Dr Rachel Anne Tough joined the Department of International Development in September 2026, having previously taught development studies and anthropology at SOAS, University of London and at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

Rachel's Ph.D. thesis, for which she was awarded the Development Studies Association Best Thesis Prize, presents an ethnographic study of the coronavirus pandemic in Ho Chi Minh City. The study, on which Rachel's current book project is based, draws on 18 months of fieldwork and on her engagement with Vietnam since 2003. By analysing everyday negotiations around the implementation of the country's 'Zero-COVID' policy, the research contributes new knowledge around how state-society relations function in contemporary Vietnam.

Rachel has led two collaborative projects documenting endangered cultural heritage in Vietnam to completion, one funded by the British Museum focused on traditional sign painters and one by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) entitled 'Archiving COVID-19 Heritage in Ho Chi Minh City'. She is now completing a series of impact and knowledge exchange activities connected to the second of these projects.

Before entering academia, Rachel led a team of researchers supporting elected politicians to campaign for social and environmental justice at City Hall in London. 

Research

• Vietnam
• Southeast Asia
• Ethnography
• Political and economic anthropology
• Heritage and memory

Rachel is interested in how ordinary people's everyday political behaviour impacts national policy in Vietnam and in wider Southeast Asia.

Teaching 

Undergradaute 

• 5YYD0022 Anthropological Approaches to Social Justice, Power, and Inequalities
• 6YYD0033 Economic Inequality and the Distribution of Income

PhD Supervision 

Rachel is interested in supervising students who have similar research interests, especially those using ethnographic methods to research inequalities.

Further details

See Rachel's research profile