Students & Courses

Students are central to the Vietnam Studies Program. The Program aims to help undergraduate, graduate, and professional students engage with Vietnam through coursework, language study, research, fieldwork, internships, public programming, and community. Whether students are beginning to explore Vietnam for the first time or deepening an existing scholarly, professional, or personal connection, the Program will serve as a hub for pathways into Vietnam-related learning at Harvard.

Interdisciplinary Pathways for Students

Students interested in Vietnam come from across Harvard’s undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. Students in the Vietnamese Language Program represent a wide range of academic interests, including pre-health pathways, neuroscience, biology, psychology, chemistry, history, government, economics, East Asian Studies, literature, and migration and diaspora studies. Some seek linguistic and cultural preparation for research, internships, or professional engagement in Vietnam, particularly in medicine, public health, and related fields, while others approach Vietnam through humanistic and social-scientific inquiry.

The Vietnam Studies Program will help students connect these interests through language study, interdisciplinary coursework, advising, research support, fieldwork, internships, and public programming. By bringing together opportunities across Harvard’s schools and departments, the Program will make it easier for students to build coherent academic and professional pathways centered on Vietnam.

Vietnamese language study

Harvard’s Vietnamese Language Program offers a four-year, proficiency-oriented curriculum from elementary through advanced levels, together with a dedicated accelerated track for heritage language learners. Grounded in task-based language teaching, the program develops students’ communicative competence through real-world tasks, authentic multimodal materials, and sustained engagement with Vietnam’s language, literature, culture, and society. The teaching team and course materials also expose students to the regional diversity of Vietnamese, including Northern, Central, and Southern varieties.

Students may work toward a Vietnamese Language Citation beginning at the intermediate level, and courses at the 130 level and above may count toward Arts and Humanities divisional distribution requirements. Beyond the classroom, the program connects language learning with cultural programming, community engagement, research, fieldwork, internships, and professional preparation in Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora.

Vietnamese language courses at Harvard

VIETNAM BA/BB
Elementary Vietnamese

Designed for non-heritage learners, this sequence builds foundational skills in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and basic communication. Interactive and task-based activities help students develop confidence in using Vietnamese in everyday situations.

VIETNAM BX/123XB
Heritage Vietnamese

A specialized, accelerated track for heritage learners. Vietnamese Bx covers essential grammar and writing skills while strengthening existing speaking and listening abilities. Students who continue into Vietnamese 120xb will cover the equivalent of Intermediate Vietnamese (Vietnamese 120A & 120B), preparing them for advanced coursework. The heritage track allows students to fast-track into Pre-Advanced Vietnamese (Vietnamese 130A & 130B) if they choose to continue.

VIETNAM 120A/120B
Intermediate Vietnamese

This sequence enhances fluency through engaging, personally relevant topics, while also introducing broader cultural and social themes. Students participate in discussions, problem-solving tasks, and opinion exchanges using authentic and multimodal materials.

VIETNAM 130A / 130B
Pre-Advanced Vietnamese

At this stage, students refine their language skills through in-depth engagement with a variety of cultural, historical, and contemporary topics, including society, history, economy, and the arts, among others. The course includes guest speakers, providing authentic interaction and deeper discussion of course materials.

VIETNAM 140A/140B
Advanced-High Vietnamese

Designed for students aiming for near-native proficiency, this level challenges them with complex materials, including news media, podcasts, feature films, and contemporary Vietnamese discourse. Modern and classical literature are available for students interested in exploring them.

Vietnam-Focused and Related Courses Across Harvard

In addition to the Vietnamese language curriculum, Harvard offers courses that examine Vietnam directly or place it within broader Southeast Asian, East Asian, comparative, and methodological contexts. The following list includes forthcoming and recently offered courses. Course offerings vary by academic year.

Courses Focused Primarily on Vietnam

EASTD 144
Vietnam in the Twentieth Century: History, Culture, and Identity
Fall 2026 | Uyen Nguyen

This lecture course introduces students to the modern history and culture of Vietnam by examining competing visions of “Vietnam” as a state, society, and cultural community across the twentieth century. Drawing on historical narratives and cultural productions, the course explores Vietnamese identity and ideas about the origins of Vietnamese society and culture; Vietnam’s relations with neighboring societies; colonialism, anticolonialism, and nationalism; war; and postwar challenges. Rather than treating Vietnam as a continuous and unified entity extending unchanged from antiquity to the present, the course examines how different understandings of Vietnam and Vietnamese identity emerged at key moments in the country’s modern history.

