Join us for this IN PERSON Event in the Penn Museum academic wing, room 328

Tri Phuong is a sociocultural anthropologist specializing in digital media, youth culture, and social movement in contemporary Vietnam. He studies the local and global intersections of new media technologies and cultural expressions through the semiotics of play to illuminate the ways people experience, evaluate, and contest shifting terrains of authoritarianism and censorship to achieve aspirations in the digital era. His research connects anthropologies of the state, media, and youth in the context of late-socialism and globalization. His focus on cultural translations, vernacular tactics, and mockery of authority figures offers a precise case study for comparing popular cultures and their catalytic influences on youth fandom and social movements – specifically in Southeast Asia and through Inter-Asian and diasporic connections. Before joining the University of Victoria, he worked as a community organizer, development consultant, and journalist. He holds a PhD from Yale University, an MPP from Harvard University, and a BA from Harvard College.

Of Might and Mites: Reflections on Studying Social Protests in Contemporary Vietnam 

In light of protests that have taken place across the Asia-Pacific region in recent times due to a variety of autochthonous pressures – from Myanmar to Thailand, Hong Kong, and China, inter alia – this talk explores the ethical and pragmatic considerations of studying social movements in real-time in the digital era. Namely, what is at stake in conducting ethnographic research under surveillance and censorship to elucidate local voices? Observing protests in an authoritarian environment where it is difficult to distinguish between friend and foe – e.g. a marcher or an undercover cop; an activist or a double-agent; or any of the above from an anthropologist – turns fieldwork into a game of chance, in which those who choose to play may or may not get played by the players who structure the game. In this gray zone of configurative rapport(s), friends become foes, foes turn to fiends, and fiends convert back to friends.