My research specialization is early modern Vietnamese history, with a strong emphasis on the eighteenth century. My first book was about the Tay Son uprising, a thirty-year civil war in Vietnam, which toppled a series of ruling families and briefly established a new dynasty. I have also worked on the nineteenth-century Nguyen dynasty military, and, more recently, on several topics dealing with early twentieth-century Vietnamese intellectual and journalistic issues. I am currently helping to edit the forthcoming Sources of Vietnamese Tradition volume, which will be published by Columbia University Press. I am also working on a biography of an early Vietnamese Jesuit who lived much of his life in Portugal. I teach courses on Vietnamese history as well as Southeast Asian religions. I also teach one course every year in the Southeast Asian Studies IDP, of which I am currently the chair. I have also co-taught the ALC graduate critical theory seminar. I am active in the Vietnam Studies Group of the AAS, and am currently serving as the book reviews editor for the Journal of Vietnamese Studies.
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