Book talk with Cindy Anh Nguyen (UCLA)

Thursday, February 12, 2026
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Moore Hall, Rm 3340

Libraries in French colonial Vietnam functioned as symbols of Western modernity and infrastructures of colonial knowledge. Yet Vietnamese readers pursued alternative uses of the library that exceeded imperial intentions. Bibliotactics examines the Hanoi and Saigon state libraries in colonial and postcolonial Vietnam, uncovering the emergence of a colonial public who reimagined the political meaning and social space of the library through public critique and day-to-day practice. Comprising government bureaucrats, library personnel, journalists, and everyday library readers, this colonial public debated the role of libraries as educational resource, civilizing instrument, and literary heritage. Moving beyond procolonial or anticolonial nationalism framings, Bibliotactics advances a relational theory of power that centers public reading culture contextualized within the library infrastructure of the colonial information order. As the first comprehensive history of the colonial and national library in Asia, this book contributes new insights into publicity, colonial and postcolonial studies, and the histories of Vietnam, libraries, and information.

Cindy Anh Nguyen is assistant professor in the Department of Information Studies, Digital Humanities program, and Department of Asian Languages & Cultures at UCLA. Her book, Bibliotactics: Libraries and the Colonial Public in Vietnam (UC Press, 2026) uncovers how libraries functioned as both instruments of colonial dominance and an experimental space of public critique. Her transdisciplinary research examines the historical and socio-technical production of knowledge in Southeast Asia through libraries, encyclopedia, visual media, and language through feminist, decolonial, and critical approaches. Nguyen’s multifaceted digital humanities work bridges computation and critical data analysis as a commitment to global south cultural heritage and community engaged research. Her work has appeared in Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Verge: Studies in Global Asia, Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, the Vietnamese American Refugee Experience Model Curriculum, and numerous edited volumes on history and digital humanities. Nguyen is also a public scholar, educator, and community artist exploring themes of migration and memory. 

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Information Studies, UCLA Data X