The course counts toward the historical survey requirement for East Asian Studies concentrators and students pursuing the East Asian Studies secondary field. With an extended final paper and advance approval from the instructor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, it may also count as a junior tutorial.

HIST 166
Modern Vietnam: A History through Its Cities
Previously offered Spring 2026

This seminar introduces students to major developments in modern Vietnamese history through five cities: Hanoi, Saigon, Huế, Đà Lạt, and Vinh. It examines how cities and their diverse populations both shaped and experienced Western and Japanese imperialism, anticolonial movements, the construction of national identities, ideological and geopolitical conflict, war, and postwar transformation. Major themes include approaches to urban history, experiences of modernity, urban classes and marginalized communities, cities during wartime, and patterns of urban change and continuity. Students develop a final project grounded in one or more of these themes.

Courses with Substantial Vietnam Content in Regional and Comparative Contexts

EASTD 145
Views from Mainland Southeast Asia: “Indochina” in a Century of Exchanges and Conflict, 1880s–1980s
Spring 2027 | Uyen Nguyen

This seminar examines the intertwined modern histories and cultures of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from the late nineteenth through the late twentieth century. It pays particular attention to “Indochina” as a colonial and postcolonial framework that connected the three societies at some moments while dividing them at others. Through scholarly works, films, literature, memoirs, and oral histories, students consider how geographical proximity, colonial rule, political ideology, cultural exchange, and conflict shaped relationships among the peoples and states of mainland Southeast Asia.

HIST 37
Modern Southeast Asia
Spring 2027 | Sugata Bose | Formerly HIST 1037

This lecture course surveys the modern histories of Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and the Philippines from 1800 to the present. Through a comparative examination of British, French, Dutch, Spanish, and U.S. imperialism, the course explores colonial rule, anticolonial movements, decolonization, nation-building, and the continuing legacies of imperialism across Southeast Asia. No previous college-level history coursework is required. The course meets the “Beyond North America” requirement for the History concentration and is open to first-year students and others seeking to fulfill a Social Sciences distribution requirement.

COMPLIT 100Y
Contemporary Southeast Asia through Literature and Film
Spring 2027 | Annette Lienau

This course explores contemporary literature and cinema from across Southeast Asia, focusing on developments from the 1997 Asian financial crisis to the present. Themes include the relationship between literature and economic or political change, class and social mobility, authoritarianism and censorship, youth culture and new media, and representations of gender and sexuality. Readings and films represent countries throughout the region, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, and Timor-Leste. Literary works are taught in English translation, and films are screened with English subtitles.

EASTD 271
Language, Script, and Power in East Asia
Spring 2027 | Si Nae Park | Graduate seminar

This comparative graduate seminar examines how language, writing systems, and linguistic and script diversity have shaped imagined communities, political authority, social reproduction, colonialism, and modernity in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Drawing on scholarship in book history, linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, colonial and postcolonial studies, and studies of modernity, the course helps students develop comparative and interdisciplinary approaches to East Asia. It is not a language or linguistics course, and all readings are in English.

Courses Featuring Vietnam in Broader Comparative Contexts

The following courses are not devoted exclusively to Vietnam, but they incorporate Vietnam as a significant historical, regional, cultural, or methodological case within broader comparative inquiries. The extent of Vietnam-specific content may vary by course and academic year.

IGA 217 / HIST 85
U.S. Foreign Policy in a Global Age
Term to be confirmed | Fredrik Logevall | Harvard Kennedy School and Department of History

This course examines world affairs from the eve of World War I to the present, with particular attention to the rise of the United States as a global power, the two world wars, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the end of the Soviet Union, and the growth of China’s international influence. Students consider how historical knowledge and methods can contribute to a deeper understanding of foreign-policy decision-making and contemporary global challenges. The course is also offered through the Department of History as HIST 85.

FYSEMR 73Q
How Wars End: The Role of Negotiation
Fall 2026 | Robert Mnookin | First-Year Seminar

This seminar examines the role of negotiation in ending armed conflicts. Moving beyond the common assumption that wars conclude through decisive military victory, the course compares conflicts including those in Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq to investigate how bargaining, changing expectations, domestic pressures, and political, economic, and social conditions contribute to negotiated settlements. Students are introduced to core concepts in negotiation and bargaining theory and participate in negotiation exercises and simulations. Enrollment requires instructor consent.

