Hello. My name is Huy ([hʷi], or pronounced as hoo-ee with extra short vowels). Hailing from the bustling town of Saigon (Vietnam), I have made US my second home since 2016. I am a proud first-generation college student, a McNair Scholar, and a PhD student in Linguistics at University of California, Santa Barbara.
My interdisciplinary research in documentary linguistics, linguistic anthropology, and ethnomusicology pertains to the Tây ([tăj] ‘West’) people – a marginalized and understudied community of Vietnamese living in the Mekong Delta (Southern Vietnam). My past, current, and upcoming projects focus on Tây culture (i.e. the Tây variety of Vietnamese, oral literature, performing arts). I currently collaborate with the Tây community across the Tây provinces to document highly endangered, traditional performative oral literature genres of Hò, Hát Đưa Em, and Nói Thơ Vân Tiên.
My passion for Tây stems from my childhood of growing up with my grandmother – a Tây speaker originated from the Vĩnh Long province. Her Tây speech, Tây lullabies, and Tây food nourished me and have become an important part of my identity since. It is this very identity that helped me discover my passion in linguistics, cultural works, and also traditional Vietnamese instruments. I am currently learning my crafts in đờn sến and đờn kìm ('moon lute').