Ms Ha Duong

My research examines how ethnic minority communities in Vietnam are represented in different types of museums—national, local, and private—and how their cultural identities are expressed, mediated, or constrained within these spaces. I focus on the interactions between communities, museums, and other stakeholders, including state authorities and cultural brokers, to understand how decisions are made about what and whose heritage is displayed. Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork across these museum types, I examine how representation is continually negotiated and how museums serve as contested spaces where identity, authority, and legitimacy are shaped, thereby emphasizing the perspectives and agency of minority communities in heritage practices.