Rachel Anne Tough

Rachel Anne Tough is a Research Associate in the School of Global Development at the University of East Anglia. She recently completed her PhD in April 2025 with a thesis titled 'Vietnam's War on COVID-19: an Ethnography of Pandemic in Ho Chi Minh City.' Her research focuses on ethnographic studies of Vietnam, particularly examining state-society relations during the pandemic. She is currently leading two major collaborative public anthropology projects funded by the British Museum and the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council documenting endangered cultural heritage in Vietnam.

Her research interests span Vietnam, ethnography, political anthropology, South East Asia, urban studies, memory, development studies, and heritage. Dr. Tough has presented her work at numerous international conferences including the American Anthropological Association, Association of Asian Studies, and World Anthropological Union Congress. She has been invited to speak at prestigious institutions including Yale University, Fulbright University Vietnam, and Ton Duc Thang University.

Dr. Tough's publications primarily focus on the intersection of pandemic experiences, cultural heritage, and urban life in Vietnam. Her work demonstrates a consistent engagement with methodological innovation in ethnographic research, particularly in crisis contexts. She has published in journals such as City & Society and Journal of Vietnamese Studies, contributing to scholarly discussions on liminality, pandemic governance, and cultural memory.

• American Anthropological Association Photo Contest (2023)
• Cumberland Lodge Fellowship (2019)
• Leverhulme Trust Study Abroad Studentship (2020)
• Postcolonial Studies Association General Research Fund Award (2021)
• Postcolonial Studies Association General Research Fund Award (2024)

Dr. Tough has supervised four postgraduate dissertations to completion at UEA and taught multiple modules including 'Issues in Cities and Development' at SOAS and 'Introduction to Anthropology' at UEA. She is an active member of professional organizations including the Vietnam Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies (executive committee member 2021-2024), Association of South East Asian Studies UK, and the American Anthropological Association. In 2024, she was appointed to the UK Young Academy for a five-year term, recognizing her achievements in research career to date.