Kevin D Pham
Biographic Data
| ID | 4378086 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kevin D Pham |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kevin D |
| FAMILY NAME | Pham |
| SIGNATURE | PHAM K D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Amsterdam |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1758-7699 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Fanon’s Vietnam
This essay speculates on Frantz Fanon's intellectual relationship with Vietnamese anticolonial thinkers, including but not restricted to Hồ Chí Minh (1890–1969) and Trần Đức Thảo (1917–1993). We explore the possible influence of the Vietnamese anticolonial struggle and its theoreticians upon Fanon's theorising as well as similarities between their ideas on colonialism, racism and anticolonial revolt. While the essay does not offer conclusive evid…
Charles Keith. Subjects and Sojourners
A History of Indochinese in France, Charles Keith offers a sweeping, detailed history of Indochinese colonial subjects who sojourned in France from the 1850s to the 1950s.The book sheds light on how their travel experiences transformed them and, consequently, their own societies upon their return.As the title suggests, the book indeed discusses "Indochinese" (Vietnamese, Khmer, and Lao) sojourners, but it is mostly about Vietnamese men.This is be…
A Postcolonial Theory of Free Speech
This article reconstructs a postcolonial theory of free speech from the Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm (NVGP), a free speech movement among intellectuals who proclaimed support for communist revolution in North Vietnam in the late 1950s, shortly after gaining independence from French colonialism. The NVGP argues that free speech is a collective right and can restore trust between the Party and the people, thereby invigorating the Party so that it can more ef…
The Architects of Dignity
The Architects of Dignity: Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization traces an intergenerational debate among six major political figures in Vietnam who had competing visions for how the Vietnamese should respond to French colonial domination (1858–1954). Each of them—Phan Bội Châu (1867–1940), Phan Chu Trinh (1872–1926), Nguyễn An Ninh (1900–1943), Phạm Quỳnh (1892–1945), Hồ Chí Minh (1890–1969), and Nguyễn Mạnh Tường (1909–1997)—traveled abroad and …
Anticolonial Audiences and Revolutionary Theater in the Vietnamese Maquis
A common theme conspicuously emerges from the few translated and published narratives of Vietnamese who participated in resistance against French colonialism in the 1950s. These narratives tend to identify moments of being an audience member to theater as having significant roles in these individuals’ political awakening and desire to sacrifice themselves for anticolonial struggle. Drawing on these narratives, this essay shows how some audience m…
Strategic Occidentalism
Whereas "orientalism" describes how the West sees the East, "occidentalism" describes how the East sees the West. This paper presents two examples of occidentalism from Vietnam in the 1920s: a pamphlet that praises American civilization through a comparison of Europe and America, and an essay that praises American heroism through the story of George Washington. Far from venerating the "West" at the expense of their own "Eastern" values, I show ho…
To tighten or relax social bonds
Among contemporary liberal political theorists in the West, there appears to be a standoff between two camps. One camp promotes tighter social bonds through collective responsibility and patriotic fellow-feeling while the other insists on the need for relaxed social bonds through respect for individual freedom. This essay shows how two Vietnamese thinkers—Ho Chi Minh (1872–1969) and Nguyen Manh Tuong (1909–1997)—can help move this intractable deb…
Violence and Vietnamese Anticolonialism
The well-known claim that violence marks the end or failure of politics can be misleading. This essay uses the case of Vietnamese anticolonialism to argue that French colonial violence may have marked the failure of politics between colonizer and colonized, but, more interestingly, it also inaugurated two new forms of politics among the colonized: an “exploratory” politics which shifted Vietnamese political thought from monarchist to democratic i…
Nguyễn An Ninh’s Anti-Colonial Thought
A source of national shame can be the perception that one’s nation is intellectually inferior to other nations. This kind of national shame can lead not to despair but to a sense of national responsibility to engage in creative self-renewal and to create national identity from scratch. An exemplar of someone who recognized and engaged with this kind of national shame is Nguyễn An Ninh (1900–1943), an influential Vietnamese anti-colonial intellect…
Phan Chu Trinh's Democratic Confucianism
A consensus on three claims has emerged in literature that explores the relationship between Confucianism and democracy: democracy is not the exclusive property of Western liberalism, Confucianism and liberalism are opposed, and democracy in East Asia would be best buttressed by Confucianism, not liberalism. Why, then, does Phan Chu Trinh (1872–1926), Vietnam's celebrated nationalist of the French colonial period, argue that liberalism and democr…
Ideologies of experience
Violence and Vietnamese Anticolonialism
The well-known claim that violence marks the end or failure of politics can be misleading. This essay uses the case of Vietnamese anticolonialism to argue that French colonial violence may have marked the failure of politics between colonizer and colonized, but, more interestingly, it also inaugurated two new forms of politics among the colonized: an “exploratory” politics which shifted Vietnamese political thought from monarchist to democratic i…
