Project title: Pleading with the Divine: The Religiosity of Resentencing
Project description: This summer, Nguyen worked on an independent research project titled Pleading with the Divine: The Religiosity of Resentencing, under the Faculty Mentorship of Professor Rushain Abbasi, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. The project explores how the process of resentencing, a part of the incarceratory legal system, can be examined as a way to understand the law as a civic religion. Nguyen argues that resentencing parallels modes of repentance that can be traced across religious traditions; in viewing the legal system in this way, the truth of the law can be unearthed: that the many facets of the criminal justice system mirror oppressive religiosity for incarcerated communities.
Alongside this project, Nguyen was a Legal Intern at the Office of the San Diego Public Defender, where they worked on a multitude of projects, including legal documentation, civil rights litigation, and sociological research in fields such as substance abuse, recidivism, and others. Most notably, Nguyen authored a research literature review to be used in a case litigated to the California Supreme Court.