Angie Tran

Angie Ngọc Trần

I am interested in crossing boundaries, whether they be geopolitical or cultural, because it facilitates deeper understanding and actions for justice. As an activist scholar, I strive to give voice to workers by analyzing over 100 years of labor movements and resistance in Vietnam. My 2013 Ties That Bind: Cultural Identity, Class and Law in Flexible Labor Resistance in Vietnam book (Cornell University Press) uses race, class and gender analyses to demonstrate how workers mobilize and resist using their cultural identities and religions. From a labor migration perspective, I love to engage students in cross-border analyses to understand this global phenomenon with its various patterns in different geographical areas (such as Mexican migrant workers in central California, and Vietnamese migrant workers in Malaysia). I’m deeply critical of corporate power and its ability to appease consumers with their “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) promises. In an effort to inform and empower consumers and workers on this issue, I’ve published critical works that expose the facts and fancies of corporations’ practices. At CSUMB, I’m active in my own faculty union (CFA), building awareness of common concerns of workers globally. My ongoing research interests and publications include transnational labor migration patterns, networking, agency and resistance of migrants of different ethnic groups from Vietnam working in Malaysia and returning to Vietnam; critical perspective on CSR in textile / garment / footwear and agro-processing sectors in Vietnam and in comparison with those in South Africa; multi-stakeholder negotiations in contemporary Vietnamese state-labor-management relations, such as annual minimum wage increases; and implications of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) / Labor Side Agreement for the Vietnamese labor unions and workers.

Forcing change from the outside? The role of trade-labor linkages in transforming Vietnam’s labor regime, co-authored with Jennifer Bair and Marion Werner, Competition and Change, October 2017

Industry matters: Comparative study of Vietnam’s SME managers and workers on meaning and impacts of CSR in two manufacturing sectors, co-authored with Soeren Jeppesen, in Spence, L.J., Frynas, J.G., Muthuri, J. and Navare, J. A (eds), Handbook of Research on Small Business Social Responsibility: Global Perspectives, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, November 2017

Migrant Labor and State Power: Vietnamese Workers in Malaysia and Vietnam, co-authored with Vicki Crinis, Journal of Vietnamese Studies, May 2018

Angie Tran, "The TPP/Labor Side Agreement and Vietnamese Workers, in The International Labor & Employment Law Committee Newsletter," American Bar Association, Section of Labor and Employment Law, August 2016, https://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/groups/labor_law/int_newsletter/2016/aug2016/vietnam.html

Angie Tran, "Weaving life across borders: Cham Muslims in Vietnam and Malaysia," in International Migration in Southeast Asia: The Road Less Travelled, edited by Lian Kwen Fee, Mizanur Rahman and Yabit Alas, Springer, 2016

Angie Tran, Critical Perspective on Multi-stakeholder Framework in Contemporary Vietnamese State-Labor-Management Relations, in Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Vietnam, edited by Jonathan London, et al., forthcoming in 2017

Angie Tran and Søren Jeppesen, “SMEs in their Own Right: The Views of Managers and Workers in Vietnamese Textiles, Garment, and Footwear Companies,” Journal of Business Ethics, 2015

Angie Tran, Ties That Bind: Cultural Identity, Class and Law in Flexible Labor Resistance in Vietnam, Southeast Asia Program (SEAP), Cornell University Press, 2013

The interview on Ties that Bind: http://newbooksnetwork.com/tran-ngoc-angie-ties-that-bind-cultural-identity-class-and-law-in-vietnams-labor-resistance-cornell-up-2013/

Angie Tran, "Small Victory, Systemic Problems: The Strike of over 90,000 Vietnamese Workers for Social Insurance Justice," New Mandala, Australian National University, April 30, 2015, http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/04/30/small-victory-systemic-problems/

Globalization, industrialization, and labor markets in Vietnam, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 2014

Corporate Social Responsibility and Competitiveness for SMEs in Developing Countries: South Africa and Vietnam (Focales no 16), with Jeppesen, S. and Kothuis, B., Paris, France: Groupe Agence Française de Développement (AFD), November 2012

"Vietnamese Textile and Garment Industry in the Global Supply Chain: State Strategies and Workers' Responses," International Journal of Institutions and Economies, Volume 4, Number 3, October 2012

Angie Ngoc Tran: Interview in the New Mandala (Australian National University) on Vietnamese worker riots in May 2014

“Vietnamese Workers On Strike: An Interview With Angie Ngoc Tran,” 23 June 2014, in Made In China Newsletter, Third Edition

The Vietnam Case: Workers Versus the Global Supply Chain. Harvard International Review. 33.2 (Summer 2011): p. 60

"Vietnamese Labor-Management Relations: Restructuring and Coping with the Global Economic Crisis." Fall 2009. Stanford: Spice Digest, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies