Our people

Dr Anh Nguyen Austen

Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences

Areas of expertise: refugee history; migration; education; modern slavery; digital life histories

Email: Anh.Nguyen@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Melbourne Campus

I have a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from Bryn Mawr College, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, and PhD in History from the University of Melbourne. Prior to joining ACU as Associate Research Fellow in January 2020, I worked with native title land rights in Victoria, legal aid in Boston, and HIV/AIDS research in Nigeria.

My research work includes teaching workshops using game design, digital and live storytelling, and oral histories for non-profit capacity building and community-based histories about vulnerable populations and environments including bushfire rural communities, refugees, asylum seekers, and stateless populations. I work with schools and non-profits to co-create community-based, high impact, interdisciplinary projects for local and public history engagement. I volunteer as a founding member of VietSpeak, a community-based language advocacy group in Inner West Melbourne, and cook for Free to Feed, a social enterprise that supports refugees and asylum seekers in Australia.

Curriculum Vitae 

Select publications

• Damousi, J., Nelli, F., Nguyen Austen, A., Toffoli, A., & Tomsic, M. (2022). Forced Migration, Oceanic Humanitarianism, and the Paradox of Danger and Saviour of a Vietnamese Refugee Boat Journey. The Historical Journal,65(2), 505-526. DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X21000595.

• Nguyen, Anh. ‘Photo Essay: “Vietnamese Here Contemporary Art and Reflections” Art Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia, May 2017,’ in Migration, Mobilities, and Displacement: Multimedia, Mobility and the Digital Southeast Asian Family’s Polymedia Experiences, Vol 4 No 1 (Spring 2019), DOI: https://doi.org/10.18357/mmd41201918976.

Public engagement

• “Refugees, Museums and the Digital Diaspora,” Melbourne Museum Public Lectures, live stream, 18 June 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItKr1KwG53o.
• “Celebrate International Migrants Day,” Melbourne Immigration Museum, December 18, 2019.” https://twitter.com/immigration_mv/status/1207126093074964480.
• ‘Applied Game Design & Migration History,’ workshop for Masters of Primary and Secondary Education at School of Education and School of Computing and Information Systems, University of Melbourne, August, 2018.
• “Reunion,” short film animation about Vietnamese refugees in diaspora reconnecting with each other on Facebook. Collaborative project with School of Historical and Philosophical Studies and Victorian College of the Arts faculty of animation, film, fine arts and music, University of Melbourne. https://vimeopro.com/user24819781/shaps-pilot-project/video/306949296, February, 2018.