Classics

Kelly Nguyen graduated with honors and highest distinction from Stanford University in 2012 with a B.A. in Classics and Archaeology and she is the first woman to graduate from the Ancient History program in the Department of Classics at Brown University. Her interdisciplinary research engages classical studies in a comparative manner to explore imperialism, forced displacement and race and ethnicity. Her dissertation is the first major study to examine the history of Greco-Roman classical reception within Vietnamese contexts.

This past academic year, she was a graduate fellow at the Cogut Institute for the Humanities. In 2020, she became the inaugural recipient of the Society for Classical Studies’ Erich S. Gruen Prize for best graduate paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean, as well as the 2020-2021 winner of the Women’s Classical Caucus’ Pre-Doctoral Award for best graduate paper presented at a major conference. She is a Co-Founder and Mentorship Coordinator of the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus, a professional organization that received the 2020-2021 Professional Equity Award by the Women’s Classical Caucus.

In the summer of 2021, she will join the Department of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley as a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow. In the fall of 2021, she will join the Department of Classics at Stanford University as an inaugural Provostial Fellow for Studies in Race and Ethnicity.

Achievements

• Cogut Institute for the Humanities Graduate Fellowship, Brown University (2020) Pre-doctoral Award (best paper at a major conference), Women’s Classical Caucus (2020)
• Paper: “Ocean Vuong’s Reception of Telemachus and Odysseus” 
• The Erich S. Gruen Prize (best graduate paper on multiculturalism in the ancient Mediterranean), Society for Classical Studies (2020)
• Paper: “What’s in a Natio: Negotiating Ethnic Identity in the Roman World” 
• Professional Equity Award, Women’s Classical Caucus (2021)
• Awarded to the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus (served as co-founder and mentorship coordinator 2019-present)
• Deans’ Faculty Fellowship 2021-2022, Brown University (declined) (2021)
• University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-2022), University of California - Berkeley (2021)
• IDEAL Provostial Fellowship for Studies in Race and Ethnicity (2021-2024), Stanford University (2021)

Other Activities

• Chair of the Board of Directors, Center for Southeast Asians (nonprofit in Providence, RI) (2017-present)
• Cofounder & Mentorship Coordinator of the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus (2019-present)