Chung Thi Nguyen, Auckland University of Technology

Chung’s Research Topic: Exploring women’s vulnerability to disasters through the lens of intersectionality – A case study of women from an ethnic minority in Vietnam

“My research aims at investigating the vulnerability of women in an ethnic minority (WEM) in Vietnam. For this purpose, it is necessary to understand the local contexts and build up a rapport with the local community. I thus spent four months living in my studied ethnic minority community. I stayed in a local resident’s house. Living inside the studied community allowed me to gain insightful knowledge of the local cultures and observe the everyday life activities of local people, particularly the WEM group, and understand better the daily barriers that WEM faces for their disaster risk reduction. I also had chances to participate in WEM livelihood activities. This accordingly helped me to capture the link between livelihood and disaster risk reduction. I enjoyed informal conversations with the local people as well as the WEM. This enabled me to comprehend the lived experience of WEM in times of disasters as well as everyday life crises.”

Chung Thi Nguyen, PhD Candidate, Health and Environmental Sciences
April, 2021