Guilhem COUSIN-THOREZ

Guilhem Cousin-Thorez is a contract doctoral candidate in history at Aix-Marseille University, affiliated with IrAsia (UMR 7306). His research focuses on the contemporary religious and political history of Vietnam and on the modernization of Buddhism in the twentieth century. His dissertation examines the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV, in Vietnamese Giáo Hội Phật Giáo Việt Nam Thống Nhất, 1964–1975), privileging local sources and dynamics to analyze the UBCV as a project of Buddhist institutionalization and nationalist struggle in a context of civil war and state instability. He has completed six research trips in Vietnam, amounting to a total of two years of fieldwork. He is also Vice-President of the Association for the Study of Central Vietnam (Association pour l’étude du Centre Vietnam – AECV) and co-administrator of the Saigon Social Sciences Hub (SSSH) research group.

—