Professor Bonura updates us on his visit to Vietnam:I'm standing with Prof. Luu Mihn Van, who is the Vice-Chair of the Department of Political Science at Vietnam National University. The department is only 5 years old, and is situated in an academic context in which courses in Marxist and Leninist Philosophy and Scientific Socialism are required for all students. The establishment of the department actually reflects a lot about the incredible changes currently taking place in the Vietnamese academy as well as serving as an indicator of open efforts at political reform here.
The department is modeled on American political science departments and includes clases in political economy, international relations, political theory, and Ho Chi Minh studies (perhaps the local equivalent of American politics!). Vietnam is going to promulgate a new constitution in the next two years, which judicial reform being the primary concern, and the department will be actively involved in helping draft the new constitution. (Can you tell that I have just spent two full weeks interviewing political scientists?)
On a side note, I met scholar who recently spoke at a conference here on these changes who said during his speech that Vietnam has a "constitution but no constitutionalism." It seems that statements like that at party organized conferences is evidence of a remarkable level of debate regarding Vietnam's future. He actually studies the US constitution and was quick to mention that the opening sentence of the first Vietnamese constitution was based on the opening of the US constitution. His comments above, though, should be of interest to anyone who studied American or comparative politics.
This was taken in a random bookshop, publishing and translations of international texts has taken off in Vietnam and topics on just about any topic, including books on the great communicator. Specifically, in terms of something that I know a little bit about here, it was very easy for me to find a book on Tran Duc Thao in Vietnamese, he is a famous phenomenologist who was widely published in France in the late 40s, he returned to Vietnam to participate in the revolution, and was part of a group of intellectuals who fought for a democratic revolution. In 1956, however, he was forced to undergo a public "self-criticism," the consequence of a purge of critical intellectuals and journalists. He was not allowed to return to public life until the middle of the 1980s. The book called the "itinerant philosopher" is a collection of his 1956 essays, and could be found in a number of the bookstores outside of VNU.
This is a picture of me and
Quy Thanh just after my presentation on methods of studying religious politics given to the Department of Sociology at VNU.
The room that I gave the talk in, which a bust of "Uncle Ho" always "keeping watch" or perhaps "listening intently" depending on your point of view.
A resturant where I met some of the political scientists who have been so generous in giving me a lot of their time, but the restaurant is only of interest given the subject of the next picture.
What was for dinner, but luckily I am a vegetarian.
Alligator: it's what's for dinner --Prof. O'NeilTags:
