NGUYEN, Thi Hien got her Bachelor of Literature and Russian in Russia in 1987, Master in 1999 and Ph.D. in 2002 in folklore with a minor in religious studies at Indiana University, USA. Then, she worked as a postdoc fellow at American Museum of Natural History in New York (2003) and at University of California in Los Angeles, California, USA (2004). She was appointed as an associate professor in 2012. Currently, she works as a lecturer and researcher, and the Vice Director of Viet Nam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies, Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
In the field of intangible cultural heritage, she was elected as a member of the Consultative Body (2012-2014) and a member of the Evaluation Body (2017-2020) of UNESCO’s 2003 Convention.
She has served as the principle investigator of a number of projects on intangible cultural heritage in the National Target Program of Viet Nam. She has played an active role in filling five Vietnam’s files of Quan ho Bac Ninh Songs, Giong Festival of Phu Dong and Soc Son Temples, The Worship of Hung Kings in Phu Tho, Vi and Giam Folk Songs, and Viet Beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms that have been inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, 2003 Convention. She joins the Vietnamese delegation at the fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, ninth and eleventh sessions of the Intergovernmental Committee, 2003 Convention. She played a key researcher for the project “The project Capacity building in designing, implementing and evaluating the Intangible Cultural Heritage projects in Viet Nam” with the UNESCO’s International Fund for Intangible Cultural Heritage (2011-2012).
She was awarded three Certificates of Merit by the Prime Minister of Vietnam for her outstanding works in the intangible cultural heritage in Vietnam including for the Giong Festival of Phu Dong and Soc Temples) (2012), The Worship of Hung Kings (2014) and The Vi and Giam Folk Songs (2015).
Her three major books include The Religion of Four Palaces: Mediumship and Therapy in Viet Culture (The Gioi Publishing House, 2016), Spirits Without Borders: The Legacy of Vietnamese Mediumship in a Transnational Era (co-authored with Karen Fjelstad) (Palgrave Macmillan Publisher, 2011), and Possessed by the Spirits: Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities (co-edited with Dr. Karen Fjelstad) (Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 2006).