Kim Hong Nguyen

Pronouns: she/they

Kim Hong Nguyen (she/they) is a scholar of Vietnamese descent appointed as Associate Professor of Communication Arts, at the University of Waterloo. Born and raised on the traditional lands of the Algonquin/Powhatan peoples, Tsenacommacah (later known as the Hampton Roads area), Nguyen was sponsored by families in Virginia Beach.

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.

Nguyen’s most recent 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.  

Nguyen's research has appeared in leading cultural studies journals including; 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, Journal of Communication Inquiry. In addition, she has edited a collection of essays on neoliberal rhetoric entitled Rhetoric in Neoliberalism.

Nguyen serves on the Executive Board for the Organization for the Study of Communication and Language of Gender (OSCLG), the Editorial Board for Peitho Journal, and the Advisory Board for Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition (CFSHRC). 

Outside of university work, Nguyen chairs the Advisory Committee on Culture 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.