Gatty Lecture Series

Join us for a talk by Thuy Linh Nguyen, Associate Professor of History from Mount Saint Mary College.

This Gatty Lecture will take place at The Kahin Center, 640 Stewart Ave. Lunch will be served. For questions, contact seapgatty@cornell.edu.

Abstract
My presentation explores the environmental history of the French introduction and mass planting of exotic timber species, such as Casuarina equisetifolia—commonly known as filao—and eucalyptus, to reforest and stabilize the vast moving sand dunes covering the majority of Vietnam’s 2000-mile coast, highlighting their effects on the coastal environment and indigenous communities. This research questions the colonial stereotype that portrayed coastal sand dunes as empty and barren landscapes devoid of vegetation. In contrast, as my presentation demonstrates, the ecological multiplicity of the dunes offers a new lens for examining various topics, including traditional knowledge, local economies, resources, property, land reclamation, and colonial state power.

About the Speaker
Thuy Linh Nguyen is an Associate Professor of History at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY. Dr. Nguyen is a historian of modern Vietnam. A native of Vietnam, she received her PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently working as Associate professor of History at Mount Saint Mary College. Newburgh, NY. Her first book, Childbirth, Maternity and Medical Pluralism in French Colonial Vietnam, 1880–1945 (University of Rochester Press, 2016), examines the interactions between French colonial medicine and Vietnamese childbirth practices and their impact on maternal and infant health care. Her second book, Vietnam’s Coal Frontier: Mining, Environment and Empire (Cambridge University Press, November 2025), explores the environmental, economic, and social history of large-scale coal mining in French colonial Vietnam. She has also published peer-reviewed articles on other topics of modern Vietnamese history.