Curriculum Vitae
Peter Zinoman
History Department, University of California
Berkeley, California 94702
pzinoman@berkeley.edu
POSITIONS
Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley.
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, University of California Press, 20062012.
Director, Advanced Vietnamese Summer Institute (VASI) Ho Chi Minh City, 2008-2010.
Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley, 2006-2011
PUBLICATIONS
Books and Edited Volumes
Vietnamese Colonial Republican: The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung, (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2014).
Journal of Vietnamese Studies (editor-in-chief), Vol. 1, Nos. 1-2 (2006), Vol. 2 Nos. 1-2
(2007), Vol 3, Nos. 1-3 (2008), Vol.4, Nos. 1-3 (2009), Vol. 5, Nos. 1-3 (2010), Vol.6,
Nos. 1-3 (2011), Vol. 7, 1-2 (2012).
Dumb Luck: A Novel by Vu Trong Phung, editor, translated by Peter Zinoman and
Nguyen Nguyet Cam with an introduction by Peter Zinoman. (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 2002).
The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940, (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2001).
* Awarded the John King Fairbank Prize in East Asian History by the American
Historical Association, 2001
** Awarded the Harry Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies by the Association
of Asian Studies, 2003
Ve Nho Boi He: Nhung Tac Pham Cua Vu Trong Phung Moi Tim Thay Nam 2000 [Clown
make-up: works by Vu Trong Phung newly discovered in 2,000], compiler and co-editor
with Lai Nguyen An, (Hanoi: Hoi Nha Van, 2000). Supplemented with new material and
republished in 2004.
The Legacy of Political Violence in Indonesia, special issue of Asian Survey: A Bi-
monthly Review of Contemporary Asian Affairs, vol. XLII, No.4, July/August, 2002. Coedited with Nancy Peluso.
Articles and Book Chapters
“Misrepresenting Atrocities: Kill Anything that Moves and the Continuing Distortions of
the War in Vietnam,” co-authored with Gary Kulik. Cross-Currents: East Asian History
and Culture Review. Fall, 2014.
“Colonizing Minds and Bodies: Schooling in Colonial Southeast Asia,” in Routledge
Handbook of Southeast Asian History, edited by Norman Owen (New York: Routledge,
2014): 46-55.
“Review Essay on Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in
Vietnam,” H-Diplo Roundtable Reviews, Vol. XV, No.9 (2013): 29-34.
“Vietnam-Centrism, the Orthodox School and Mark Bradley’s Vietnam at War” H-Diplo
Roundtable Reviews, Vol. XI, No. 22 (2011): 26-40.
“Nhan Van Giai Pham and Vietnamese Reform Communism during the 1950s: A
Revisionist Interpretation,” Journal Cold War Studies. Vol. 13, No.1 (2011):60-100.
“Provincial Cosmopolitanism: Vu Trong Phung’s Foreign Literary Engagements,” in
Travelling Nation-Makers: Transnational Flows and Movements in the Making of
Modern Southeast Asia,” edited by Caroline S. Hau and Kasian Tejapira (Kyoto
University Press, 2011):126-152.
“The Modern Vietnamese Short Story,” Modern Short Fiction of Southeast Asia: A
Literary History, edited by Teri Shaffer Yamada (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2009): 271-292.
“The Current State of English-Language Vietnamese Studies as seen through the Journal
of Vietnamese Studies,” in Summary Record of the Third Vietnamese Studies Conference
(Hanoi: Hanoi National University Press, 2009).
“An interview with Huynh Sanh Thong,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1
Winter 2008: 220-240.
“Memories of Land Reform: To Hoai’s Three Others,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies
Vol.2 No.2 Summer 2007: 231-247.
“An Interview with Nguyen Huy Thiep,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies Vol. 1, No. 1-2
February/August 2006: 485-499.
“Vietnamese-Americans and the Future of Vietnamese Studies in the United States,
Southeast Asian Studies Pacific Perspectives edited by Anthony Reid (Tempe:
Monograph Series Press Program for Southeast Asian Studies, Arizona State University,
2003).
