Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
From: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 3:34 PM
To: vsg@uw.edu
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>; jarosz@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu
Subject: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
VSG colleagues,
The Viet Nam Studies community in Seattle is mourning the passing of our dear friend and cherished colleague Joseph "Joe" Hannah, at 61, after a courageous battle with cancer. Joe is survived by his loving wife, Dr. Hoàng Thị Diệu Hiền --like Joe an active member of VSG-- and their two sons, Ian and Bảo-Ân, as well as many siblings and a host of close friends.
Joe's journey with Viet Nam began in the early 1980s as a volunteer in Vietnamese refugee relief work in Singapore. After his Master's degree in Southeast Asian Studies (Cornell, 1989), he, alongside Hiền, worked with international NGOs in Viet Nam in the momentous years before and immediately after the normalization of Viet Nam-US relations.
Joe's focus then shifted to first assisting, later studying, the emergence of local NGOs within Vietnamese civil society under Đổi Mới. His Ph.D. dissertation in Geography, Local Non-government Organizations in Vietnam: Development, Civil Society, and State-Society Relations (UW-Seattle, 2007), was one of the first systematic studies of Vietnamese NGOs and greatly influenced and inspired the now-burgeoning field of Civil Society Studies in Viet Nam.
Joe served our profession and the academy in multiple ways, e.g. as a member of the Executive Committee of VSG. He was a sought-after speaker on critical development studies, civil society formation, and critical cartography and taught related courses, with typical energy and passion, for the Department of Geography at UW for many years and to much acclaim.
Joe had a decades-long interest and expertise in information, communication and teaching/learning technologies. In early 1990s Viet Nam, he almost single-handedly wired international NGOs to the infant internet, earning him a temporarily heightened interest by certain state agents. And a few years ago, at the top of his career, when UW started its Integrated Social Sciences (ISS) online degree program, Joe naturally taught courses there and became a trusted, highly popular academic advisor, with "his fingerprints," per co-director Mel Wensel, "present in all aspects" of ISS.
Aside from being a scholar, teacher, mentor, and innovator, Joe was the definition of a mensch. Kind, unassuming and with a frequent chuckle, he lived his life simply, humbly and with mindfulness and wonder, deeply enriching the lives of those in his presence.
Please hold Joe, Hiền and the family in your thoughts.
Christoph
********************
Christoph Giebel, PhD (he), Assoc. Professor, International Studies and History
Director of Graduate Studies, S.E. Asia Center, Jackson School of Int’l. Studies
University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-3650, USA, < giebel@uw.edu >
********************
From: Diane Fox <dnfox70@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 3:50 PM
To: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; vsg@uw.edu; jarosz@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Dear Christoph
Thank you so much for these words, which ring so true for many of us on this list, I suspect.
with gratitude for all Joe gave us,
and appreciation for your thoughts,
Diane
Diane Fox
writing now, retired from teaching
University of Washington PhD, anthropology
From: Hue-Tam Tai <huetamtai@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 4:29 PM
To: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; vsg@uw.edu; jarosz@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
I never met Joe in person but valued greatly his contributions to vsg and to Vietnamese studies more broadly. My heart goes out to Dieu Hien and their sons in this moment of loss and grief even as I am grateful to have benefited from Joe's love of Vietnam.
Hue Tam Ho Tai
Harvard University emerita
From: David Brown <nworbd@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 4:39 PM
To: Diane Fox <dnfox70@gmail.com>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; jarosz@uw.edu; Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>; vsg@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
I too mourn the loss of a good friend. Joe Hannah's trailblazing study of the DRV's nascent civil society sector inspired me to turn to writing about events and trends in Vietnam -- as a journalist and retired diplomat, not as an academic -- and I benefited often from his cogent insights and advice. RIP, Joe.
David Brown
Writer/analyst
Fresno, CA
From: Thaveeporn Vasavakul <Thaveeporn@kvsnetworksystem.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2022 8:14 PM
To: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; vsg@uw.edu; jarosz@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Sad news indeed. We attended SEASSI in DeKalb. Thanks for sharing.
Thaveeporn Vasavakul
From: Oscar Salemink <o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2022 2:20 PM
To: vsg@uw.edu
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; jarosz@uw.edu; Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Dear Diệu Hiền, Christoph and all,
I am very sad to hear of Joe Hannah’s premature passing. We knew each other from way back when, meeting in Vietnam or Seattle, although we were not close. But two years ago Joe and I started writing each other about issues of mutual interest and concern, in particular exchanging health-related experiences. The last time he wrote to me – around one year ago – he said that his treatment had been successful, so I assumed that things were looking bright for him and I didn’t follow up further. But I am so sorry to hear that apparently things didn’t go well with him, and that I too have to mourn Joe’s loss.
I like to wish Diệu Hiền and family and friends much strength.
Oscar Salemink
Professor
University of Copenhagen
Department of Anthropology
Øster Farimagsgade 5, Entrance E, office 16.0.24
1353 Copenhagen K
Denmark
TEL +45 33 32 34 64
DIR +45 35 32 44 72
o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk
From: michele thompson <thompson.michele@sbcglobal.net>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2022 12:32 PM
To: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; vsg@uw.edu; jarosz@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Dear Christoph,
Thank you so much for this detailed and caring announcement. To me this news was not only horrible, but also shocking, since I had no idea that Joe was so very ill. You have had to write entirely too many such announcements in recent months.
I first met Joe and Hiền in Ha Noi in the Fall of 1993 when I was living there doing research for my dissertation and after that we saw each other once every few months whenever we happened to be in the same place at the same time for several years. I was delighted when Joe and Hiền moved to Seattle and he became one of my graduate colleagues at UW. A few years after that I recruited Joe to serve on the Ex Comm at a time when it was sort of hard to talk people into doing this. He was a member one could really count on and he played many important roles during the years when we first established such programs as the grad student prize and later the travel grants.
I always enjoyed seeing Joe and Hiền when I was able to visit Seattle and I am very very sorry that it has now been several years since that was possible for me and thus also several years since I have seen either of them in person. Joe was a person of many talents and one that has not been mentioned by anyone so far is that he was a skillful cartographer. I commissioned several maps from him that I have used in publications, presentations, and for my classes and I will remember him every time I use them in the future.
Joe and Hiền were one of the closest couples I have ever known and I have been thinking of Hiền and their two boys ever since I read this sad news.
very sadly
Michele
C. Michele Thompson
Professor of Southeast Asian History
thompsonc2@southernct.edu
From: Mark Sidel <mark.sidel@wisc.edu>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2022 12:45 PM
To: michele thompson <thompson.michele@sbcglobal.net>; Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; jarosz@uw.edu; vsg@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Let me add my condolences and a brief remembrance to the wonderful tributes already posted.
Like many on the list, I also met Joe and Hiền in Hanoi, and then stayed in touch with Joe on his research and wonderful dissertation on civil society organizations in Vietnam – work that, as Christoph noted, has played a major role in defining and spurring the study of civil society in Vietnam.
I knew Joe less well than Christoph, Michele, Oscar and others did, but the way in which Christoph finished his beautiful tribute particularly resonated with me from my interactions with Joe:
“Aside from being a scholar, teacher, mentor, and innovator, Joe was the definition of a mensch. Kind, unassuming and with a frequent chuckle, he lived his life simply, humbly and with mindfulness and wonder, deeply enriching the lives of those in his presence.”
That was indeed the Joe I knew.
I join with many others here on VSG in mourning the loss of this wonderful colleague and friend.
Mark Sidel
Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs
University of Wisconsin-Madison
From: Benedict Kerkvliet <ben.kerkvliet@anu.edu.au>
Sent: Friday, April 29, 2022 4:26 PM
To: Mark Sidel <mark.sidel@wisc.edu>; michele thompson <thompson.michele@sbcglobal.net>; Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>
Cc: Celia LOWE <lowe@uw.edu>; Southeast Asia Center <seac@uw.edu>; jarosz@uw.edu; vsg@uw.edu; wensel@uw.edu; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
29 April 2022
Joe's research and writings on civil society in contemporary Vietnam greatly advanced our collective understanding of political life in that nation.
I grieve with his family and colleagues.
Sincerely,
Ben
Ben Kerkvliet
Emeritus Professor
Australian National University
From: Judith A N Henchy <judithh@uw.edu>
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2022 11:27 AM
To: Christoph Giebel <giebel@uw.edu>; vsg@uw.edu
Cc: Celia Lowe <lowe@uw.edu>; SOUTHEAST ASIA CENTER <seac@uw.edu>; Michael Walstrom <mwal7@uw.edu>; Lucy A. Jarosz <jarosz@uw.edu>; Mel Wensel <wensel@uw.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Christoph,
Thank you for representing the UW Vietnam Studies community so beautifully with your words of sadness and loss at the passing of our dear friend Joe. I first met Joe at the Hawkins Road refugee camp in Singapore in the early 1980s. How wonderful then that he should decide on UW for his graduate studies, and that we should end up in overlapping PhD cohorts here. Joe was always such an unassuming, yet humorous and generous presence in class and in our wider social circles. He and Hien were stalwarts in the UW Vietnamese student, and wider local Seattle communities, helping us to navigate the sometimes-fraught ideological divides through their patient and nuanced work as cultural mediators. In this role, Joe was an early supporter of Seattle’s pioneering work to establish a Sister City relationship with Viet Nam -- as one of the first cities to do so, and in the face of considerable opposition at the time.
Latterly, Joe found his calling as a student advisor, and became a noted voice in campus discussions on issues around online teaching technologies, freedom of access and privacy. He was a person of principle, committed to serving the greater good. He will be greatly missed.
Judith
Judith Henchy, Ph.D., MLIS
Head, Southeast Asia Section
Special Assistant to the Dean of University Libraries for International Programs
Affiliate Faculty, Jackson School of International Studies
From: Dieu-Hien T Hoang <dieuhien@uw.edu>
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2022 7:29 PM
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Dear VSG friends, colleagues, all!
It has been six months since Joe passed on. Your kind words, thoughts, prayers, and friendship have contributed to comforting and sustaining me, our sons, and the family. I cannot find adequate words to express my gratitude.
Christoph's summary captures Joe's journey with Vietnam Studies beautifully. As a paperboy, Joe's fascination with Việt Nam started when, one day, he saw splashed on the front page of the San Jose Mercury News a photograph of an American helicopter atop a building in Sài-Gòn with a line of people waiting to board the plane. Soon after, Vietnamese refugee children started showing up in his high school, bewildered and ill-equipped for life as teenagers in the U.S., unlike the foreign exchange students that his family had hosted over the years. Years later, in college, Joe would meet another fresh-off-the-boat refugee young adult, equally bewildered and ill-equipped for life in the U.S. We struck up a friendship that lasted a lifetime, producing two amazing sons in the process.
We met Christoph Giebel, Shawn McHale, Nora Taylor, and Peter Zinoman during Joe's time at Cornell. Also there, we met the first few Vietnamese scholars who benefited from a nascent đổi mới and the pioneering educator exchange work of the U.S.-Vietnam Reconciliation Project lead by John McAuliff. Through John and his organization, we spent a summer in Hà Nội in 1989, an experience that opened many doors for us to work with international NGOs in Việt Nam. John organized subsequent conferences in the U.S. for American NGOs who wanted to work in Việt Nam. We met Dan Duffy and others at these conferences.
Joe's interest in Vietnamese civil society would be informed in the early days by the many lively and thoughtful discussions with Paula Kelly of Care Australia and Mark Sidel, then the regional representative of the Ford Foundation based in Bangkok. Later, there would be discussions with Lady Borton of American Friends Service Committee, Sieglinde Gassman of the U.S. Catholic Relief Services, Mary Etherton of the NGO Resource Center in Hà Nội, Frances Costick of UNICEF in Hồ Chí Minh City, and many others.
Joe's legacy lives on through the work and teaching that he had done and the people whose lives he had touched, but that legacy was built on his interactions and friendship with many on this list and more.
Thank you!
I was not able to name everyone who had had an impact on Joe's life and work. Please know that we treasure your friendship. I may not be able to respond to everyone individually. Please know that I read every kind word you sent. More than once. Your words and thoughts have helped sustain me these past six months. The continued friendship of some of you has nourished me.
