Rachel Tough

I am a PhD candidate in the School of International Development. My doctoral research will produce an ethnographic study of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Before starting my PhD, I worked at City Hall in London, leading a team of public policy researchers. I also contributed to an APPG inquiry on the future of UK-Sudan relations, completed internships with BRAC in Bangladesh and in Amnesty International’s International Secretariat in the South East Asia team. I completed my BA in East Asian Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield and my MA in International Development at the Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.

I currently teach postgraduates in the Department of Development Studies at SOAS, having previously taught final year undergraduates on 'Issues in Cities and Development', also at SOAS. Until May 2023, I am also teaching anthropology to first years in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at UEA. Since 2020, I have taught on seven other modules in UEA's School of International Development, including Research Methods in Social Anthropology, and I have supervised postgraduate dissertations.

Vietnam, South East Asia, ethnography, urban studies, memory

Peer review

• UKRI Talent Peer Review College - Member (Mar 2023 - Feb 2025)
• Asian Affairs - journal of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs
• African and Asian Studies journal

Conference attendance:

• Post Socialist Memory Studies conference (Sep 2020) - panellist on session 'Museums and Memory: War, Patriotism and Trauma'
• Association of Asian Studies conference (Mar 2021) – presented individual paper outlining doctoral research
• 'Conducting Field Research in Social Sciences', Van Lang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Jun 2021) - delivered presentation on methodological approach to PhD fieldwork
• American Anthropological Association annual meeting (Nov 2022) presented individual paper discussing doctoral fieldwork on the panel 'Work, value, aesthetics and the liminality of life in East Asia'
• Presented ongoing British Museum cultural heritage documentation project with three Vietnamese co-investigators and research assistants at 'Bridging epistemic divides in cultural heritage protection' workshop, European University Institute, Florence, Italy (May 2023)
• Will present ongoing AHRC/GCRF funded COVID-19 material heritage project at 'Heritage, Community, Archives: Methods, Case Studies, Collaboration' conference, Sheffield Hallam University (June 2023)

Guest lectures/invited talks:

• Invited by Dr Rylan Higgins to deliver guest lecture 'Anthropology of the COVID-19 pandemic' (Nov 2021) - presented data from fieldwork on COVID-19 in Vietnam to University of St Mary's anthropology students and patrons of Halifax Public Library (Canada)
• Invited by Dr Tram Luong to deliver guest lecture 'Life and liminality during COVID-19: an ethnography of pandemic in Ho Chi Minh City' to students of 'SOC1109 Ethnographic Research Methods' at Fulbright University Vietnam (Nov 2022)

I am a member of:

• the Vietnam Studies Group (VSG) (an Association for Asian Studies sub-group) -  executive committee member since 2021
• the Association of South East Asian Studies UK (ASEASUK)
• the Royal Historical Society (RHS)
• the Social History Society
• the Postcolonial Studies Association
• the American Anthropological Association