“Hai Van, The Storm and Vietnamese Communism in the Inter-War Imagination,”
Southeast Asia Over Three Generations: Essays Presented to Benedict Anderson edited
by James Siegal and Audrey Kahin (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 2003).
“Vu Trong Phung’s Dumb Luck and the Nature of Vietnamese Modernism,” introduction
to Dumb Luck: A Novel by Vu Trong Phung (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
2002).
“Rethinking Aspects of Political Violence in Twentieth Century Indonesia and East
Timor,” co-authored with Nancy Peluso, Asian Survey: A Bimonthly Review of
Contemporary Asian Affairs, vol. XLII, No. 4, July/August, 2002: 3-9.
“Mot Bai Phong Van Vu Trong Phung Moi Tim Duoc” [A newly found interview of Vu
Trong Phung], Tia Sang, 5/5/2002.
“Reading Revolutionary Prison Memoirs,” in Hue-Tam Ho Tai (ed.) The Country of
Memory: Remaking the Past in Late Socialist Vietnam (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2001).
"Colonial Prisons and Anticolonial Revolt: The Thai Nguyen Rebellion, 1917," Modern
Asian Studies, 34 pt 1 (February 2000): 57-99.
"The History of the Modern Prison and the Case of Indochina," in Vince Rafeal (ed.)
Figures of Criminality in Indonesia, the Philippines and Colonial Vietnam (Ithaca:
Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1999).
"Beyond the Revolutionary Prison Memoir." in The Vietnam Review 1 (1)
Autumn/Winter (Yale Council on Southeast Asia Studies, Fall, 1996).
“Declassifying Nguyen Huy Thiep,” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique Vol. 2 No. 2
Fall, 1994:294-318.
"Nguyen Huy Thiep's 'Vang Lua' and the Nature of Intellectual Dissent in Contemporary
Vietnam," in Vietnam Generation: A Journal of Recent History and Contemporary
Issues, 4(1-2): Spring, 1992.
Short Translations
“Clouds of War Still Hover Over Vietnam,” L.A. Times op. ed. piece by Pham Thi Hoai.
Co-translated with Nguyen Nguyet Cam. Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2005.
“We Interview Mr. Vu Trong Phung about the Novels The Storm and To Be a Whore” Le
Thanh’s 1937 interview with Vu Trong Phung originally published in Bac Ha. The
Michigan Quarterly Review Volume XLIV, Number 1 (Winter 2005).
"Tu Ben the Actor," short story by Nguyen Cong Hoan in Terry Yamada (ed.) Virtual
Lotus: Modern Fiction in Southeast Asia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press,
2,002).
“The Debt of Life,” a short story by Nguyen Thi Ngoc Nhung in The Literary
Review,vol.43 no.2 (Winter 2000).
"The Sound of Harness Bells," a short story by Nguyen Quang Lap and "Two Women," a
short story by Nguyen Quang Thieu in The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by
Vietnamese and American Writers (ed.) Wayne Karlin. Curbstone Press, 1995.
"Chastity" & "Sharp Sword," two stories by Nguyen Huy Thiep, in The Vietnam Forum
#14 (New Haven, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, 11/94).
"Nine Down Makes Ten," a story by Pham Thi Hoai, in Grandstreet, #44, Vol. 11, 1993.
Republished in Night Again Linh Dinh (ed) (New York: Seven Stories Press, 1996).
"Fired Gold," a story by Nguyen Huy Thiep, in Vietnam Generation, 4(1-2): Spring,
1992. Republished in Vietnam: A Traveler's Literary Companion Balaban and Duc (eds.)
(San Francisco: Whereabouts Press, 1996).
Miscellaneous
Review of The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Le Thi Diem Thuy in The Los
Angeles Times 8/2,003.
Review of Understanding Vietnam by Neil Jamieson, in Journal of Southeast Asian
Studies 29, 2 (1998).
“Bibliography of Modern Vietnamese Literature in Translation,” in Modern Southeast
Asian Literature in Translation: A Resource for Teaching Grant Olson (ed.) (Tempe:
Arizona State University, 1997).
