Dr. Dat M. Nguyen

Dr. Dat M. Nguyen is a researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He holds a PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from Boston University. He specialises in the study of religion, ethics, care, war traumas, and the environmental impacts of warfare in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Vietnam.

Previously, he has conducted research on Buddhism and youth in Vietnam, examining the contemporary proliferation of Buddhist educational programmes for youth in Ho Chi Minh City and its implications for urban public life. At the NIOD, he contributed the project, Bones of Contention: Technologies of Identification and the Politics of Reconciliation in Vietnam, led by Dr. Tam Ngo. His work examined the intersections between religion and the commemoration of fallen and Missing-in-Action soldiers in southern Vietnam. It elucidated how religious practices, rituals, and discourses have provided a means through which people cope and confront with the traumatic memories and experiences of warfare.

Currently, he is pursuing several research lines. Together with other colleagues, he is developing and coordinating the NIOD’s research on Violence and the Environment. Within this programme, he is examining the effects of Agent Orange and other forms of war pollutants on local ecologies, family and community livelihoods, and systems of social welfare and care in Vietnam. Additionally, he is conducting research into the provision of medical, psychological, and spiritual care for veterans and former combatants of the Vietnam War.  

With Peter Keppy, he co-leads the  War & Society  team at NIOD.