Mimi Thi Nguyen (née Thanh-Huong Thi Nguyen; born in 1974) is a Vietnamese-born American scholar,

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and

zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

author.

Biography

Born in 1974 in Saigon (now called

Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

) to Hiep and Lien Nguyen, Nguyen earned a bachelor's degree in

Women's Studies Women's studies is an academic field that draws on Feminism, feminist and interdisciplinary methods to place women's lives and experiences at the center of study, while examining Social constructionism, social and cultural constructs of gender; ...

and a doctorate in

Ethnic Studies Ethnic studies, in the United States, is the interdisciplinary study of difference—chiefly race, ethnicity, and nation, but also sexuality, gender, and other such markings—and power, as expressed by the state, by civil society, and by indivi ...

from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Her master's degree was in

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, History of the United States, history, Society of the United States, society, and Culture of the Unit ...

from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. She grew up in Minnesota and relocated to San Diego, California, where she was drawn to the D.I.Y. punk scene. Appointed in Gender and Women's Studies and Asian American Studies, Nguyen earned tenure in 2012 at the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

. She received the Outstanding Book Award in Cultural Studies from the Association of Asian American Studies, 2014 for her first single-author monograph, ''The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt and Other Refugee Passages.'' Nguyen is possibly best known for her compilation zine ''Evolution of a Race Riot'' first published in 1997 with a second issue in 2002, in which she and contributors of color challenged racism in the punk scene. She also publishes the zine ''Slander'' and is a former

Punk Planet ''Punk Planet'' was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering m ...

columnist and

Maximumrocknroll ''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly online zine of punk subculture and radio show of punk music. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and ...

contributor. In June 2013, Sarah McCarry's Guillotine ("a series of erratically published chapbooks focused on revolutionary non-fiction") released PUNK, a conversation between Nguyen and Golnar Nikpour, which later informed a 2016 exhibition at the Arnolfini called "Moving Targets." Nguyen also cofounded a fashion blog with Minh-Ha T. Pham that discusses the politics, history, and aesthetics of beauty and fashion.

Riot Grrrl

Nguyen lists the

Riot Grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington, and the greater Pacific Northwest, and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. A subcultural movement ...

movement as one that is important and yet problematic. In her essay "Riot Grrrl, Race, and Revival", Nguyen discusses the work which the Riot Grrrl movement has done in calling attention to how a woman's personal experiences with sexual abuse,

heteronormativity Heteronormativity is the definition of heterosexuality as the normative human sexuality. It assumes the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that sexual and marital relations are most fitting between peo ...

, and intimacy with other women are tied up with the political and social. Collectivity among women being one of Riot Grrrl's goals, Nguyen addresses race as an obstacle to that collectivity, highlighting the marginalization of women of color.

Evolution of a Race Riot zine

Nguyen created ''Evolution of a Race Riot'' as a compilation zine based in North America. Nguyen originally put out the first flier for zine submissions in August 1995 and the first issue was published in 1997. The entire zine is written by people of color mostly in the punk and

scene. According to Nguyen in her introduction to the first issue of the zine, most of the submissions are written by mixed race or Asian-American people of color.

Selected works

Books

*''Alien Encounters: Popular Culture in Asian America'', edited with Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu *''The Gift of Freedom: War, Debt, and Other Refugee Passages'' *''The Promise Of Beauty''

Zines

*''Aim Your Dick'' *''Evolution of a Race Riot'', editor *''Guillotine Series #4: Punk'', written with Golnar Nikpour *''Pander Mafia'', editor *''Race Riot'', editor *''Race Riot Project Directory'', editor *''Slander'' *''Slant'' *''Sometimes Buddhist Keanu: A Coloring Book''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Mimi Thi 1974 births Living people People from Ho Chi Minh City University of California, Berkeley alumni New York University alumni University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty