Adrienne Minh-Chau Le

From: Adrienne Minh-Chau Le via Vsg <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 11:06 AM
To: François Guillemot <francois.guillemot@ens-lyon.fr>
Cc: vsg@u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Vsg] [VSG]: Adrienne Minh-Chau Le Dissertation Defense

Thank you everyone for your kind words. I've learned a lot from VSG over the years and am proud to join the ranks of the PhDs here. 

Shout out to GS Hằng for being the best adviser I could ask for, to Ed for serving as the RVN expert on my committee, and the many others on this list who have made Viet studies a real community for me these past 7 years. 

Though I tend to stay quiet here and rarely reply to all, I'm always happy to discuss with anyone interested in VN Buddhism and social movement history. These topics are personal to me as an ordained Buddhist, great granddaughter of BS Tâm Minh - Lê Đình Thám, and former GĐPT youth. 

If you have personal ties to - or interest in - the Buddhist movement and we haven't been in touch, please write to me to say hello.

May you all be well.

--

Adrienne Minh-Châu Lê

PhD Candidate 

Department of History | Columbia University

From: Edward G. Miller via Vsg <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2025 10:01 AM
To: Lien-Hang Nguyen <lienhangnguyen@gmail.com>; Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] [VSG]: Adrienne Minh-Chau Le Dissertation Defense

Let me add my voice to the chorus of congratulations for Adrienne.  As an external member of her dissertation committee, I was enormously impressed by her research on Buddhist activism in South Vietnam before and during the republican era.  Among her many important findings are new insights about the interactions between Vietnamese Buddhist leaders and groups and various international and transnational actors, ranging from the United Nations to peace activists.  The thesis also presents new perspectives on influential Buddhist activists such as Thích Nhất Hạnh.  Adrienne’s work on this project is a very valuable contribution to scholarship that is going to be the foundation of a very impactful book.  Congrats on this achievement, Adrienne!

Ed

Edward Miller (he/him)

Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies

Chair of the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages

Director of the Dartmouth Digital History Initiative

Dartmouth College
6107 Carson Hall, Hanover, NH 03755
Edward.Miller@Dartmouth.edu
http://history.dartmouth.edu/people/edward-miller

From: Lien-Hang Nguyen via Vsg <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2025 7:22 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] [VSG]: Adrienne Minh-Chau Le Dissertation Defense

Dear VSG:

I am happy to announce that Adrienne Minh-Chau Le successfully defended her dissertation, "The Untold Revolution: Buddhist Nation Building in Vietnam's Decolonial Century"  in the Department of History at Columbia University! 

Drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork in Vietnam and archival research in the United States, Adrienne's dissertation taps into a rich reservoir of never-before-utilized Vietnamese Buddhist periodicals, organizational documents, and oral histories with former movement participants. Alongside Vietnamese government archives, "The Untold Revolution" incorporates U.S. diplomatic records and American peace organization archives to trace the international dimensions of Buddhist activism. This diverse source base enables the writing of a social history that traces the movement’s evolution from its roots in the colonial-era religious revival starting in the 1920s, through its wartime political activism and international peace advocacy in the 1960s-1970s.

Congratulations to Adrienne (soon-to-be TS Le Minh-Chau!)

best,

Hang

--

Dr. Lien-Hang T. Nguyen,

Dorothy Borg Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia

Columbia University