“Truong Xuan, Eternal Spring”

A guest essay by Kevin D. Pham, a political theorist at Gettysburg College.

We’re honored to share this guest essay from Kevin D. Pham, a political theorist at Gettysburg College. We first met Kevin in Paris four years ago, when he was a graduate student at UC Riverside. We were taken by his magnetic warmth, humility, and broad sense of human experience. Kevin told us about some of the stories that inhabit this piece, such as his brother, a tattoo artist in California, and his parents, refugees from Vietnam. We were thrilled when Kevin agreed to write about his life story for us.

Besides teaching, Kevin co-hosts a podcast with Yen Vu called Nam Phong Dialogues, where they talk about Vietnamese history, politics and social change, as well as Vietnamese American experiences. Perhaps our favorite episode reviews four Vietnamese American books that impacted them.