquiry while ushering us into an exciting new era. By delving into the contributions of creative industries, the transformative power of education, and the promises and perils of the AI age, this conference weaves together our foundational commitment to knowledge creation with the urgent questions of tomorrow.
It is a time to reflect on our achievements—through partnerships with institutions worldwide and initiatives like the Hackathon and Global Vietnam book series—and to envision a future of even deeper engagement with Vietnam’s dynamic trajectory.
As with all EWV conferences, we encourage submissions that address the conference theme; however, we will also be open to topics of enduring importance and interest that are related to Vietnam. Further, we also welcome submissions that deal with the main conference theme from the perspective of other parts of the world, so as to encourage the reflection that comes from comparative analysis.
Deadline for Proposal Submissions: 15 September 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 30 September 2025
There will be a registration fee of $1.000.000 VND or $50 USD for everyone, Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese, and free for undergraduate students. Details will be available in early August.
Founders of Engaging With Vietnam
Phan Lê Hà (Engaging With Vietnam & University College London) & Liam C. Kelley (Engaging With Vietnam)
EWV 15 Conference Convenors
Senior Professor Dr Phan Lê Hà (Engaging With Vietnam & Honorary Professor, University College London)
Associate Professor Dr Liam C. Kelley (Engaging With Vietnam)
Associate Professor Dr Nguyên Văn Hiệu (Rector, School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University, Hanoi)
Members of the EWV 15 Organising Team (regularly updated)
Associate Professor Dr Nguyễn Việt Khôi (School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, VNU Hanoi)
Associate Professor Dr Phạm Quỳnh Phương (School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, VNU Hanoi)
Associate Professor Dr Trần Thị An (School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, VNU Hanoi)
Dr Vũ Đường Luân (School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, VNU Hanoi)
Dr Lê Thùy Linh (Engaging With Vietnam and AMES Australia)
Associate Professor Dr Nguyễn Tuấn Cường (Director of the Institute of Hán-Nôm Studies)
Dr Vũ Minh Hoàng (Fulbright University Vietnam)
Associate Professor Trần Kiên (Vietnam National University School of Law)
Dr Phan Lê Chung (University of Arts, Huế University)
CONFERENCE MANAGEMENT TEAM
Dr Lê Thùy Linh (Engaging With Vietnam and AMES Australia), Conference Manager
Ngọc Trần (Engaging With Vietnam and Universiti Brunei Darussalam)
CONFERENCE SUPPORT TEAM (TO BE UPDATED)
Nguyễn Hữu Sử (Engaging With Vietnam, VASS & Waseda University)
Lê Nguyễn Thu Phương (Engaging With Vietnam)
Dr Trần Thị Tuyết (Hanoi University of Business and Technology)
PARTNERS (TO BE UPDATED)
Amsterdam University Press
Springer Nature
Contacting EWV
Queries and questions can be directed to EWV conference email: engagingwithvietnam[at]gmail.com.
You can also keep up to date with Engaging With Vietnam by following us on social media.
EWV 15 Conference Convenors
Dr. Phan Le Ha, Founder of Engaging With Vietnam (engagingwithvietnam.org), holds an Honorary Professorship in the IOE – Culture, Communication & Media, University College London, UK. She was previously Senior Professor in the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education at Universiti Brunei Darussalam, tenured Full Professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. She has been serving as editor, associate editor and editorial board members for book series and journals published by internationally renowned publishers such as Multilingual Matters (UK), Routledge, Wiley, SAGE, and Cambridge University Press. Phan Le Ha has taught and published extensively on English language education, identity-language-culture-pedagogy, global/international/transnational higher education, international and development education, academic mobilities, and sociology of knowledge. Her research work has covered many contexts in Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Asia-Pacific and the Gulf regions.
Together with Liam C. Kelley, Phan Le Ha founded the Global Vietnam book series with Springer Nature, and the Global Vietnam journal with Amsterdam University Press. Phan Le Ha and Liam C. Kelley are the Founding Editors and Editors-in-Chief of the Global Vietnam book series and journal. Phan Le Ha has also published poems, short novels and stories in English and Vietnamese. She has collaborated with artists and musicians to write songs and create albums, which include “Người Nghệ Sỹ Đường Phố” (Street Musicians) with Bao Dat, “Nhìn Lại” (Looking Back) with Ngo Hong Quang, and “Poetry Jazz The Muse” (Nàng Thơ) with Nguyen Bao Long and Pham Ha Linh. She also wrote the lyrics for eight songs in the album entitled “Những Con Sông Ngón Tay,” a collaboration with Tran Duc Minh and Tran Thu Ha (Ha Tran).
