Research Expertise and Interest

Vietnam, Vietnam War, Vietnamese literature, Southeast Asian history, communism, nationalism, colonialism

Research Description

Peter Zinoman's research focuses on modern Vietnamese history, literature and politics. He is the author of The Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 (University of California Press, 2001) and Vietnamese Colonial Republican: The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung (University of California Press, 2013).  He is the co-translator and editor of Dumb Luck: a Novel by Vu Trong Phung (University of Michigan Press, 2002).  In 2006, he founded the Journal of Vietnamese Studies at University of California Press and he has edited the journal for a dozen years. He is currently working on a book about the political activity of northern Vietnamese intellectuals during the era of de-Stalinization between 1954 and 1960.