Year in program: 1
ABD Y/N: N
Primary supervisor: Dr. Charles Keith
Major field: Asia
Minor fields: Vietnamese Studies, Urban History, Cold War
Dan Vo (Võ Linh Đan) is a Ph.D. student at Michigan State University with an academic interest in the cultural and sociopolitical history of the former state of South Vietnam, officially known as the Republic of Vietnam (1955-1975).
Their current research focuses on Vietnam’s music industry during the Vietnam War, both in North and South Vietnam. The complexity of Vietnam’s past and the place it took in both spheres of the Cold War heightened the stakes of wartime cultural productions in both states, with music becoming another frontline. They intend to analyze how each state used cultural policies to establish and consolidate its own Vietnamese identity, and how these policies, in turn, shaped each respective music scene.