Dr. Liam C. Kelley is a historian of premodern Vietnam. Formerly Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies in the Institute of Asian Studies (IAS) at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD), and tenured Associate Professor of Southeast Asian History at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, he has published on a variety of topics, from the culture of premodern Sino-Vietnamese diplomatic relations, to the medieval construction of Vietnamese antiquity, to the impact of globalization and the digital revolution on area studies, to the history of the Southeast Asian polity of “Srivijaya.”
Together with Phan Le Ha, Liam Kelley co-organizes the Engaging with Vietnam conference series, and co-founded the Global Vietnam book series with Springer Nature, and the Global Vietnam journal with Amsterdam University Press.
Dr. Nguyễn Văn Hiệu is an Associate Professor (PGS.TS) and the Rector of the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts (VNU-SIS), Vietnam National University, Hanoi. He previously headed VNU’s Faculty of Interdisciplinary Sciences and led its upgrade into the current School in 2024. His academic background is in linguistics: he earned a PhD from Vietnam National University in 2004 and was conferred the title of Associate Professor in 2009. His research focuses on Vietnamese linguistics and culture—especially minority languages, dialectology, toponymy, and teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language. As Rector, he is advancing interdisciplinary programs spanning creative industries, arts and design, and related fields.
Guest of Honor
Born in Ha Noi, Viet Nam, Senior Ambassador Vu Quang Minh received a prestigious merit-based scholarship to study at the Kiev Taras Shevchenko National University in Ukraine (1982-1983), and then the International Economic Relations Department, Moscow International Relations Institute, in the former Soviet Union (MGIMO, 1983-1988, BA/MA). Later, he graduated with a MPA degree from Princeton University, USA (WWS, 1993-1995) under the Fulbright Scholarship; attended short-term specialized courses, training programs and executive courses at the Manila Foreign Service Institute, Canadian Center for Management – CCMD, the Economic Institute at Boulder, Colorado, and Harvard University (USA). He is fluent in Vietnamese (native), Russian and English, with some communication and basic skills in French. He likes music, classical guitar, literature, chess, table tennis, golf, and swimming.
Senior Ambassador Vu Quang Minh joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam (MOFA) in 1990, and has worked in several Departments of the Ministry, including Departments for the Soviet Union (now part of the Department for Europe), UNESCO National Secretariat (now Department for External Relations for Local Governments and Cultural Diplomacy), ASEAN National Secretariat (ASEAN Affairs Department), Office of the Foreign Minister, Multilateral Economic Cooperation Department, and Economic Affairs Department (now Department for Economic Diplomacy). He was appointed Viet Nam’s Ambassador to the UK and Ireland (2010-2014), Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia (2017-2021), and Ambassador to Germany (2022-2025).
Over the years, Senior Ambassador Vu Quang Minh has also held important roles in MOFA, including Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Director-General of the Economic Affairs, and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. On November19, 2018, then Vice Minister Vu Quang Minh was granted by President Nguyen Phu Trong a life title of Senior Ambassador – the highest rank for a diplomat (Đại sứ Bậc II). During his 35-year career, Senior Ambassador Vu Quang Minh has also received a number of prestigious awards and honours, including Viet Nam´s Labour Orders (third and second rank), two times Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Sahametrei, Moha Sereivath grade (highest) and one time Commander of the Royal Order of Sahametrei, Tepidin grade (third rank) by the Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
INVITED SPEAKERS
Director, Lecturer, Dr and Meritorious Artist (NSUT) Bui Nhu Lai – Rector of Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema – is a testament to unlimited creativity and tireless, innovative, and dedicated work in all roles he has been assigned, taken on, or actively learned to renew his artistic practice and bring art closer to life. Bui Nhu Lai’s creative journey and contributions to the Vietnamese stage and cinema industry from his student days to his work at the Youth Theatre and now at the Hanoi Academy of Theatre and Cinema have contributed significantly to the development of Vietnamese stage and cinema, promoting Vietnamese culture and art to the world, and inspiring today’s generation of young artists. He has been recognized by audiences for many of his roles and through the plays he has directed. Meritorious Artist Bui Nhu Lai was honored to receive the Third Class Labor Medal. He has also received many prestigious awards for his contributions and creativity.
