Nguyễn T. Thuỳ-Trang

Research interests: colonialism and decolonization, cultural geography, social critical theory, psychoanalysis, postcolonial aesthetics, and world cinema

Nguyễn’s dissertation, titled “Cross-reading Afro-Asia and the Psychiatric Asylum in Vietnam and Algeria, 1945-1962”, examines the intersection of the Third World liberation struggles of the 20th century and alternative psychiatric practices of the same period, drawing on psychoanalysis, Africa-Asia intimacies in the context of decolonization, and postcolonial visual culture. Against the landscape of liberation wars and decolonization across the two continents in the period post-World War II (1945-1962), my research proposes a reconfiguration of the psychiatric asylum space by studying situated practices and encounters emerging from such space. Engaging with archival materials, Afro-Asia writings, and cultural works such as poems and short stories (some produced by asylum patients themselves), the project draws connections among seemingly unrelated spatial and social conditions to trouble the contemporary construction of global mental health, which is inclined to overlook its own colonial remnants. Besides research, Nguyễn is also a practicing psychotherapist, specializing in traumatic stress in children and adolescents. She grew up in Vietnam.

Recent publications

Nguyễn, T. T. T. (2025). The inoperative refusal: Gestures and how the unruly body goes on strike. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. [Under review]

Nguyễn, T. T. T. (2025). Voicing the Speculative: Solidarity and the Impossible in Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn’s Video Installation Art. Critical GeoHumanities: Solidarities, Humanitarianism, Scholarship-Activism and Creative Political Engagements [Special issue]. GeoHumanities. [Under review]

Nguyễn, T. T. T., Denejkina, A., Summersett Williams, F., Henshaw, L. A., & Shadowen, N. (2023). Neighborhood Factors and School Engagement in Children of Parents or Guardians Who Have Experienced Incarceration. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32(12), 3800–3815. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02688-9

Urban, T. H., Nguyễn, T. T. T., Morford, A. E., Spinelli, T., Martinovich, Z., Schewe, P. A., & Risser, H. J. (2020). Utilization of evidence-based treatment models at community-based mental health settings for young children exposed to violence. Children and Youth Services Review, 105233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105233

Awards

2-year Advanced Placement Fellowship, University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), 2022-2026

Center Field Research Grants, Center for South-East Asian Study (UW-Madison), 2025

African Studies Program Research Award, (UW-Madison), 2025

1-year The Kemper Knapp Fellowship, (UW-Madison), 2022

Outstanding Master Thesis Presentation Award, Northwestern University, 2019

Harris Scholar, Northwestern University, 2016 – 2018

Full undergraduate scholarship from Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2008 – 2012

Education

M.A., Counseling, Child and Adolescent, Northwestern University, 2019

B.Sc., Economics and Law, Singapore Management University, 2012