2025 Baker Peace Conference to explore postwar Vietnam
Themed "After Saigon's Fall: The Postwar Decade (1975-1985)," the conference will take place February 20-21.
February 10, 2025
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The Contemporary History Institute hosts the 2025 Baker Peace Conference, themed ‘After Saigon’s Fall: The Postwar Decade (1975-1985),’ on February 20-21 in Walter Hall Rotunda.
The Baker Conference, a spring staple at Ohio University since the 1980s, returns with a keynote address by renowned Vietnam scholar Peter Zinoman on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 7:30 p.m. Zinoman is professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as chairman of the History Department. He is the author of the Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 and Vietnamese Colonial Republican: The Political Vision of Vu Trong Phung. Zinoman is the co-translator of Dumb Luck: A Novel by Vu Trong Phung and the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies; he is currently writing a book about northern Vietnamese anti-Stalinism during the 1950s.
“We're excited to have Dr. Zinoman as our keynote speaker,” said Alec Holcombe, associate professor of History and director of the Contemporary History Institute. “The son of a US Foreign Service officer, he spent a large portion of his youth in Southeast Asia and has been visiting and studying Vietnam since 1986. Now in his 30th year as a member of the UC Berkeley History Department, Dr. Zinoman is a giant in the field of Southeast Asian history.”
Renowned Vietnam scholar Peter Zinoman will present the Baker Peace Conference's keynote address on Thursday, Feb. 20 at 7:30 p.m.
The conference will also feature three panels of experts on the Vietnam War and the Southeast Asian region. The opening panel, on Thursday from 3-5 p.m., will examine the consequences of the Vietnam War for the nations of ‘Indochina’: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
There will be two additional panels on Friday Feb. 21. The first, from 10 a.m.-12 p.m., will look at the role of the ‘Cold War Allies,’ including the United States, the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. The final panel, from 3-5 p.m., will then focus on the war’s after-effects on ‘Southeast Asian Neighbors,’ and will feature experts on Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
“We are excited to welcome such a distinguished group of scholars to Athens for this year’s conference,” Holcombe said. “We hope that, in exploring the complex legacies of the Vietnam War, the conference reflects the approach to Cold War history proposed nearly thirty years ago by the Contemporary History Institute's founder, Dr. John Lewis Gaddis. He advocated that historians employ a multi-archival approach, take ideas seriously, and follow, not reflect, the passions of the era.”
The Baker Peace Conference is an annual event that brings together a diverse group of leading experts to discuss a significant national or international issue related to peace. The first Baker Peace Conference took place in 1988, six years after the late Dr. John C. Baker (the university's president from 1945-62) and his wife Elizabeth established the John and Elizabeth Baker Peace Studies Endowment. This was established to encourage the education of students and the general public in the means by which peace can be established and maintained throughout the world.
The Baker Conferences are jointly sponsored by the Contemporary History Institute and the Baker Peace Studies Program; this event is free and open to the public. Coffee, light snacks and other refreshments will be available to attendees throughout both days of the conference. We hope to see you there.
Event schedule
Thursday February 20
Panel 1: Indochina, 3-5 p.m.
- Ian Baird, professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Sophal Ear, associate professor in the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University
- Alex-Thái Vo, research assistant professor at the Vietnam Center & Archive at Texas Tech University
- Tuong Vu, professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon
Keynote Address: 7:30-9:00 p.m.
- Peter Zinoman, professor of history and chairman of the History Department at the University of California, Berkeley
Friday February 21
Panel 2: Cold War Allies, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
- Amanda Demmer, associate professor of History at Virginia Tech
- Xiao-Bing Li, professor of History and Don Betz Endowed Chair in International Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma
- Sergey Radchenko, Wilson E. Schmidt distinguished professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
- Ingo Trauschweizer, professor of History at Ohio University
Panel 3: Southeast Asian Neighbors, 3-5 p.m.
- Mary Callahan, associate professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington
- Lisandro Claudio, associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley
- Thanh Nguyen Duc, founding president at the Vietnam Center for Economic and Strategic Studies
- Arjun Subrahmanyan, senior lecturer in Southeast Asian History at Murdoch University