Bui Nhu Lai, since he was a student majoring in Dramatic Acting in Film and Television at the Faculty of Theater, Hanoi Academy of Theater and Cinema, has been passionate about acting. Not stopping there, he continued to study and work in the arts to become a stage director with many famous plays that left an impression on the audience such as: “Rebirth”; “Edip is the King”; “To the Other Shore”; “Passing Through Stormy Days”… Recently, he has proven his creativity, talent, and passion for acting in the sphere of television series. Bui Nhu Lai is also recognized by his colleagues and generations of artists as an important contributor to shaping the appearance of contemporary Vietnamese theater, joining the flow of world theater art.
Assoc. Prof Dr. Pham Quynh Phuong holds a PhD in Anthropology from Australia and is currently Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Industries and Heritage, School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University. With three decades of research and teaching experience, she has established herself as a scholar in the fields of anthropology, heritage studies and cultural studies. Her academic contributions span across popular religions, gender, ethnic minorities, social movements, and the cultural and creative industries in Vietnam. In her role as Dean, she is leading the development of pioneering training programs in cultural and creative industries, while also bridging research directions on heritage and the development of the cultural industries.
Dr. Sheng-Ju Chan is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Institute of Education and Vice President of National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. He previously served as Director of the Quality Assurance Office at the Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). Dr. Chan is currently President of the Taiwan Higher Education Society and has also served as President of the Chinese Taipei Comparative Education Society.
His research interests include higher education policy, comparative education, and higher education management. He has published extensively in the fields of higher education and international development education, with a particular focus on East Asia. Internationally, Professor Chan serves as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Educational Development, is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Higher Education Research and Development, and is Co-Editor of the Higher Education in Asia book series published by Springer.
Thao Vu (Vũ Thảo), founder of Kilomet109, is a designer, artist and eco-entrepreneur with international recognition. Thao is known for her knowledge, expertise, creativity and a great sense of humility and responsibility in her decades-long journey of working together with various communities in Vietnam and abroad to learn about, revitalize, and (re)create traditional materials and material-making techniques. Thao’s vision and dedication have made her a leader among the pioneering group of new-age designers who have been spearheading Vietnam as an emerging hub of the fashion world.
Dr. John O’Regan is Professor of Critical Applied Linguistics and Vice-Dean (International) at UCL Institute of Education, University College London, UK. He is also Deputy Director of the International Centre for Intercultural Studies (ICIS) and the Programme Director of the MA Intercultural Communication. In his research John specialises in English as a global language, intercultural communication and critical discourse analysis, and has wide interests in political economy, critical social theory and international history.
John was Co-Chair of the International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) (2004-8) and a member of the IALIC Board (2000-16).
He also edited the association journal Language and Intercultural Communication from 2008-15. John has published more than 75 research papers as well as four books: Travelling Languages: Culture, Communication and Translation in a Mobile World (O’Regan, Wilkinson & Robinson, 2014), Intercultural Dialogue: Questions of Research, Theory and Practice (Holmes, Dooly & O’Regan, 2016), Education and the Discourse of Global Neoliberalism (Gray, O’Regan & Wallace, 2021), and Global English and Political Economy (O’Regan, 2021).
Director – Author Le Quy Duong was born in 1968. He graduated with a degree in stage directing from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Australia in 2000 and from the Los Angeles Film School (LAFS) in Hollywood, CA, USA, with a Fulbright Scholarship in 2003.
Le Quy Duong has received numerous prestigious international awards for his works and art projects, including:
First Prize in the Asia-Pacific Scriptwriting Competition (1999)
The Winston Churchill Award for Performing Arts (2001)
The Queensland Premier’s Literary Award (2001)
The Paul Verhoeven Award for Screenwriting at the Cannes Film Festival (2003)
Director Le Quy Duong has been dubbed the “magician” of cultural heritage and artistic creation festivals by the media. He currently holds seven Vietnamese records in this field.
From 2014 to 2022, Le Quy Duong was elected to the Executive Council of the International Theatre Institute (ITI/UNESCO). He currently serves as the Chairman of the Festivals and International Collaboration Committee (FACT) of this association.
Le Quy Duong’s plays and staged productions have made significant contributions to the collaboration and development of international performing arts, and they have been published and included in professional training programs at many art universities worldwide.
