Presenting an overview of the Contemporary Vietnamese Society, the course is aimed at providing students with an introduction to a small range of contexts, social, historical, political and cultural ones in the landscape of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also helps students interrelate these and encourage critical investigations into representation of a present-day Vietnamese society.

Two essays (totaling 80%), Tutorial participation (20%). Graduate students attend joint classes with undergraduates but may expect more rigorous assessment and additional assignment work, tailored to the graduate students’ interests.

Permission of coordinator

Jamieson, Neil, Understanding Vietnam, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
Kolko, Gabriel, Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace, London: Routledge, 1997
Taylor, Philip, Fragments of the Present: Searching for Modernity in Vietnam’s South, Allen & Unwin, 2001
Eldridge, P. J., Non-Government Organisations and Democratic Participation in Indonesia, OUP 1995, or
Visit Thai Website: http://www.nectec.or.th/directories/org.html#Non
Morris ,I., The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan, New York, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,1975
Collcutt, M., Jansen, M., Kumakura, I., A Short Cultural Atlas of Japan, Phaidon,1988
Hall, J.W., Japan from Prehistory to Modern Times, Delacore Press, 1994


Ability to finance travel to and from destination and pay for a visa and living expenses for the period of participation in the organisation. Students will not receive remuneration for their participation in the organisation.