Heritage and Higher Learning Provide Common Ground on WEAI Faculty Trip to Vietnam

Weatherhead East Asian Institute · December 1, 2025
Heritage and Higher Learning Provide Common Ground on WEAI Faculty Trip to Vietnam

In Vietnam in the first week of November, faculty from the Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Global Vietnam Studies Program (GVSP) held a series of bridge-building events that extended and deepened Columbia University’s engagement with the fast-developing socialist republic.

Through high-profile meetings in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia Lien-Hang T. Nguyen (Director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute); Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures John Phan; Weatherhead Artist in Residence Tony Bui; and Senior Advisor for Vietnam Thomas J. Vallely strengthened existing ties and fostered new connections with four major educational and civic institutions. Taken together, the meetings affirmed education’s role as a bridge between cultures and as a symbol of national heritage.

November 3: The Temple of Literature–Quốc Tử Giám and the Vietnam National Academy of Music

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Informational panels about Columbia University and the Global Vietnam Studies Program on display outside the Temple of Literature–Quốc Tử Giám in Hanoi on Nov. 3, 2025. The Columbia exhibit will remain on view until Tet, the Lunar New Year, in February 2026.

The GVSP team’s tour began on November 3 with an “East–West Cultural and Educational Heritage” seminar at Hanoi’s Temple of Literature–Quốc Tử Giám. The oldest center of higher learning in Vietnam, the Temple of Literature–Quốc Tử Giám was founded under the Ly Dynasty in 1070. Long revered as a symbol of the country’s devotion to scholarship and moral cultivation, it functions today as both a heritage site and a center for academic and cultural exchange.

The Columbia professors and their Vietnamese counterparts reflected on how traditional educational philosophies can inform modern teaching and global citizenship. Deputy Director Le Thi Anh Mai opened by recalling the Temple’s historical role as Vietnam’s first university and a cradle of moral education based on principles of self-cultivation: a place, as Tony Bui later put it, “where the act of learning was inseparable from the act of becoming a better human being.”

Professor Nguyen noted that Columbia shares the Temple’s mission of training humane, morally grounded citizens. The university’s famed Core Curriculum, she explained, partly derives from that mission: 

“Columbia’s goal was to ground education in science, philosophy, literature, music, and art, giving students a shared intellectual foundation that would prepare them for thoughtful citizenship in a complex and interconnected world.” 

Developing this theme, Professor Phan said, “As different as we seem to be, both Columbia and this historic institution share a common vision for humanity: one in which the spirit is trained under expert guidance, to gather knowledge, and to transform the world.” Professor Phan went on to make an eloquent case for Global Vietnam Studies at Columbia, singling out its ability to combine the benefits of the Core Curriculum with “the specific strengths, values, and richness of Vietnamese culture.” (Read his complete Quốc Tử Giám address here.)   


 

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WEAI Artist in Residence Tony Bui at the Temple of Literature – Quốc Tử Giám in Hanoi on Nov. 3, 2025.



Tony Bui announced a new GVSP initiative, Vietnam Arts in Action (VAiA), which is conceived as a platform for supporting artistic exchange between Vietnam and the wider world, particularly by giving young Vietnamese filmmakers, artists, and students opportunities to collaborate with peers from Columbia and elsewhere. Bui told listeners, “The arts are not separate from education but a vital part of it.”

Looking to the future, participants also discussed Digitizing Vietnam, the joint effort between Weatherhead and the Center for Vietnamese Studies at Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) that is preserving rare and historic Vietnamese images, manuscripts, and other documents through AI tools and other sophisticated digital technology.

A final takeaway from the seminar was that in addition to the commonalities noted above, Eastern and Western models of education also complement each other through their differences: the former’s emphasis on ethics and community and the latter’s focus on creativity and critical inquiry.

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L to R: Artist in Residence Tony Bui; WEAI Director Lien-Hang T. Nguyen; National Academy of Music (VNAM) Director Dr. Le Anh Tuan; and VNAM Deputy Director Bui Cong Duy at VNAM in Hanoi on Nov. 3, 2025.