Nguyễn An Ninh’s Anti-Colonial Thought
A source of national shame can be the perception that one’s nation is intellectually inferior to other nations. This kind of national shame can lead not to despair but to a sense of national responsibility to engage in creative self-renewal and to create national identity from scratch. An exemplar of someone who recognized and engaged with this kind of national shame is Nguyễn An Ninh (1900–1943), an influential Vietnamese anti-colonial intellect…
Ideologies of experience
Phan Chu Trinh's Democratic Confucianism
A consensus on three claims has emerged in literature that explores the relationship between Confucianism and democracy: democracy is not the exclusive property of Western liberalism, Confucianism and liberalism are opposed, and democracy in East Asia would be best buttressed by Confucianism, not liberalism. Why, then, does Phan Chu Trinh (1872–1926), Vietnam's celebrated nationalist of the French colonial period, argue that liberalism and democr…
Nguyễn An Ninh’s Anti-Colonial Thought
A source of national shame can be the perception that one’s nation is intellectually inferior to other nations. This kind of national shame can lead not to despair but to a sense of national responsibility to engage in creative self-renewal and to create national identity from scratch. An exemplar of someone who recognized and engaged with this kind of national shame is Nguyễn An Ninh (1900–1943), an influential Vietnamese anti-colonial intellect…
To tighten or relax social bonds
Among contemporary liberal political theorists in the West, there appears to be a standoff between two camps. One camp promotes tighter social bonds through collective responsibility and patriotic fellow-feeling while the other insists on the need for relaxed social bonds through respect for individual freedom. This essay shows how two Vietnamese thinkers—Ho Chi Minh (1872–1969) and Nguyen Manh Tuong (1909–1997)—can help move this intractable deb…
Violence and Vietnamese Anticolonialism
The well-known claim that violence marks the end or failure of politics can be misleading. This essay uses the case of Vietnamese anticolonialism to argue that French colonial violence may have marked the failure of politics between colonizer and colonized, but, more interestingly, it also inaugurated two new forms of politics among the colonized: an “exploratory” politics which shifted Vietnamese political thought from monarchist to democratic i…
The Architects of Dignity
The Architects of Dignity: Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization traces an intergenerational debate among six major political figures in Vietnam who had competing visions for how the Vietnamese should respond to French colonial domination (1858–1954). Each of them—Phan Bội Châu (1867–1940), Phan Chu Trinh (1872–1926), Nguyễn An Ninh (1900–1943), Phạm Quỳnh (1892–1945), Hồ Chí Minh (1890–1969), and Nguyễn Mạnh Tường (1909–1997)—traveled abroad and …
Anticolonial Audiences and Revolutionary Theater in the Vietnamese Maquis
A common theme conspicuously emerges from the few translated and published narratives of Vietnamese who participated in resistance against French colonialism in the 1950s. These narratives tend to identify moments of being an audience member to theater as having significant roles in these individuals’ political awakening and desire to sacrifice themselves for anticolonial struggle. Drawing on these narratives, this essay shows how some audience m…
Strategic Occidentalism
Whereas "orientalism" describes how the West sees the East, "occidentalism" describes how the East sees the West. This paper presents two examples of occidentalism from Vietnam in the 1920s: a pamphlet that praises American civilization through a comparison of Europe and America, and an essay that praises American heroism through the story of George Washington. Far from venerating the "West" at the expense of their own "Eastern" values, I show ho…
Charles Keith. Subjects and Sojourners
A History of Indochinese in France, Charles Keith offers a sweeping, detailed history of Indochinese colonial subjects who sojourned in France from the 1850s to the 1950s.The book sheds light on how their travel experiences transformed them and, consequently, their own societies upon their return.As the title suggests, the book indeed discusses "Indochinese" (Vietnamese, Khmer, and Lao) sojourners, but it is mostly about Vietnamese men.This is be…
A Postcolonial Theory of Free Speech
This article reconstructs a postcolonial theory of free speech from the Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm (NVGP), a free speech movement among intellectuals who proclaimed support for communist revolution in North Vietnam in the late 1950s, shortly after gaining independence from French colonialism. The NVGP argues that free speech is a collective right and can restore trust between the Party and the people, thereby invigorating the Party so that it can more ef…
Fanon’s Vietnam
This essay speculates on Frantz Fanon's intellectual relationship with Vietnamese anticolonial thinkers, including but not restricted to Hồ Chí Minh (1890–1969) and Trần Đức Thảo (1917–1993). We explore the possible influence of the Vietnamese anticolonial struggle and its theoreticians upon Fanon's theorising as well as similarities between their ideas on colonialism, racism and anticolonial revolt. While the essay does not offer conclusive evid…
Vietnamese History and Culture Studies (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Vietnamese (5 works) · Philosophy (4 works)