Dr Giang Nguyen-Thu
Senior Lecturer
School of Communication and Arts
Researcher biography
Dr Giang Nguyen-Thu is a Senior Lecturer and a DECRA Research Fellow at the School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland. She is affiliated with the Center for Digital Cultures and Societies, UQ.
Dr Nguyen-Thu is currently working on her DECRA project “Too quick or too slow: Digital temporalities in networked Vietnam” (2024-2027). For this project, she explores the multiple, tangled, and contesting temporalities, or the lived experiences of time, on the ground of digital development in Vietnam. Through various case studies, she will investigate digital temporalities as plotted on the interstices of social habits, historical burdens, infrastructural layers, and human subjectivities to challenge the illusion of frictionless technological expansion.
Dr Nguyen-Thu’s interest in the cultural politics of digital time-making stems from her lasting curiosity about the interplay between media and the rapid process of economic development in Vietnam after the Reform (Đổi Mới) in 1986. Her first monograph, Television in Post-Reform Vietnam: Nation, Media, Market (Routledge 2019), explores how the advent of popular television reshapes the sense of national belonging in Vietnam. This monograph is the first scholarly book about contemporary Vietnamese media in the English language.
In addition to her independent research, Dr Nguyen-Thu serves as a chief investigator of the collaborative ARC Discover Project “Digital Transaction Platforms in Asia” (2022-2026), led by Assoc. Prof Adrian Athique. For this DP project, she investigates the gendered dimensions of digital transactions in Vietnam, focusing on the experiences of male delivery workers and female online retailers.
Publications
Books
Anderson, Benedict, Nguyen-Thu, Giang, Vu Duc Liem, Pham Van Thuy and Nguyen Thanh Tung (2019). Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism (Vietnamese translation). Vietnam: University of Education Press (Vietnam).
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2019). Television in post-Reform Vietnam : nation, media, market. Abingdon, Oxon United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315157382
Book Chapters
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2023). Popular television: socialist politics and market competition. Routledge handbook of contemporary Vietnam. (pp. 546-555) edited by Jonathan D. London. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315762302-41
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2021). Làm mẹ trong lo âu: Facebook, thực phẩm bẩn và nền kinh tế của sự bấp bênh ở Việt Nam. Văn hóa Việt Nam đương đại: Đa dạng biểu đạt và tương tác. (pp. 54-70) edited by Nguyễn Thị Phương Châm and Hoàng Cầm. Hanoi, Vietnam: Vietnam Social Sciences Publishing House.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2020). Vietnamese media going social: connectivism, collectivism and conservatism. Press freedom in contemporary Asia. (pp. 245-260) edited by Tina Burrett and Jeff Kingston. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9780429505690-16
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2018). Truyền thông mới: Riêng tư hóa và toàn cầu hóa. Báo chí truyền thông: Những vấn đề trọng yếu - Tập 1. (pp. 126-133) edited by Viện Đào tạo Báo chí và Truyền thông. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam: Vietnam National University Press.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2016). Personal wealth, national pride: Vietnamese television and commercial nationalism. Commercial Nationalism: Selling the Nation and Nationalizing the Sell. (pp. 86-105) edited by Volcic, Z. and Andrejevic, M.. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9781137500991_6
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2010). Cái tôi trong thông điệp quảng cáo. Báo chí: Những vấn đề lý luận và thực tiễn. (pp. 271-278) edited by Khoa Báo chí và Truyền thông. Hanoi, Vietnam: Vietnam National University Press.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2010). Dàn trang báo in: 3 điều nên tránh. Báo chí: Những vấn đề lý luận và thực tiễn. (pp. 279-291) edited by Khoa Báo chí và Truyền thông. Hanoi, Vietnam: Vietnam National University Press.