Later that day, Professor Nguyen and Artist in Residence Bui were welcomed at the Vietnam National Academy of Music by its Director, Associate Professor Dr. Le Anh Tuan, and distinguished faculty. Founded in 1956 and formerly known as the Hanoi Conservatory of Music, the National Academy is Vietnam’s premier institution for training and teaching in traditional and classical music. Its Deputy Director, Bui Cong Duy, is a professional violinist who performs internationally and was recently named one of “Vietnam’s Most Influential” by The Tatler.

Weatherhead’s meeting with Le Anh Tuan, Bui Cong Duy, and their colleagues laid the groundwork for a partnership between the National Academy and the new Vietnam Arts in Action initiative Bui had announced earlier that day at Quốc Tử Giám — demonstrating VAiA’s intention to use the arts as a bridge between Columbia and Vietnam.

November 4: The Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam

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L to R: Thomas J. Vallely; Nguyen Minh Hang, Deputy Foreign Minister of Vietnam; Lien-Hang T. Nguyen at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City on November 4, 2025.

One day later the Columbia delegation arrived in Ho Chi Minh City for a “Policy Dialogue” at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, a research and training institution. American Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper joined Professor Nguyen and Senior Representative Vallely. Representing Vietnam were Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Hang, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui The Duy, other government officials, and local businesspeople.

In her opening speech, Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hang reiterated Vietnam’s commitment to the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, signed in 2023, and to expanding the bilateral relationship that the two countries have developed since resuming diplomatic relations in 1995.

The Deputy Minister cited educational ties and professional training as two particularly promising areas for expansion. She held up Fulbright University Vietnam’s exchange program as an exemplar and expressed confidence that developing linkages with Columbia, such as GVSP’s Vietnam Leadership Program (VLP), which facilitates workshops and seminars for Vietnamese officials led by American experts and scholars, will in turn create opportunities for further cooperation.

In the ensuing presentation, the American delegates learned about Vietnam’s investment in cutting-edge science and green technology as primary drivers of its development and about the contributions it expects in this area from the private sector. Senior Advisor Thomas Vallely moderated a panel discussion centered on the challenges confronting Vietnam as it tries to reach its development goals while navigating an increasingly unstable geopolitical environment.

November 7: Fulbright University Vietnam

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President of Fulbright University Vietnam Dr. Dinh Vu Trang Ngan with Lien-Hang Thi Nguyen in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 7, 2025.

In Ho Chi Minh City on November 7, Weatherhead formalized an agreement with Fulbright University Vietnam (FUV) on a long-term collaboration that is envisioned as a sustainable bridge between Vietnamese higher education and Columbia's international research network.

FUV President Dr. Dinh Vu Trang Ngan declared at the signing, “Fulbright University Vietnam is a university built in Vietnam, for the future of Vietnam, with the goal of bringing the best education to Vietnamese students and young people around the world.” Weatherhead’s agreement with FUV will help fulfill that vision through faculty and student exchanges and expanded opportunities for joint research.

The partnership’s new phase is intended to bolster Vietnam’s policy-making capacity by building on the work already being done by GVSP’s Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP)—fostering connections between academia and the business community that will result in practical solutions to development challenges.

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L to R: Thomas Vallely, senior advisor, WEAI, Columbia University; Dr. Jonathan Pincus, Dean, Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management (FSPPM); Annabel Lee, Director of Strategic Policy Engagements and Campaigns (APJ) and ASEAN, Amazon Web Services; Hiep Huynh, General Director, ACEN Vietnam, in the panel discussion Towards a "New Era of Development": Technology, Higher Education, and the Future of Reform in Vietnam at Fulbright University Vietnam on Nov. 7, 2025.

Coverage in Vietnamese media:
thethaovanhoa.vn
Vietnam.vn
VietnamPlus.vn