As Vanderbilt students Katie Wong (junior), Ren Adajar (junior) and Christin Ann Sanchez (senior) coasted through the bustle of Ho Chi Minh City on the backs of motorbikes, holding tightly onto their peer tour guides this past May, it was hard to believe that 24 hours earlier they were on campus saying goodbye to friends, professors and Nashville for the summer. The three students knew their itinerary and whom they would meet with, and thanks to their professor鈥檚 advising, they understood the learning objectives on gender equity and human rights, but they did not know how much of an impact the following few weeks would have on their lives.听
鈥淎ny preconceived notion of what we thought this was going to be was not correct,鈥�
Adajar said. 鈥淚t was so much more.鈥�听
Wong, Adajar and Sanchez received the inaugural Millby Fellowship to participate in an ambitious two-week immersion experience in Vietnam that was led by Ben Tran, associate professor of Asian studies and English. Funded by The Millby Foundation and a Provost鈥檚 Faculty Immersion Grant, the trip allowed the students to see firsthand how gender inequities function in Vietnam鈥檚 garment industry by learning about histories of the region and listening to the experiences of Southeast Asian women working in domestic, agricultural and fashion-textile sectors.听
鈥淭he trip鈥檚 purpose was quite simple: to see what all goes into the production of a T-shirt,鈥� Tran said. 鈥淏ut what we experienced were the manifestations of history, the aftermath of war and violence, the unequal divisions of labor and gender, and just conversations and perspectives of people making our everyday things.鈥�听
A whirlwind itinerary听
Tran and his students started in Ho Chi Minh City, where they visited fabric markets, toured monuments and important war sites, and met with journalists, activists, students and poets working on issues of gender, climate change, human trafficking and LGBTQ rights. They also visited the Ho Chi Minh City War Remnants Museum to study the stories of women throughout former-Saigon鈥檚 history and provide historical context for the rest of their conversations in Vietnam. 鈥淚 learned how, across time, Vietnamese women have continuously redefined what it means to be a woman, whether through resistance in wartime, labor in traditionally male-dominated spaces or simply by choosing to speak out,鈥� Wong said of her visit to the museum.听
The group then traveled to the Mekong Delta, a lowland region in southwestern Vietnam. Tran, Wong, Adajar and Sanchez stayed with a local family to learn about the region鈥檚 ecology, lifestyles and farming practices. 鈥淲e talked a lot about climate change and how that was affecting the Mekong Delta,鈥� Sanchez said. 鈥淲hen we talked to the locals in the Mekong specifically about how they viewed it, they just had such a mental fortitude in the face of it all. And also so many different creative ways that they were trying to shift their lifestyles and their agricultural techniques to be strong in the face of climate change.鈥�听
After leaving the Delta, Professor Tran and his students flew north to Hanoi. They went on a tour of the city that examined feminist perspectives of life and labor in Vietnam, visited a support center for women and girls recovering from human trafficking, and met with artists, fashion designers and professionals working to support low-income manufacturing workers in Vietnam. Wong, Adajar and Sanchez explored the capital city, immersing themselves in the vibrancy of Hanoi and learning about their own increasing capacities to be engaged in global affairs and impacts on people鈥檚 daily lives.听
The final portion of their trip brought them to the northern province of Cao B岷眓g where they participated in a three-day textile workshop. Through a collaboration with Kilomet109, a Vietnamese clothing brand that prioritizes local, sustainable production, and an indigenous Nung An textile community, Tran and his students engaged in the participant observation research method as they observed the process of cloth production from the fields to the loom. They listened to women in the Nung An community tell their stories and got a glimpse of the broader forces that impact their lives and their perseverance through them all. 鈥淭hese women were dealing with a severe drought that threatened the year鈥檚 entire indigo crop,鈥� Tran said. 鈥淎s our conversations went deeper, we learned about the extreme violence they and their loved ones suffered, decades ago, during the Third Indochina War, when Vietnam was at war with Cambodia and China. They told us about the challenges and histories that they face. We could see the strength and skills of their hands鈥攈ands that tended livestock and acres of crops, that wove and dyed fabrics. We could feel the care and laughter that they had for and with each other.鈥�听
Insights and reflections听
From touring shoe factories to producing cotton thread by hand, Wong, Adajar and Sanchez saw fast and slow fashion at work during their time in Vietnam. They talked to those invested in all levels of garment production to understand how global politics, climate change and societal gender norms influence this industry.听听
For Sanchez, one of the biggest takeaways from the trip was how product consumption in the United States is so abstracted from production processes. 鈥淲e got to see the whole production process of shoes, from the rubber to talking to people in corporate philanthropy, thinking about the time and effort that gets put into everything that I don鈥檛 have to think about.鈥� As she nears graduation and beginning a job in technology and finance, Sanchez has been thinking about how she can incorporate this insight into her future career. 鈥淚鈥檇 like to find a way to delve more into people鈥檚 stories and find a way to amplify them.鈥�听
This immersive experience also clarified Adajar鈥檚 interest in becoming an educator. 鈥淚t made me realize that there are a lot of ways to be engaged with education and a lot of ways to be engaged with academia but still work with that advocacy part of things to make an overall change on the community.鈥�听
And for Wong, the experience helped her feel closer to her Southeast Asian identity and Asian American studies major. 鈥淕oing on the trip, there were so many people, so many different paths,鈥� Wong said. 鈥淵ou realize, yes, I can be a STEM person, but I can also have this really good connection to Asian American studies. 鈥� It helped me realize that I do have other options.鈥�听
Lasting memories听
With countless meetings, tours, meals and travel days squeezed into two weeks, the trip flew by. But looking back on their time in Vietnam, the students discussed the many valuable lessons of this immersion experience.听听
鈥淓ven though the trip was very fast paced鈥攚e were doing things every day鈥攊t definitely was a lesson in how to slow down, taking into account everything that builds the world around me as well as being grateful for all of that,鈥� Sanchez said.听
When asked about standout memories from the trip, food featured prominently for Tran and his students, but not just because they enjoyed the fresh seafood or the rich matcha lattes. 鈥淥ne of the things that I loved so much about this trip was not just the conversations and the food, but that a lot of these conversations took place over food,鈥� said Adajar, recalling various meetings with academics, artists or activists and the foods that accompanied them. 鈥淚 found so much joy in those moments.鈥� Breaking bread together over local cuisine served as a key locus for initiating deep, intellectual conversations about complex topics with a vast array of scholars and creatives. The students hope to keep that tradition alive when having meals with their friends back on campus.听