Journal Articles
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2024). “Four Bottles of Wine,” a Communist trial, and the digital attention economy in Vietnam. Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 19 (3-4), 175-189. doi: 10.1525/vs.2024.19.3-4.175
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2024). Memory, comparison, and reciprocal commensuration: searching for the socialist ‘bad life’ in aspirational Vietnam. Cultural Studies. doi: 10.1080/09502386.2024.2405222
Nguyen-Thu, Giang and Munn, Luke (2024). Taming the algorithm: the platform realism of GrabBike delivery workers. New Media and Society. doi: 10.1177/14614448241262417
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2023). Review of Voices of Vietnam: a century of radio, red music, and revolution, by Lonán Ó Briain. Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 18 (3), 151-153. doi: 10.1525/vs.2023.18.3.151
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2022). From hope to haunt: digital activism and the cultural politics of hope(lessness) in late-socialism. Cultural Studies, 37 (6), 1-26. doi: 10.1080/09502386.2022.2066146
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2021). Hectic slowness: digital temporalities of precarious care from a Global South perspective. Feminist Media Studies, 22 (8), 1-15. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2021.1921825
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2021). Lao động số: Một số xu hướng lý thuyết và tham chiếu với lao động báo chí truyền thông. Tạp chí Người Làm Báo, 5, 50-54.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2020). From wartime loudspeakers to digital networks: communist persuasion and pandemic politics in Vietnam. Media International Australia, 177 (1), 1329878X2095322-148. doi: 10.1177/1329878x20953226
Nguyen, Giang Thu (2020). Cảm giác lo âu và truyền thông đương đại: Một tổng quan điểm luận. VNU Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 6 (3), 324-335.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2018). Vietnamese media going social: connectivism, collectivism, and conservatism. Journal of Asian Studies, 77 (4), 895-908. doi: 10.1017/s0021911818002504
Nguyen, Thu Giang (2015). Truyền hình bình dân ở Việt Nam: Truyền hình bình dân ở Việt Nam: Giữa dân chủ hoá và thị trường hoá. VNU Journal of Science: Social Sciences and Humanities, 31 (3), 23-36.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2014). Nostalgia for the new oldness: Vietnamese television dramas and national belonging. Media International Australia, 153 (1), 64-72. doi: 10.1177/1329878X1415300108
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2011). Hiện tượng người nổi tiếng và chức năng xã hội của nó. Tạp chí Khoa học ĐHQGHN, Khoa học Xã hội và Nhân văn, 27, 151-162.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2011). Truyền thông thị giác dưới sự quy chiếu của lý thuyết đóng khung. Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Con người, 6 (57), 47-56.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang and Viet Ha, Bui (2010). Tri tạo truyền thông: Một cách tiếp cận mới trong giáo dục. Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Con người, 1 (52), 48-53.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2009). Vấn đề cạnh tranh công chúng giữa báo điện tử và báo in. Tạp chí Xã hội học, 4, 71-80.
Conference Papers
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2024). Taming the Algo: Grab Bikers Grappling with Platform Logics from Below. Association of Internet Researchers Conference: Industry (AoIR2024), Sheffield, United Kingdom, 30 October – 2 November 2024.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang and Munn, Luke (2024). Taming the algo: Grab bikers grappling with platform logics from below. 25th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 30 October-2 November 2024. Champaign, IL, United States: University of Illinois Libraries. doi: 10.5210/spir.v2024i0.14016
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2024). Crossing Worlds: Peasant-Based Insurgencies in Digital Vietnam. International Communication Association 74th Annual Conference, Gold Coast, QLD Australia, 20-24 June 2024.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2024). Gender, Digital Labour and the Dynamics of Mobility in Vietnam. Digital Transactions in Asia Conference V, Quy Nhon, Vietnam, 21-22 February 2024.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2023). Digital Dramas Between Ritual and Revolution: Online Activism and Peasant Dissensus in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam. Southern Digitalities Conference, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar, 15-16 March 2023.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2021). Keynote: Mothering the Future: Precarious Temporalities of Care in Vietnam’s Digital Mamasphere. Engaging with Vietnam Conference: Mobilities and Identities in an Age of Global Transformation, Kyoto, Japan, 24-27 August 2021.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2019). Aspiring for a Better Life in Vietnam: From an Equal Share of Misery to an Unequal Dose of Happiness. The Good Life in Late Socialist Asia: Aspirations, Politics and Possibilities Conference, Bielefeld, Germany, 16-18 September 2019.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2018). The Market, the Media, and the State in Asia: A Roundtable. AAS-in-Asia Conference: Asia in Motion – Beyond Borders and Boundaries, New Delhi, India, 24-27 June 2018.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2018). JAS at AAS – The Market, the Media, and the State in Asia II. Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Washington, DC United States, 22-25 March 2018.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2014). National Wealth, Personal Pride: Vietnamese Television and Commercial Nationalism. The 20th Vietnam Update Conference: Connected and Disconnected in Vietnam, Canberra, ACT Australia, 1-4 December 2014.
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2013). Spirit of the Past, Property of the Future: Soap Operas and Nostalgia in Contemporary Vietnam. The Australian Media Traditions Conference, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 25-26 November 2013.
Newspaper Article
Nguyen-Thu, Giang (2017, 06 01). Popular Taste in Vietnam The Times Literary Supplement
Thesis
Nguyen, Thu Giang (2016). Reproducing Vietnam: television and national imagination in the post-reform era. PhD Thesis, School of Communication and Arts, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2016.1002