Kelly Nguyen

Kelly Nguyen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), joining the faculty in 2023. Her work bridges classical studies with critical refugee studies, postcolonial theory, and critical race theory to examine histories of empires, forced displacement, and race/ethnicity in global contexts. She co-founded the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus and participates in the UCLA Mellon Data/Social Justice Curriculum Initiative.

Her educational background includes:

• B.A. in Classics and Archaeology from Stanford University (2012)
• Ph.D. in Ancient History from Brown University (2021)

Nguyen's research interrogates ethnic identity in the Roman world through postcolonial, queer of color, and critical race frameworks. Her current book manuscript analyzes how Vietnamese intellectuals from French colonialism to contemporary times have weaponized Greco-Roman traditions in liberation struggles. She decolonizes classical studies by centering Asian and Asian American perspectives on refugee experiences and social justice.

Her publications reveal a consistent methodology: applying classical reception theory to Vietnamese diaspora narratives, colonial resistance, and queer trauma. Articles span ancient Roman ethnicity, postcolonial subversion in Vietnam-France relations, and literary reinterpretations of the Vietnam War through Ocean Vuong's work—demonstrating how classical frameworks illuminate modern displacement and identity formation.

Key honors include:

• University of California Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship
• IDEAL Provostial Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University
• Inaugural membership in UCLA's Mellon Data/Social Justice Curriculum Initiative

As founding mentorship coordinator of the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus, Nguyen structures formal academic guidance networks. Her curriculum development work through the Mellon Initiative integrates social justice pedagogy with classical studies, though specific grant funding details remain unmentioned in source materials.

She co-directs the Refugee Material Culture Initiative Lab and anchors the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus—spaces dedicated to centering refugee narratives and decolonizing classical scholarship through intersectional lenses.