Haydon Cherry

I am now a sixth year Ph.D. candidate working on a dissertation entitled Down and Out in Saigon: A Social History of the Urban Poor, 1858-1939. In the first part of my dissertation, I trace the physical and economic expansion of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, from a small settlement on the Saigon River to a thriving colonial city of nearly half a million souls. In the second part, using the techniques of micro-history, I explore how individual orphans, prostitutes, rickshaw pullers, vagabonds, and convalescents fashioned their lives in a period of rapid and sometimes bewildering change. I have carried out archival research for this project in Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Ha Noi, and Ho Chi Minh City. Benedict Kiernan, Jonathan Spence, and Hue-Tam Ho Tai make up my dissertation committee.

A Fox International Fellowship, a Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship, and various grants and awards from Yale University have all supported my research. This year I am the recipient of a dissertation completion fellowship from the Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation. I have published an article in the Journal of Vietnamese Studies on the history of archaeology in northern Vietnam, and book reviews in the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, the Journal of the Siam Society, Itinerario and elsewhere. My teaching interests include modern Southeast Asian history; Indian Ocean history; modern China; and new approaches to “history from below.”