TEACHING AND RESEARCH FIELDS
Early Southeast Asian History
Modern Southeast Asian History
Early Vietnamese History
Modern Vietnamese History
Modern Vietnamese Literature
The Vietnam Wars
Comparative History of Colonialism, Nationalism and Communism
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
- Mellon Foundation Project Grant ($20,000), 2013.
- Luce Foundation, 2009, Two Year Follow-Up Grant ($95,000) for The Journal of
Vietnamese Studies.
- Fulbright Fellowship, Vietnam, 2008-2009.
- Hillblom Foundation, 2005, Three Year Grant ($297,000) for Vietnamese Studies at UC
Berkeley.
- Luce Foundation Award, 2005, Three Year Seed Grant ($165,000) for foundation of
The Journal of Vietnamese Studies
- University of California, Pacific Rim Grant, 1999/00. For collaborative project:
Colonial Modernity in Indochina.
- Hellman Family Research Fellowship, 1998/99. For Vu Trong Phung’s Dumb Luck and
Vietnamese Literary Modernism.
- American Council of Learned Societies Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1997/98. For
revisions on The Colonial Bastille.
- Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, Junior Faculty Fellowship, 1997/98.
- University of California, Berkeley Junior Faculty Research Grant, 1996.
- Cornell Southeast Asia Program Dissertation Fellowship, 1994.
- Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 1993/94.
- Cornell University History Department Field Fellowship, 1991/92.
- Social Science Research Council: Indochina Scholarly Exchange Program Award, 1990.
- Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, 1988/89.
- Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship, Summer 1988.
- University of Hawaii Summer Research Fellowship for Vietnamese Language Study at
Can Tho University, Summer 1989.
COURSES TAUGHT AT UCB
- Introduction to Early Southeast Asian History (undergraduate lecture)
- Introduction to Modern Southeast Asian History (undergraduate lecture)
- Cultural and Political History of Vietnam (undergraduate lecture)
- Vietnam at War (undergraduate lecture)
- Colonial Indochina: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia (undergraduate seminar)
- The Vietnam Wars (undergraduate seminar)
- Major Issues in Southeast Asian History and Historiography (graduate seminar)
- Histories of Southeast Asian Communism (graduate seminar)
- Histories of Southeast Asian Nationalism (graduate seminar)
- Comparative Colonialism in Southeast Asia (graduate seminar)
- Colonial Modernity and Modernism in Vietnam (graduate seminar)
- Introduction to Southeast Asian Civilization (segment for Asian Studies 10A)
PRESENTATIONS
“Nghien cuu lich su Viet Nam tai My.” [Studying Vietnamese History in the United
States], Vietnam National University, Hanoi, College of Social Sciences and Humanities,
Department of History, June 24, 2014.
“Vietnamese Colonial Republican: The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung,” Institute of
Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, May 23, 2014.
“Book Talk,” Center for Southeast Asian Studies, UC Berkeley, April 2, 2014.
Keynote Address for 5th Annual Engaging with Vietnam Conference, conference held at
Thai Nguyen University, Thai Nguyen Vietnam. “The Political Vision of Vu Trong
Phung.” December 17, 2013.
Keynote Address for Asian Intellectuals and the City, workshop held at DSSEAS, UC
Berkeley “The Vietnamese Colonial City and the Origins of Vu Trong Phung’s Political
Vision.” October 1, 2012
Keynote Address for Ici, Indochine: Colloque du Destin,” Conference held at Bucknell
University, “Vu Trong Phung and Colonial Republicanism.” April 13, 2012.
“Vietnamese Urban Intellectuals and Anti-Communism in the 1930s,” Association for
Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Honolulu, March, 2011.
“Vietnamese Reform Communism in the 1950s,” Association for Asian Studies Annual
Meeting, Philadelphia, March, 2010.
“The Journal of Vietnamese Studies and the Study of Vietnam,” Hanoi National
University, May, 2009.
“Early Southeast Asian History: The Legacy of O.W. Wolters,” Association for Asian
Studies Annual Meeting, Chicago, March 2009.
