Prof Thu-Huong Nguyen-vo is 2008 Recipient of the Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize in Asian American Studies

Chiyoko Doris '34 and Toshio Hoshide
Distinguished Teaching Prize in
Asian American Studies at UCLA
2008

Recipient: Professor Thu-Huong Nguyen-vo

The Chiyoko Doris '34 and the late Toshio Hoshide of Rockville, MD, have established an endowment at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center to recognize annually outstanding undergraduate and graduate teaching in Asian American Studies among the faculty of the Asian American Studies Center's Faculty Advisory Committee and the Department of Asian American Studies. Doris Hoshide was one of the founders of the Chi Alpha Delta sorority at UCLA, the oldest Asian American sorority in the nation, and taught elementary school in a concentration camp during World War II, when she and 120,000 other Japanese Americans were unjustly removed from their homes in the West Coast and incarcerated during the war. Doris and her late husband, Toshio, worked for the federal government in Washington, D.C. for many years after the war, and were active in Asian American affairs in the region. They have been strong supporters of Asian American Studies at UCLA, and have also endowed two undergraduate scholarships funds.

2008 is the third year in which the Chiyoko Doris and Toshio Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize is being awarded, and nominations from students and faculty members were sent to and evaluated by a committee composed of undergraduate and graduate students, Center staff members, and faculty. It is with great pleasure that I announce this year's recipient of the Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize: Professor Thu-Huong Nguyen-vo.

Professor Nguyen-vo received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, and the Interdepartmental Program in Southeast Asian Studies. She is also the Vice Chair and Graduate Advisor of the Department of Asian American Studies. Her research and teaching interests span a wide terrain, including Women's Studies in Vietnam, Southeast Asian Political Science and Asian American Studies. She has published and lectured widely in these areas of scholarship, and has received numerous academic awards and fellowships.

Professor Nguyen-vo has been an extraordinarily committed and popular instructor and mentor since joining the UCLA faculty in 2001, and consistently receives among the very highest instructor and course evaluations for her innovative undergraduate and graduate teaching in Asian American Studies. She serves as chair or member of a large number of undergraduate honors thesis, MA thesis, and PhD dissertation committees at UCLA and other UC campuses. She also has worked tirelessly to develop the curriculum in the undergraduate and graduate degree programs of the Department of Asian American Studies. Outside of the classroom, she has been working with Vietnamese American and Asian Pacific American student organizations to support their outreach and retention programs, such as Project Higher Opportunity Program for Education (HOPE) and South East Asian Campus Learning Education and Retention (SEACLEAR), to encourage their participation in faculty hiring, and to mentor them in their efforts to learn about and connect with their history and communities.

It is with great pleasure that the Asian American Studies Center and Department honor Professor Thu-Huong Nguyen-vo as the 2008 recipient of the Chiyoko Doris and Toshio Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize in Asian American Studies.

** The prize comes with a $1000 award.