Mimi Thi Nguyen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
June 22, 1974
Saigon, South Vietnam
Mimi Thi Nguyen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Thanh-Huong Thi Nguyen June 22, 1974 Saigon, South Vietnam |
| Occupation | Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Notable works | Evolution of a Race Riot zine |
| Website | |
| mimithinguyen | |
Mimi Thi Nguyen (née Thanh-Huong Thi Nguyen; born in 1974) is a Vietnamese-born American scholar,[1] punk[2] and zine author.[3]
Born in 1974 in Saigon (now called Ho Chi Minh City) to Hiep and Lien Nguyen, Nguyen earned a bachelor's degree in Women's Studies and a doctorate in Ethnic Studies from University of California, Berkeley. Her master's degree was in American Studies from New York University.[4] She grew up in Minnesota and relocated to San Diego, California, where she was drawn to the D.I.Y. punk scene.[5]
Appointed in Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies, Nguyen earned tenure in 2012 at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[6] She received the Outstanding Book Award in Cultural Studies from the Association of Asian American Studies, 2014[6] for her first single-author monograph, The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt and Other Refugee Passages.
Nguyen is possibly best known for her compilation zine Evolution of a Race Riot first published in 1997 with a second issue in 2002,[7] in which she and contributors of color challenged racism in the punk scene.[8][9] She also publishes the zine Slander and is a former Punk Planet columnist and Maximumrocknroll contributor. In June 2013, Sarah McCarry's Guillotine ("a series of erratically published chapbooks focused on revolutionary non-fiction") released PUNK, a conversation between Nguyen and Golnar Nikpour, which later informed a 2016 exhibition at the Arnolfini called "Moving Targets."[10]
Nguyen also cofounded a fashion blog with Minh-Ha T. Pham that discusses the politics, history, and aesthetics of beauty and fashion.[11]
Riot Grrrl
Nguyen lists the Riot Grrrl movement as one that is important and yet problematic. In her essay "Riot Grrrl, Race, and Revival", Nguyen discusses the work which the Riot Grrrl movement has done in calling attention to how a woman's personal experiences with sexual abuse, heteronormativity, and intimacy with other women are tied up with the political and social. Collectivity among women being one of Riot Grrrl's goals, Nguyen addresses race as an obstacle to that collectivity, highlighting the marginalization of women of color.[12]
