Prof. Dr. Minh Nguyen

I am a social anthropologist with interdisciplinary orientation. My PhD, acquired in an interdisciplinary PhD program at the University of East Anglia, was centrally oriented towards anthropological theories and methods. This anthropological expertise was further developed during my time at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Saale) before I joined Bielefeld University’s Faculty of Sociology. My current research focuses on labour, mobility and migration, care and welfare China, Vietnam, Southeast Asia and more generally. My publications analyze the social transformations generated by the mobility of labour and changing care and welfare regimes, as well as the implications of global processes on people’s daily economic practices and local systems of meanings. The questions of how the movement of people intersects with the commodification of labour, how the labour force is cared for, and what notions of the good life motivate people in global societies have been central to this work. Increasingly I am interested in the ramifications of financialization for labour and the lives of ordinary working people. The use of ethnographic research has been central to my understanding of how people experience and act on processes of change and real-world problems in their political, social, and moral contexts. While exposing the multilayer of power relations and social inequalities, my works reveal the resilience and creativity of those at the margin of the national, regional and global economies whose actions have helped to form social, moral and economic networks that are central to the functioning of these economies.

CURRENT POSITION

W3 Professor of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

2018-2025
W2 Professor of Social Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University, Germany

2011-2017
Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Research Associate, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany
External Lecturer, Martin Luther University, Halle/Saale, Germany

2007-2011
Postgraduate Researcher, School of International Development and International Development Centre UEA, University of East Anglia

EDUCATION

2007-2011
PhD Degree on Social Research in International Development, University of East Anglia, UK

2002-2003
Master of Social Planning and Development, University of Queensland, Australia (with distinction)

1999-2001
Matriculation in BA Sociology, Vietnam National University

1994-1998
BA English Studies, Vietnam National University, Vietnam

FIELDWORK

Nam Dinh, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Thai Nguyen, Nghe An (Vietnam)

Yunnan, Zhejiang (China)

Vientiane (Laos)

GRANTS, PRIZES AND HONORARY APPOINTMENTS

Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (WIKO - Institute for Advanced Study Berlin) (2026-2027)

European Research Council Consolidator Grant (2025-2030)

German Research Foundation (DFG) Research Training Group (2024-2029)

European Research Council Starting Grant (2019-2024)

National University of Singapore's Isaac Manasseh Meyer Visiting Fellowship (2024)

Anthropology of Work Book Prize (2019)

Visiting Professorship, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University in Hanoi (since 2018)

University of East Anglia - Tuition sponsorship for PhD Studies (2007- 2011)

Brown University, International Advanced Research Institutes, Development and Inequality in the Global South Institute (2010, declined)

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP

German Anthropological Association
German Sociological Association
Vietnam Studies Group
European Association of Southeast Asian Studies
European Association of Social Anthropologists
American Anthropological Association
Association of Asian Studies

REVIEWS AND EXAMINATIONS

Journals
Anthropological Theory, American Ethnologist, American Anthropologist, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Men and Masculinities, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Climate Policy, Third World Quarterly, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Population Studies, Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, Canadian Journal of Anthropology, Development and Change; Journal of Vietnamese Studies; Pacific Affairs; Journal of Economic Anthropology, China Review, World Development Perspectives

Institutions
University of Vienna, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), Irish Research Council, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Central European University, University of Leeds, Lund University, Free University Berlin, European Research Council, Cornell University Press, Berghahn Books, Finnish Academy of Social Science, University of California at Davis, Duke-Kunshan University

EDITORIAL FUNCTIONS
Co-editor, Bielefeld Anthropological Papers on Issues of the Global World (BAPWG, Bielefeld University)
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Vietnamese Studies (UC Berkeley)
Editorial Advisory Board Member, Social Anthropology (European Association of Social Anthropologists)
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Vietnamese Cultural Studies (Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences)