Minh-Thu Nguyen is driven by curiosity

Jacqueline Jacobo | December 4, 2025

By day, Minh-Thu Nguyen is the academic personnel and payroll manager for two UCLA Humanities units, the Department of European Languages and Transcultural Studies, and the Program in Digital Humanities, where she manages hiring the processes for faculty and student employees. 

But she spends her evenings and weekends working toward a master’s degree in English literature at UC Irvine. 

Nguyen earned a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA in 2022, with a minor in comparative literature. During her junior year, she took a course on religion in the ancient Near East with Professor Gina Konstantopoulos. That experience inspired her to apply to UCLA’s Undergraduate Student Initiated Education Program, which allows students to design and teach their own original undergraduate courses. 

With Konstantopoulos as her faculty advisor, Nguyen developed a seminar called “Ages of Enchantment,” in which she guided 20 students through the history of witches and their portrayal in both classic literature and modern media. 

“We watched Studio Ghibli films and the 1960s sitcom ‘Bewitched,’ and read excerpts from the Odyssey involving Circe,” Nguyen said. “I wanted to explore how social norms and ideals influence the portrayal of a witch character and why they are ostracized.”

Konstantopoulos said she was struck by Nguyen’s ability to draw parallels between ancient and contemporary material.

“When she was building her course, I was constantly impressed by the depths of her creativity and originality,” Konstantopoulos said. “Minh-Thu sought out truly original ways to connect primary source texts — or a range of texts from different historical periods and contexts — to the theme of her course.”

Nguyen began her master’s program in the fall of 2024, and her thesis will likely explore coming-of-age narratives that accompany female characters in Gothic literature. She has taken courses like “Female Gothic,” “Shakespeare’s Problem Plays,” “Queer Renaissance” and “Korean Wave.”

To complement those studies, she also has delved into novels like “The Woman in White,” written in 1860 by Wilkie Collins, and the 1660s feminist drama “Convent of Pleasure” by Margaret Cavendish. In the mysteries and magic of those stories, Nguyen has found the intellectual stimulation she craves. 

“The opportunity to discuss literature with like-minded people is what makes the commute worth it,” Nguyen said. 

Nguyen says she’s always asking, “How can I enrich myself, even without the guardrails of a classroom?”

Nguyen’s dual pursuits have given her a unique familiarity with both the administrative and academic sides of a university. 

“At UCI, I’m reading the literature and writing my papers,” Nguyen said. “At UCLA, I get to interact with a whole different side of academia.”

Nguyen said each of her roles has helped her gain insights into how the other one works. Her work in ELTS and Digital Humanities has given her a behind-the-scenes view into how professors and graduate students construct their classes and how their research evolves; her master’s studies have enhanced her ability to relate to her colleagues. 

“Before I started my master’s program, I couldn’t quite grasp the specific demands of academic research,” she said. “Now, I have a better understanding of what they’re going through on multiple fronts, and I think it makes me a more connected and empathetic person.”

Working on faculty members’ review cases, Nguyen said, is both the most fulfilling and curiosity-piquing part of her job. In compiling the dossiers that professors submit for advancement, Nguyen gets to read their students’ and colleagues letters of recommendation. As a result, she has gained insight about how professors inspire their students to explore new academic disciplines or apply for graduate school, and about how UCLA faculty are contributing to their fields of study. 

“It’s a nice way to stay up-to-date about their scholarship, and it gives me hope to know that there are still people who care about literature, writing, and the arts,” she said.

While her job and her graduate work keep Nguyen busy, she also enjoys watching period dramas like “Bridgerton” and reading historical or sci-fi fantasy fiction. In each of those pursuits, she likes to ponder the artists’ intentions and consider how the works relate to the dynamics of our current era.

“It has been a delight to watch Minh-Thu craft a path forward in both her work and her studies,” Konstantopoulos said of her former advisee. “She is driven by her own intellectual curiosity and a constant desire to learn more about the subject and topics about which she is passionate.”

For Nguyen, that assessment rings true. “I always want to stay curious,” she said. “I’m always asking, ‘How can I enrich myself, even without the guardrails of a classroom?’”