With deepest gratitude and warmest wishes,
Hiền
--
As a resident of Seattle, I acknowledge and honor with gratitude the Coast Salish peoples – past, present, and future – including the Dkhw’Duw’Absh, the Duwamish Tribe, Suquamish Tribe, Coast Salish, and other tribes on whose traditional lands I live, work, and play.
From: Mark Sidel <mark.sidel@wisc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2022 7:30 AM
To: Dieu-Hien T Hoang <dieuhien@uw.edu>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Dear VSG colleagues,
I was moved to read Hien’s message to all of us marking six months since Joe’s passing.
I recently had the opportunity to re-read most of Joe’s dissertation in connection with some work I’m doing on the significant political and regulatory pressures against civil society in Vietnam these days.
I was struck once again by Joe’s depth of understanding and analysis of the situation in Vietnam at the time he wrote, and how much of his analysis continues to hold up today, fifteen years after he finished writing. Joe’s work is foundational to our understanding of civil society in Vietnam.
Joe’s dissertation, Local Non-Government Organizations in Vietnam: Development, Civil Society and State-Society Relations (University of Washington, 2007) is here: http://staff.washington.edu/jhannah/.
Best wishes…. Mark
Mark Sidel
Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Visiting Professor of Law, Cardozo Law School (2022-23)
Affiliated with ICNL | Liverpool CLPU | USALI NYU | CSIP Delhi
CUNY CNSM | sidel@wisc.edu | UW-Madison homepage
From: Dieu-Hien T Hoang <dieuhien@uw.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 27, 2022 10:48 AM
To: Mark Sidel <mark.sidel@wisc.edu>
Cc: vsg@uw.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Community announcement: Joe Hannah (1960 - 2022)
Perhaps time crawls when one grieves. Or... maybe Hiền simply can't count 😊
It's been seven months.
From: Dieu-Hien T Hoang <dieuhien@uw.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 9, 2023 1:19 AM
To: Mark Sidel <mark.sidel@wisc.edu>
Cc: VSG <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Joe Hannah scholarship fund at the University of Washington
Thank you, Mark, for reposting information about the scholarship fund here. You beat me to it. Much appreciated.
I continue to be touched and humbled by the love and support that our friends and colleagues on VSG have shown us. From Oscar Salemink sharing experiences with Joe, Christoph Giebel taking Joe to treatment, Judith Henchy, Harriet Phinney, and Christoph and Tammy bringing us food while Joe was going through his stem cell transplant, to planting trees in Joe's memory, showering us with sincere words of comfort and condolences, and even now showing your support through your donations. I cannot thank you enough.
The idea of this scholarship was presented to Joe in the days before his passing by the co-director of the Integrated Social Sciences Program, Joe's friend and former boss, Mel Wensel. It pleased Joe immensely and evoked in him a sense of pride that his legacy will carry on beyond our family. If Joe was watching us now, he would be crying tears of joy and gratitude.
Thousand thanks to all,
Hiền, for Ian and Bảo-Ân also
On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 7:52 PM Mark Sidel <mark.sidel@wisc.edu> wrote:
Dear VSG colleagues,
Many of us knew and continue to remember our friend and colleague Joe Hannah.
The University of Washington, where Joe studied and worked, has now established a scholarship fund in Joe’s memory.
Dieu Hien, Joe’s spouse, wrote about this today on Facebook:
“It is happening.
The scholarship fund in Joe's name has been established to support University of Washington students enrolled in the Integrated Social Sciences Program. As many of you know, before Joe's passing last year, he was an academic advisor for ISS, after many years teaching for the Geography Department at the UW.
Thanks to the work and support of ISS co-directors, the staff and leadership at the UW Office of Advancement, and the Hannah Family, the fund has a healthy start. You can help keep the fund running in perpetuity in Joe's name to support students in achieving their academic goals.
Please consider donating at the link below.
With gratitude,
Diệu-Hiền”
For anyone interested, the link for donations is here:
I have donated and commend this to VSG colleagues.
Best wishes…. Mark
Mark Sidel | Doyle-Bascom Professor of Law and Public Affairs, UW-Madison | sidel@wisc.edu