“Banning Vu Trong Phung,” University of Thanh Hoa, Fulbright Seminar, February
2009.
“Vietnamese Studies: State of the Field,” Third International Conference of Vietnamese
Studies, Hanoi, December, 2008.
“Venal Sex and Vietnamese Modernity,” Yale University, Seminar on Modernity, April
2008.
“Lan Khai’s Literary Memoir,” Harvard University Conference on Vietnamese
Biographies, April, 2008.
“Deviant Sexuality in the Writing of Vu Trong Phung,” University of Washington
Conference: Beyond Teleologies: Alternative History and Voices in Colonial Vietnam,
March 2007.
“Vu Trong Phung and the Modernization of Sexuality and Gender Relations in Colonial
Vietnam,” School of Oriental and African Studies, London, May, 2005.
“What’s Going On? The Oakland Museum’s Vietnam War Exhibit,” Keynote address
delivered at the conference “30 Years Beyond the War: Vietnamese, Southeast Asian and
Asian/American Studies” UC Riverside, April 20, 2005.
“Colonial, Urban, Modern: Inter-War Hanoi in the Work of Vu Trong Phung,” Workshop
on Colonial Cities, Institute for 21st Century Studies, University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee, April, 2004.
“Vu Trong Phung Views the City,” Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Yale University,
April, 2004
“The Ill-Disciplined Colonial Prison and Vietnamese Modernity in The Dike Breaks.”
School of Oriental and African Studies, London, July 2,002.
“Pornography, Anti-Communism and Modernism: The Case Against Vu Trong Phung,”
Presented at Brown Bag Colloquia, UCLA Center For Southeast Asian Studies, 5/00.
“The State of Vietnamese Studies and the Vietnamese Diaspora,” Presented at UCLA
Conference: Southeast Asia in the 21st Century. 4/00
“Research on Ho Chi Minh: The State of the Field,” Presented at Seminar: Legacies of
Ho Chi Minh, Oakland Art Museum, 3/00.
“Vietnamese Modern: Vu Trong Phung’s Dumb Luck,” Presented at University of
Pennsylvania Conference, Beyond the War, 3/00.
“Vu Trong Phung: The Adventures of A Vietnamese Literary Reputation,” Presented at
the 50th Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, San Diego, 3/00.
“Celebrating and Censoring Vu Trong Phung,” Presented at the UC Berkeley, Center for
East Asian Studies, 2/00.
“Vietnam in the Bulletin of Concerned Asian Studies,” Presented at Conference: Legacies
of 1968, University of Tokyo, 12/99.
"Nguyen Huy Thiep in Historical Perspective," Presented at UCB Colloquium, Four
Perspectives on Nguyen Huy Thiep, 12/98.
"Prison Subculture and Society in Colonial Indochina," Presented at U.C. Santa Cruz,
History Department Colloquium, 3/98.
"The Origins of the Ill-Disciplined Prison" Presented at the Doreen B. Townsend Center
Fellow's Group, 10/97
"Comparative and Methodological Reflections of the Colonial Prison" Presented at Social
Science Research Council Conference - Crime and Criminality in Southeast Asia,
Amsterdam, 4/97
"Crime and Punishment in Colonial Indochina," Presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of
the Association of Asian Studies, Chicago, 3/97.
"Southeast Asian Studies in the U.S." Presented at Ford Foundation Colloquium Rethinking Area Studies. UCB, 3/97
"The Colonial Prison in Indochina: Comparative and Methodological Considerations"
Presented at UCB Colonialism and Orientalism Study Group, 11/96.
"Discipline's Colonial Career: Prisons and Penology in French Indochina" Presented in
the UCB Center for Southeast Asian Studies Brown Bag Series, 11/96.
"Reading Nguyen Huy Thiep" Presented at University of Washington, Seattle, 10/96.
"Human Rights Issues in Vietnam Today" Presented at Asia Foundation, San Francisco,
8/96.
"Intellectual Freedom in Contemporary Vietnam" Presented at the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, San Francisco, 5/96.
