About Me

Welcome! I am an Assistant Professor in the department of political science at Gettysburg College.

I grew up in San Jose, California. After high school, I went to the University of California, Irvine where I studied biology and art before majoring in political science. It was during a short-term study-abroad program to study conflict in the Middle East that I decided to pursue a career as a professor of political theory. After graduating, I lived in Vietnam for a year, teaching English as a means to learn about the country my parents left as refugees. Through a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, I did a M.Sc. in conflict resolution at the University of Amsterdam. I went to UC Riverside for my Ph.D. in political science. A Graduate Research Mentorship Fellowship let me spend a year in Paris to do archival research for my dissertation on Vietnamese political thought.

Traveling throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Europe and between Vietnamese and American cultural contexts within the US, I became interested in viewing cultural particulars with an eye towards the universal. Thus, as a scholar, I explore the history of political thought and theories of identity, freedom, and democracy from a global perspective and through cross-cultural analysis that complicates and enhances the way we understand the canon of political theory. As a teacher, I aim to cultivate global citizenship and leadership skills in young people through engagement with diverse perspectives. 

My scholarly work appears in journals such as the European Journal of Political Theory, New Political Science, The Review of Politics, Polity, The European Legacy, Montaigne Studies, Ethics and International Affairs, and Contemporary Political Theory.  Four of these articles are the first to introduce Vietnamese political thought to debates in political theory. 

Click here for my CV. 

You can reach me at kpham@gettysburg.edu. 

The American University of Paris, 2019.