Vietnamese State Honour Awarded to Professor Susan Bayly
Professor Susan Bayly, Professor (Emerita) of Historical Anthropology, has been awarded a prestigious State Honour by the Government of Vietnam.
The 'For the Cause of Culture’ medal has been awarded in recognition of Professor Bayly's services to leading Vietnamese cultural institutions, including the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts in Hanoi. The award is one of the most highly ranked in Vietnam's system, and it is rare for a foreigner to be acknowledged in this way.
One of the contributions the award marks is Professor Bayly's role in helping to organise Vietnam’s first ever international loan of a national art treasure, the National Fine Arts Museum’s famous 20th-century lacquer painting entitled Gióng, for an exhibition in 2013 which was hosted by our Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and generously co-sponsored by our Department, together with Christ’s College and the Cambridge University Centre of South Asian Studies.
More generally the award is an acknowledgement of the use Professor Bayly has made of her anthropological skills and knowledge to foster understanding of Vietnam's wonderfully rich cultural heritage.
Professor Bayly commented, 'I am enormously pleased and grateful to have been awarded this State Honour by the Government of Vietnam. Because the covid situation still precludes travel to Vietnam, I received the award via Zoom on the 3rd of December and was sent photos of the ceremony and the medal itself to share with friends and colleagues.'
Professor Bayly has been conducting research in Vietnam for over 20 years, combining regular fieldwork visits with support for a variety of local outreach and capacity-building programmes at the country’s major museums.
Further information about her research can be viewed here.