"Reading Revolutionary Memoirs" Presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the
Association of Asian Studies, Honolulu, 4/96
"The Politics of Literary Dissent in Vietnam" Presented at Arizona State University,
Tempe, Arizona, 3/96.
"Vietnamese Literature: The Past Ten Years" Presented at the Vietnam-American Studies
Conference, San Francisco State, 10/1995.
"Nguyen Huy Thiep Retires: Wither Renovation Literature?" Presented at the Midwest
Conference on Asian Affairs, St. Louis, Missouri, 10/1995.
"Colonial Prisons and Anti-Colonial Revolt: A Case Study of the 1917 Thai Nguyen
Rebellion." Presented at the 46th Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies,
Boston Massachussets, 3/1994.
"Indigenous Surveillance in the Prisons of Colonial Vietnam: A Not Quite Total
Institution." Presented at the Cornell Southeast Asia Program Brown Bag Seminar,
2/1994.
"Exit from Darkness: Vietnamese Literature in an Era of Reform." Lecture presented at
the Foreign Service Institute Area Studies Program, Washington D.C. 11/1993.
"Nguyen Huy Thiep: A Vietnamese Postmodernist?" Presented at the 45th Annual
Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, Los Angeles, California, 3/1993.
PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS
“History of Vietnamese Political Parties,” Discussant for Association of Asian Studies
Panel, Philadelphia, 2014.
“New Histories of the Cold War in Southeast Asia,” Discussant for Association of Asian
Studies Panel, San Diego, 2013.
“Biographies of the Morally Suspect,” Discussant for Association of Asian Studies Panel,
Chicago, 2004.
“Law in Colonial Southeast Asia,” Discussant for Association of Asian Studies Panel,
San Diego, 2003.
“Colonialism and its Legacies in South and Southeast Asia,” IAS Dissertation Workshop,
2/00.
“Tokens of Exchange,” Paper by Lydia Liu, UC Berkeley East Asia Center, 10/99.
“Colonial Modernity in French Indochina,” Panel at Conference on French Overseas
History, Naval Post Graduate School, 9/98.
“Voices from S-21,” Paper by David Chandler, delivered at Symposium on Comparative
Genocide, UC Berkeley, Department of Slavic Studies, 10/97.
“New Research on Early Cambodia,” Panel at UC Berkeley, Center for Southeast Asian
Studies Conference, 2/97.
“Post-Socialist Transitions in Vietnam and Nicaragua,” Panel at UC Berkeley IAS
Conference: Globalization and Transitions from Socialism, 3/96.
“Colonialism and Revolution in Vietnam,” Panel at UC Berkeley, Center for Southeast
Asian Studies Conference, 2/96.
SELECTED RELATED ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCE
- Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 20042007.
Resident Director: University of California, Education Abroad Program in Hanoi,
Vietnam, 8/2,001-12/2,002.
Panel Chair and Organizer: “Apprehensions of Modernity in Colonial Vietnam.” 52nd
Annual Meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, San Diego, March 2000.
Consultant for UC Education Abroad Program. Conducted fact-finding visit in Vietnam
to explore establishment of semseter progam at University of Hanoi, 12/98.
Sponsor and Organizer of Colloquium at UCB entitled "Four Perspectives on Nguyen
Huy Thiep." 12/98.
Team Leader: Higher Education Reform in Vietnam Task Force, Asia Foundation and
International and Area Studies, UCB, 1995/96. Co-authored report on educational
reforms in Vietnam.
Resident Director: Council on International Educational Exchange, Study Center at
Hanoi University, 1994-95.
Panel Chair and Organizer: "Political Dissent and Postmodern Sensibilities in
Contemporary Vietnamese Fiction." 45th Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian
Studies, Los Angeles, California, March 1993.
Executive Committee Member: "Association of Asian Studies: Vietnam Studies Group."
1992-1997.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Department of History, January 1996
Cornell University
M.A. Department of History, May 1990
Cornell University
B.A. Magna Cum Laude, Department of History, May 1987
Tufts University