IGA 260
Asia in the World—Regional Security, Integration and Ideology
Fall 2026 | Rana Mitter | Harvard Kennedy School

This course examines the political, economic, historical, and social forces that connect Asia as well as those that may divide it. Topics include regional trade frameworks, political systems, ASEAN and other regional organizations, security challenges, climate policy, demographic change, ethnicity, gender, migration, and the historical legacies that continue to influence contemporary Asia. Vietnam appears within broader discussions of ASEAN, revolutionary communism, political development, and the changing regional order, providing students with important context for understanding Vietnam’s place in Asia.

EASTD 111
Buddhism in the Anthropocene
Spring 2027 | Paulina Kolata

This course considers what Buddhist ideas and practices can contribute to understanding and responding to contemporary ecological crises. Organized around concepts such as karma, suffering, pollution, and interdependence, the course examines climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, environmental degradation, food insecurity, and other challenges through ethnographic research from Vietnam, Japan, China, Inner Asia, Nepal, and additional regions. Vietnam serves as one of several sites through which students explore how Buddhist practitioners and communities understand and respond to environmental transformation.

SOCIOL 1107
Contemporary Ethnography
Spring 2027 | Joseph Wallerstein

This course introduces students to ethnographic research methods in sociology. Students conduct semester-long ethnographic projects while reading recent ethnographic studies and considering how researchers gather evidence, represent social worlds, and address ethical questions. Although the course is not centered on Vietnam, one of its ethnographic cases examines sex workers in Vietnam, allowing students to consider how a Vietnam-based study can illuminate broader questions about inequality, labor, gender, and ethnographic practice. Enrollment requires instructor consent, and previous coursework in social science research methods is recommended.

Recently Offered Course Featuring Vietnam as a Comparative Case

DES 3465
Agropolitan Futures
Previously offered Spring 2023 | Stephen Cairns | Harvard Graduate School of Design

This seminar examined the relationship between urbanization, agriculture, food systems, and environmental sustainability in Monsoon Asia. Drawing on scholarship in planning, ecology, technology, energy, agrarian studies, anthropology, and area studies, the course used empirical cases from Vietnam, India, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Japan, and Indonesia. Vietnam was therefore considered within a broader comparative investigation of urban-rural relationships, agricultural transformation, climate vulnerability, and the future of food-producing regions.

Course-Listing Note

Course availability, instructors, course numbers, and enrollment policies may change. Current students should consult the official my.harvard course catalog for the most up-to-date descriptions, schedules, prerequisites, and registration information. Previously offered courses are included to illustrate the range of Vietnam-related teaching and interdisciplinary expertise available across Harvard.

Student community

Students interested in Vietnamese culture and community at Harvard may also connect with the Harvard Vietnamese Association (HVA). HVA describes its mission as fostering culture, community, and awareness, and the Asia Center notes that HVA serves as a home for Vietnamese, Vietnamese American, and allied students at Harvard. HVA hosts cultural events, community-building activities, political education and advocacy programs, food-centered gatherings, mentorship opportunities, and celebrations such as Tết and Mid-Autumn events.

Student research and fieldwork

The Program aims to support students pursuing Vietnam-related research, fieldwork, theses, dissertations, internships, and experiential learning. Initial activities may include the Vietnam Student Hub in Hanoi focused on health care and health development, advising connections, research assistant opportunities, travel support, and student presentations or showcases.

The Vietnamese Language Program has also supported students preparing for professional and experiential learning in Vietnam. A Summer 2026 collaboration with the Harvard Global Health Institute, and the Program in Global Primary Health Care based at Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital provided pre-departure language and cultural orientation for students interning in Vietnam. This pilot offers a foundation for incorporating linguistic and cultural preparation into the Vietnam Student Hub in Hanoi and future field-based programs across disciplines.

Funding and opportunities

The Harvard Asia Center and the Southest Asia Initiative offer a variety of funding opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing research and language study over the summer, as well as support for student organizations on campus. For additional information, please visit this information page.

Advising and contact

Students interested in Vietnam-related study, research, language learning, fieldwork, or community engagement are encouraged to contact the Program or join the mailing list for updates on courses, events, funding, and opportunities.