Nguyen Phuong Tu, PhD
College of Arts and Sciences
Assistant Professor of Social Science
Biography
Dr. Nguyen Phuong Tu joined VinUniversity as Assistant Professor (Social Science) in the College of Arts and Sciences. She received a Bachelor of International Studies (First Class Honours) at University of Adelaide in 2012, and a PhD in International, Political and Strategic Studies at Australian National University in 2017. She was a postdoctoral research fellow at Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University (2017 – 2020), a visiting research fellow at University of Adelaide (2021 – 2023), and a lecturer in Asian Studies at University of Melbourne (2024 – 2025). Tu’s research interests include labour law, industrial relations, precarious employment, social protection, and gender equality in Vietnam. Her research has received funding from University of Melbourne’s Early Career Researcher Grant, Griffith University Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme, and the International Labour Organization in Vietnam.
Her second book, Law and Precarity: Legal Consciousness and Daily Survival in Vietnam (Cambridge University Press, 2023), received Honourable Mention for Asian Law & Society Association (ALSA) Distinguished Book Award 2024. She also authored the monograph Workplace Justice: Rights and Labour Resistance in Vietnam (Palgrave, 2019).
Her articles have appeared in Law & Society Review, Law & Policy, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Pacific Affairs, Critical Asian Studies, Asian Studies Review, Asian Journal of Law & Society, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, among others. She is currently the Vietnam Country Representative of Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars (AMSEAS) and member of Board of Trustees of Asian Law and Society Association (ALSA).
In 2025, Tu launched the website Vietnam Labour Research Portal (vietnamlabourstudies.net) that serves as a supportive tool to discover labour-related scholarship in Vietnam, supporting shared knowledge and professional development for students and early career researchers.
- Labour and Development
- Political Economy
- Law and Society
- Vietnamese Studies
- Gender Studies
- Social Policy
- International Relations
- Political Economy
- Asian Studies
- Technology and Social Change
- Gender and Development
- Nguyen, T.P. (forthcoming in 2026) “Pension withdrawals and the paradox of social protection in Vietnam,” Pacific Affairs.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2025, “The right to social protection at work in Vietnam.” In K. Setiawan & A. Savirani (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Human Rights in Southeast Asia. Routledge.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2023. Law and Precarity: Legal Consciousness and Daily Survival in Vietnam, Cambridge University Press.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2022, “Addressing Gender Discrimination in Vietnam’s Light Manufacturing Industry: What Role for Labor Law”, Asian Journal of Social Science 50 (1), 44–52.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2022, “Flexible and Compassionate, or Violent and Intimidating?: Various Accounts of Law in Vietnam”, Critical Asian Studies 54 (1), 67–85.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2021, “Unfulfilled Justice: Law and Morality in the Resolution of Texwell Workers’ Protests in Vietnam”, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 16 (2), 30–59.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2020, “Coping with Precariousness: How Social Insurance Law Shapes Factory Workers’ Survival Strategies in Vietnam”, Law and Society Review 54 (3), 544–570.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2020, “Law and Precariousness in an Authoritarian State: The Case of Illegal House Construction in Vietnam”, Law and Policy 42 (2), 186–203.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2019. Workplace Justice: Rights and Labour Resistance in Vietnam, Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2019, “Legal Reform and Struggles against Precarity: The Case of State Workers’ Early Retirement in Vietnam”, Pacific Affairs 92 (4), 665–684.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2018 “Labor Law and (In)justice in Workers’ Letters in Vietnam”, Asian Journal of Law and Society 5 (1), 29–47.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2017, “Legal Consciousness and Workers’ Resistance in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam”, Asian Journal of Comparative Law 12 (2), 311–333.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2017, “Workers’ Strikes in Vietnam from a Regulatory Perspective”, Asian Studies Review 41 (2), 263–280.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2016, “Labour Unrest in Vietnam and China: Insurgency or Contained Contention?”, Journal of Contemporary Asia 46 (2), 345–358.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2014, “Rethinking State-society Relation in Vietnam: The Case of Business Associations in Ho Chi Minh City”, Asian Studies Review 38 (1), 86–107.
- Nguyen, T. P. 2014, “Business Associations and the Politics of Contained Participation in Vietnam”, Australian Journal of Political Science 39 (2), 334–349.
- 2017: Ph.D. in International, Political and Strategic Studies, Australian National University
- 2012: Bachelor in International Studies (First Class Honours), University of Adelaide
- 2024: Honourable Mention, ALSA (Asian Law and Society Association) Distinguished Book Award
- 2019: First Prize for Best Research Report, Labour Research Contest (International Labour Organization in Vietnam and Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs)
- 2014: Prize for Best Postgraduate Conference Paper Australian Political Studies Association Annual Conference, Sydney
- 2014: Runner-up in Three Minute Thesis competition, School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, Australian National University
- 2013: Prize for Best Postgraduate Conference Paper Australian Political Studies Association Annual Conference, Perth
