Isabelle Thuy Pelaud

Isabelle Thuy Pelaud is a Professor in the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University. Her scholarship pioneers Vietnamese American literary studies, examining how race, war, and gender shape identity through the lens of diasporic cultural production.

• Education: Ph.D. and B.A. from University of California at Berkeley in Ethnic Studies and Cultural Anthropology respectively.

Research Interests focus on the interplay between historical contexts and creative output, particularly in Vietnamese diaspora literature, war memory, and Southeast Asian feminist perspectives. She founded the Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN) and administers the Kieu Chinh Scholarship Endowment.

Publications include the monograph This Is All I Choose to Tell (2011) and co-edited anthology Troubling Borders (2014). Recent works explore diasporic Vietnamese writers' dialogues and the intersection of trauma, race, and gender in Southeast Asian narratives.

Scientific Awards include the 2018 Cue Seed Grant, 2004 Rockefeller Fellowship, and multiple campus grants. She also serves as Faculty Advisor for the Hmong Student Association and directs the DVAN@SFSU Initiative.