Disorienting the Vietnam War: Feminist and Queer Perspectives on the 50th Anniversary

On the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, this roundtable convenes a group of Vietnamese diasporic scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to offer critical reflections on Vietnamese identity, community, culture, and politics from the perspectives of Vietnam’s various diasporas. At this juncture, what are (still) the dominant narrative scripts tied to the War? In what ways and to what effect have generations of the Vietnamese diaspora dealt with the War’s legacies, moving toward healing from a personal and community standpoint? Speakers will address these questions along with others to highlight the Vietnam War as a discursive nexus characterized by shifting meanings, contradictions, and frictions. The roundtable will feature speakers with either inward-facing reflections or outward-facing critiques. Its format of delivery will take on a weaved texture, in which one speaker with an inward-facing reflection will be paired off with a speaker with an outward-facing critique based on a common theme. Through this experimental mode of presentation, where each duo will present together, we hope to generate connections and resonances across speakers’ remarks. Some themes that will be covered in this roundtable are: the politics of nonalignment, the framework of queer dis/inheritance, transdiasporic encounters and the politics of solidarity, and intergenerational refugee healing.