Dr. Tran Thi An is an Associate Professor. She gained her PhD in Folklore Studies and worked for the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) for 29 years, known as Head of Folklore Division in Institute of Literature (an institute under VASS), Director of Scientific Management Department of VASS.
Tran has been developing research interest in Vietnamese culture, folklore, and Vietnamese public policy. Her current focus is on Vietnam’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage in contemporary contexts. She is currently teaching at the Faculty of Cultural Industries and Heritage Studies, School of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Arts, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. She is also the President of the Hanoi Folklore Association.
Tran is an expert in folklore and culture studies. She has done extensive research on Vietnamese culture and published in articles and books in Vietnamese, as well as presented in many international conferences in Asian Studies. Her signature book is Characteristics of Folk Legends and Documentation of Vietnamese Folk Legends (Vietnam Social Sciences Publishing House, 2014), which was awarded the second prize by Vietnam Association of Folk Arts since its initial version in 2000 and another prize by Vietnam Publishers Association in 2015. She is the Editor-in-chief of the Collections on Vietnamese Legends, Folk Songs of Vietnam’s Ethnic Minorities and has a chapter in the book Vietnam at the Vanguard: New Perspectives Across Time, Space, and Community (Springer, 2021).
Finally, she also has published numerous journal articles.
Dr. Vu Minh Hoang is a Faculty Member in History and Vietnam Studies at Fulbright University Vietnam. He is a diplomatic historian of 20th-century Vietnam and the Asia-Pacific, studying national and regional security, economics, interests and identity formation, and genocide. He obtained his PhD in History from Cornell University, and was a Visiting Research Associate at the Weatherhead East Asian Studies Institute and Adjunct Professor in History at Columbia University.
Dr. Stan BH Tan-Tangbau is a Vietnamologist. He has carried out extensive research in Vietnam since 1997 about agrarian change in the Mekong Delta, coffee pioneer fronts in the Vietnamese uplands, frontier and state formation in the Central Highlands, historical-geography of the transborder railway from Hải Phòng to Kunming in Yunnan (China), and jazz in Vietnam. His book, Chơi Jazz ở Việt Nam (OmegaPlus) won a Vietnam National Book Prize in 2023, while the original English edition, Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam (University Press of the Mississippi) came in second for the EuroSEAS 2022 Humanities Book Prize. Between 2009 and 2018, Stan founded and directed Kachin Life Stories, a public digital anthropology project he designed for the Kachin people originating from Myanmar, China, and India. Stan received a Japan Society for Promotion of Science multi-year (2013-2016) KAKENHI Grants-in-Aid Young Scientist “A” Award for the project.
Dr. Nguyễn Thị Minh Huệ serves as Vice Dean of the Lawyer Training Faculty at the Judicial Academy. Since 2006, she has participated in training, designing, and managing many training programs for lawyer trainees, lawyers and other legal professionals in Vietnam. She is a certified mediator at the Vietnam International Commercial Mediation Center and a member of the Vietnam National Committee of the ASEAN Law Association.
Dr. Hue was honorably granted a scholarship by the Fulbright Vietnamese Scholar program to conduct research on legal professional education at Harvard Law School from 2013-2014. Since then, she has continuously been conducting researches on training skills and professional values for legal professionals in the UK, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Japan and Korea.
Dr. Nguyễn Thị Minh Huệ holds a Doctorate in Law from Hanoi Law University and has contributed as chief editor and co-author of textbooks and professional manuals on legal skills for lawyers, mediators, and other legal practitioners in Vietnam.
Dr. Vu Tran-Thanh (Trần Thanh Vũ), an upcoming well-regarded scholar in English language education and teacher education, is also an experienced teacher and teacher educator with many years of teaching and teacher training in Vietnam. Vu is the founder and administrator of the TESOL Research Collaboration Network, a professional learning community for Vietnamese teacher-researchers. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Teacher Educator Interest Section of TESOL International Association as newsletter editor. He has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the London Review of Education journal, beginning in 2025. As a researcher, Vu has presented at various international conferences and has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in prestigious outlets. His research interests include various areas of language teacher education, such as teacher research, identity, agency, and professional development, as well as queer theory in language education, peacebuilding, and CALL. Alongside his abovementioned significant roles and responsibilities, Vu Tran-Thanh has been pursuing his PhD as an ESRC-funded doctoral researcher at the School of Education, Durham University, UK.
