Dega Central Highlands Organization Dega Central Highlands Organization
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Theses and academic studies

Reading and research Reference 16 views 4 min read Back

A list of doctoral and master’s theses and academic studies about our peoples and the highlands, with links. It is for students, researchers and anyone who wants to go deeper than this library can. Every item below was checked against a library catalog, a thesis register, the publisher or the DOI registry; where a work is free to read online, we say so.

An elder reading from a book to younger people
Much of what has been written about us was written in French and English, in universities far away. Illustration.

Theses

AuthorTitleKind and whereYear
Mathieu GuérinDes casques blancs sur le plateau des herbes. La pacification des aborigènes des hautes terres du Sud-Indochinois, 1859–1940PhD, Université Paris 72003
Frédéric FortunelL’État, les paysanneries et les cultures commerciales pérennes dans les plateaux du Centre Viêt NamPhD, Université Toulouse 22003
Albert-Marie MauriceCroyances et pratiques religieuses des Montagnards du Centre-VietnamDoctorate, EHESS, Paris2000
Phan Viet HaLes conflits fonciers dans le contexte de la transition agraire aux Hauts Plateaux du center Vietnam: le cas de la province du Dak LakPhD, Université Toulouse 22010
Catherine ScheerLa réforme des gongs: dynamiques de Christianization chez les Bunong protestants des hautes terres du CambodgePhD, EHESS, Paris2014
Doan Ngoc TuLe patrimoine bâti dans les villages de la minorité Jarai: le cas des deux villages de Pleikep et de Pleiop à Pleiku au VietnamPhD, Université Toulouse 22016
Anh-Minh Nguyen-DangLand Property, Land Politics: a History of the Bahnar in Kon Tum, Vietnam (1820–1945)PhD, PSL / EPHE, Paris2019
Daniel MüllerLand-use Change in the Central Highlands of VietnamPhD, University of Göttingen2003
Trang Thi Thuy NguyenMaintaining in transforming: bilingual identity of ethnic minority students in the Central Highlands of VietnamPhD, University of Queensland2016
Chi Trung TranUnderstanding long-term livelihood resilience of resettled ethnic groups in the Yali Falls Dam basinPhD, University of Queensland2017
Chau Le Minh DoanGovernmentality, resettlement, and resistance of ethnic minority migrants in Vietnam: a case study in Dak Lak provinceMA, Chulalongkorn University2019

French theses link to theses.fr, the national register, which shows whether the full text can be read online.

Books, chapters and articles

AuthorTitleKind and whereYear
Gerald C. HickeyThe Major Ethnic Groups of the South Vietnamese HighlandsReport, RAND RM-40411964
Oscar SaleminkThe return of the Python god: multiple interpretations of a millenarian movement in colonial VietnamArticle, History and Anthropology1994
Oscar SaleminkThe Ethnography of Vietnam’s Central Highlanders: A Historical Contextualization, 1850–1990Book, University of Hawai’i Press; Routledge reissue 20192003
Oscar SaleminkEnclosing the Highlands: socialist, capitalist and Protestant conversions of Vietnam’s Central HighlandersDraft paper, marked not for quotation, open access, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam2003
Oscar SaleminkRevolutionary and Christian ecumenes and desire for modernity in the Vietnamese highlandsArticle, Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology2015
Oscar SaleminkDescribed, inscribed, written off: heritagization as (dis)connectionChapter, open access, ANU Press, Connected and Disconnected in Viet Nam2016
Oscar SaleminkThe French Indochina War in the Central HighlandsChapter, Cambridge History of the Vietnam War2024
Hjorleifur JonssonFrench natural in the Vietnamese highlands: nostalgia and erasure in Montagnard identityChapter, Palgrave, Of Vietnam2001
Patrick RératLes montagnards, peuples autochtones des hauts plateaux du Vietnam centralArticle, Cahiers d’outre-mer 54 (214)2001
Stan B.-H. TanRethinking approaches to the study of the Central HighlandsArticle, SOJOURN2004
Tran Ngoc Thanh and Thomas SikorFrom legal acts to actual powers: devolution and property rights in the Central Highlands of VietnamArticle, Forest Policy and Economics2006
Thomas Sikor and Tran Ngoc ThanhExclusive versus inclusive devolution in forest managementArticle, Land Use Policy2007
Thomas Sikor and Nguyen Quang TanWhy may forest devolution not benefit the rural poor?Article, World Development2007
Etsuko KinefuchiFinding home in migration: Montagnard refugees and post-migration identityArticle, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication2010
Truong Huyen Chi“They think we don’t value schooling”: paradoxes of education in the multi-ethnic Central HighlandsChapter, ISEAS, Education in Vietnam2011
Brenda Burgin RossAn oral history project with elderly Montagnard refugeesArticle, Open Journal of Social Science Research2014
Hoai TranDoing “gong culture”: heritage politics and performances in the Central Highlands of VietnamBook, LIT Verlag2021
Joe P. DunnKok Kosor and the struggle for cultural survival, human rights, and religious freedom for the Montagnards of the Central HighlandsArticle, open access, Athens Journal of History 10:12024

How to read them

  • Links marked doi.org go to the publisher. Many articles are behind a paywall; a public or university library can often get them for you free.
  • Most of these were written by outsiders. They are valuable and often careful, but they describe us through their authors’ questions. Read them alongside what our own elders say.
  • Some authors in this field work for Vietnamese state institutions. Following our rule on sources, we do not list works published by the Vietnamese state; see Sources and method.

Missing from this list

We know of theses on the Montagnard community in North Carolina, including Lauren Raper’s 2009 MA thesis at NC State University on the 1986 resettlement (cited on Mondulkiri, 1992), that we could not check against their university’s catalog this time. If you wrote a thesis about the Dega, or know of one, please tell us and we will add it. For books, see Books about the Dega; for reports, Reports and documents.

Compiled September 2026.

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