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James Huynh, Yvonne Y. Kwan, Danny Thien Le, & Thu Quach
James Huynh, Yvonne Y. Kwan, Danny Thien Le, & Thu Quach converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen.
ABOUT THE GUESTS
JAMES HUỳNH grew up in desert-turned-suburbia Fontana, CA and is the son of Vietnamese refugees who come from the city of Huế, Việt Nam. James is a PhD student in Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He is also a Health Policy Research Scholar, a fellowship funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His scholarly and activist commitments are to issues of health equity, racial capitalism, queer Asian/American community well-being, the social and political construction of family and kinship, and grassroots organizing. Prior to graduate school, James was a Fulbright Fellow in Việt Nam. Outside of academia, James is Chair of the Board of Directors of Viet Rainbow of Orange County (VROC), a grassroots organization that builds community and mobilizes intergenerationally primarily with LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and their loved ones through research, education, and advocacy. James earned his MA in Asian American Studies and MPH in Community Health Sciences from UCLA and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.
DANNY THIEN LE is a Vietnamese American poet, community engager, and public librarian from San Jose, California. For the last 20 years his work has centered around AAPI causes, nonprofits, fashion, design, event organizing, and the creative arts. He has worked with numerous organizations in the Bay Area and beyond – most notably with Cukui, Universal Grammar, POW! WOW! San Jose, the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), and the APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit. Danny has used poetry and writing as a vehicle to build upon his own redefining Southeast Asian identity and to help others reclaim their own personal narratives through the art of storytelling. When he is not busy producing events, starting new collaborations, or working the reference desk at the Santa Clara City Library, he enjoys dancing, traveling, good food, eclectic music, and collecting rare books and recordings.
DR. YVONNE Y. KWAN is an assistant professor of Asian American Studies and the previous Director of the Ethnic Studies Collaborative at San Jose State University. Dr. Kwan led efforts in the implementation of the California State University Ethnic Studies Graduation Requirement. She currently leads the CSU-wide Asian American Studies Caucus and serves as a representative on the statewide-CSU Council on Ethnic Studies. In 2021, Dr. Kwan was also the lead organizer of the Southeast Asian American Studies Conference. Her research explores how social trauma may not be verbalized or articulated, but yet children of survivors can still develop the capacity to both identify with and experience the pain of previous generations. She also collaborates with the local San Jose community to document oral histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander elders and contemporaries from Santa Clara County.
DR. THU QUACH, Ph.D has been working in public health and health care for nearly 25 years. Her research, service, and advocacy work have been grounded in her own lived experience as a refugee from Vietnam, and the struggles her family faced in the healthcare system. Trained as an epidemiologist, she has conducted community-based research, focusing on Asian Americans and immigrant populations, including examining occupational exposures and health impacts among Vietnamese nail salon workers. This work was inspired by her own mother, who passed from cancer at the age of 58, after working as a cosmetologist for decades.
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By Diasporic Vietnamese Artists NetworkJames Huynh, Yvonne Y. Kwan, Danny Thien Le, & Thu Quach converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen.
ABOUT THE GUESTS
JAMES HUỳNH grew up in desert-turned-suburbia Fontana, CA and is the son of Vietnamese refugees who come from the city of Huế, Việt Nam. James is a PhD student in Community Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He is also a Health Policy Research Scholar, a fellowship funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His scholarly and activist commitments are to issues of health equity, racial capitalism, queer Asian/American community well-being, the social and political construction of family and kinship, and grassroots organizing. Prior to graduate school, James was a Fulbright Fellow in Việt Nam. Outside of academia, James is Chair of the Board of Directors of Viet Rainbow of Orange County (VROC), a grassroots organization that builds community and mobilizes intergenerationally primarily with LGBTQ+ Vietnamese Americans and their loved ones through research, education, and advocacy. James earned his MA in Asian American Studies and MPH in Community Health Sciences from UCLA and a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.
DANNY THIEN LE is a Vietnamese American poet, community engager, and public librarian from San Jose, California. For the last 20 years his work has centered around AAPI causes, nonprofits, fashion, design, event organizing, and the creative arts. He has worked with numerous organizations in the Bay Area and beyond – most notably with Cukui, Universal Grammar, POW! WOW! San Jose, the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), and the APIA Spoken Word & Poetry Summit. Danny has used poetry and writing as a vehicle to build upon his own redefining Southeast Asian identity and to help others reclaim their own personal narratives through the art of storytelling. When he is not busy producing events, starting new collaborations, or working the reference desk at the Santa Clara City Library, he enjoys dancing, traveling, good food, eclectic music, and collecting rare books and recordings.
DR. YVONNE Y. KWAN is an assistant professor of Asian American Studies and the previous Director of the Ethnic Studies Collaborative at San Jose State University. Dr. Kwan led efforts in the implementation of the California State University Ethnic Studies Graduation Requirement. She currently leads the CSU-wide Asian American Studies Caucus and serves as a representative on the statewide-CSU Council on Ethnic Studies. In 2021, Dr. Kwan was also the lead organizer of the Southeast Asian American Studies Conference. Her research explores how social trauma may not be verbalized or articulated, but yet children of survivors can still develop the capacity to both identify with and experience the pain of previous generations. She also collaborates with the local San Jose community to document oral histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander elders and contemporaries from Santa Clara County.
DR. THU QUACH, Ph.D has been working in public health and health care for nearly 25 years. Her research, service, and advocacy work have been grounded in her own lived experience as a refugee from Vietnam, and the struggles her family faced in the healthcare system. Trained as an epidemiologist, she has conducted community-based research, focusing on Asian Americans and immigrant populations, including examining occupational exposures and health impacts among Vietnamese nail salon workers. This work was inspired by her own mother, who passed from cancer at the age of 58, after working as a cosmetologist for decades.