When the first Engaging With Vietnam conference was held in Melbourne, Australia in February 2010, the issue of Vietnam’s “integration” (hội nhập) into the world of global scholarship was a topic of great interest. At that time, such integration was still in the process of development, and it was not clear which approaches and practices would become the norm at Vietnamese universities in the years ahead.

Now, over a decade later, as we prepare to hold the 13th Engaging With Vietnam conference, we find that Vietnamese universities, like many universities around the world, are becoming ever more integrated into global rankings systems and are seeking to follow UN sustainability goals. Further, many scholars in Vietnam and around the world now find that they must meet certain key performance indicators (KPIs), such as annually publishing in international journals of a certain rank, so that they can attain certain metrics.

In keeping with the core interest of EWV on the issue of knowledge production, the theme of the 13th conference will be “Knowledge Production in the Age of Metrics and Global Rankings.”

While, as always, Engaging With Vietnam is a multidisciplinary conference that welcomes proposals on all topics in the Social Sciences, Humanities, the Arts, Education, and Interdisciplinary Studies relating to Vietnam, during the conference we will be interested in learning and discussing how the current emphasis on metrics, global rankings, and sustainability goals is affecting knowledge production about Vietnam, both in Vietnam and globally. Likewise, we are keen to explore how such emphasis is impacting these disciplines with regard to research, scholarship, and the training of upcoming scholars.

We will address these issues in unique ways through keynote events and other activities, such as an opening keynote on Jazz and knowledge production.