Kim Hong Nguyen

Kim Hong Nguyen (she/they) is a scholar of Vietnamese descent appointed as Associate Professor of Communication Arts, cross-appointed with Gender & Social Justice. 

Nguyen’s research examines controversies over the political correctness or civility of a word, a trope, an expression, an analogy, or a cultural practice. It aims to explore how the capacity of marginalized peoples to act or speak effectively is not wholly dependent upon their articulate use of eloquent language, sound argument, or stirring performance, but rather is conditioned by governing systems of power.

In 2025, Nguyen was awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grant for Resisting Chemical Futures in the Waterloo Region: A Curatorial Project. With Dr. Rohini Patel, the grant will develop a museum exhibit at the City of Waterloo Museum about water and environmental activism in the Waterloo Region during the Elmira Water Crisis: a pivotal moment in regional history where issues of chemical warfare manufacturing, natural resources, settler colonialism, disability, and local economic development coincide. Set to open in 2027, the goal of the exhibit will be to commemorate community efforts at anti-war/anticolonial, health, and environmental justice. 

Nguyen’s book with University of Illinois Press’ Feminist Media Studies book series, Mean Girl Feminism: How White Feminists Gaslight, Gatekeep, and Girlboss, considers terms, such as ‘Bitch’ ‘feminism’ ‘power couple’ ‘postfeminism’, from a postcolonial and intersectional lens. This book won the Choice Outstanding Academic Title (2024) and Outstanding Book Award by Organization for the Study of Communication Language and Gender (2024) and has been reviewed in venues including: Journal of Popular Culture, Rhetoric Review, Ms. Magazine, and Jezebel.

Nguyen's research has appeared in leading cultural studies journals including: Communication Culture and Critique, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Cultural Politics, Howard Journal of Communication, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, POROI: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Rhetorical Analysis and Invention, and Journal of Communication Inquiry. In addition, Nguyen has edited a collection of essays on neoliberal rhetoric entitled Rhetoric in Neoliberalism.

Nguyen serves on the Board for the Organization for the Study of Communication Language and Gender (OSCLG), the Editorial Board for Peitho Journal, as at-large representative of the Executive Board for Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC), and the Association Name Task Force for the National Women’s Studies Association.

Outside of university work, Nguyen is actively involved in supporting our communities. Nguyen is vice-chair of the Creative Sector Advisory Committee for the City of Waterloo. Growing up in a refugee family that fostered several refugee children, Nguyen also serves on the Board of Directors for the Family and Children’s Services of the Waterloo Region.