Deadline for Proposal Submissions: 15 September 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 30 September 2025
There will be a registration fee of $1.000.000 VND or $50 USD for everyone, Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese, and free for undergraduate students. Details will be available in early August.
We welcome various types of proposals, from individual presentations to organized panels, or roundtable discussions and art exhibitions and film screenings.
Note: participants at EWV 15 may only present one (1) paper, however, they may participate in another capacity in other forums, such as serving as a chair or discussant for an organized panel, or participating in a roundtable discussion, etc.
You can always email us if you need more instructions or clarifications at engagingwithvietnam[at]gmail.com.
Individual Presentations
- Proposal submissions are in English or Vietnamese and no more than 300 words. Proposals for individual presentations can be single-authored or multi-authored.
- Applicants are only allowed to submit one paper proposal. It is not permitted to submit two or more abstracts.
- If accepted, only those who register can have their names listed in the program. This applies to all presentations, single-authored or multi-authored.
- The EWV 15 Selection Committee will compile panels of 4 individual paper presenters. The time slot for a panel composed of individual papers is 120 minutes.
- The organisers will assign a chair for each panel.
- All individual proposals are to be submitted online using the link below.
Panels
- The conference also accepts proposal submissions for a panel session that discusses a related or common theme. This type of session provides panellists with the opportunity to plan ahead how to run the session and to coordinate presentations and discussion in a fruitful manner. It is encouraged that the panellists leave ample time for overall discussion and Q&A. Interacting with the audience is highly encouraged.
- Proposals for a panel session are within 500 words, specifying the overall focus, key points and arguments, insights and methodological issues, and how each individual presentation is linked to the whole session. Together with this up to 500-word overall proposal, a up to 300-word proposal for each individual presentation is also required.
- Panellists of each panel session usually propose a chair and a discussant at the time of submission. The chair is often the moderator as well. However, if the panellists need the conference to look for a suitable chair or discussant in case their chair or discussant cannot attend the conference, this could be arranged although not guaranteed.
- A panel should be within a 120-minute time frame, and is consisting of no less than 4 related individual presentations. These individual presentations can be single-authored or multi-authored.
- All proposals are to be submitted online using the link below.
In-depth Roundtable Discussion Sessions
- In-depth Roundtable Discussion is a form of academic discussion, which is often interactive, lively and in focus, and is led by a chair. Participants agree on a specific topic to discuss and debate. Each person is given equal right and time to participate, and as such no one should dominate the discussion. This format is facilitated and illustrated by the idea of a circular layout referred to in the term round table.
- Proposals for this type of sessions are within 500 words, specifying the overall topic/issue, key points and what to be discussed and debated, and how each member contributes and what each brings to the whole discussion.
- The maximum time for a Roundtable Discussion is 120 minutes, and the maximum number of members is 10 for each session. You may request multiple sessions if the number of participants is more than 10 and if the topic under discussion requires extensive engagement. We encourage general conference participants to attend this type of sessions, and therefore Roundtable Discussion members are asked to engage with the audience as much as possible during the session.
- All proposals are to be submitted online using the link below.
Art Exhibitions/Installations/Workshops
- Proposals for art exhibitions/installations/workshops can be emailed directly to the conference address engagingwithvietnam[at]gmail.com.
- We need a detailed description of the proposed event, who will participate, if artist’s talk is included, and what is required in terms of space, space setting, equipment, sound and lighting.
Movie/Documentary Screening
- Proposals for movie/documentary screening can be emailed directly to the conference address engagingwithvietnam[at]gmail.com.
- We need a detailed description of the proposed event, including a summary of the movie/documentary, its length, who among the film/documentary making team will participate, any post-screening discussion is included, and what is required in terms of space, space setting, equipment, sound and lighting.
Deadline for Proposal Submissions: 15 September 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 30 September 2025
There will be a registration fee of $1.000.000 VND or $50 USD for everyone, Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese, and free for undergraduate students. Details will be available in early August.
Contacting EWV
Queries and questions can be directed to EWV conference email: engagingwithvietnam[at]gmail.com.
You can also keep up to date with Engaging With Vietnam by following us on social media.
EWV 15 looks forward to meeting you in Hanoi in December 2025!
Warmest wishes,
Conference participants (that is, people who submitted a presentation or panel proposal) will receive registration information by email.
For people who wish to attend the conference as observers, please follow the instructions to register and pay the conference fee here.