Thai history prof honoured for 'transforming study of SE Asia'
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Professor Charnvit Kasetsiri, a Thai historian renowned among academics for work that has helped defuse tensions between Thailand and her neighbours, has been handed the 2014 AAS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies.
Conferred by the Association for Asian Studies (ASS), the award recognises his role in transforming the study of Southeast Asian history over the past four decades, according to the AAS citation
Charnvithad served as history lecturer at Thammasat University from 1973 to 2001 and was elected rector there in 1995. He founded the Southeast Asian Studies Programme at Thammasat’s Faculty of Liberal Arts in 2000 and led its first-year students on annual study trips to a country in the region.
In January 2011 he launched a campaign titled “Make Love not War” to promote better understanding among Thais of neighbouring countries.
Charnvit has written some 200 articles and books on Thai and Southeast Asian history, particularly on Thai-Cambodian relations. His most recent book, “Preah Vihear: A Guide to the Thai-Cambodia Conflict and its Solution” is co-authored with former Cambodian ambassador to Japan Pou Sothirak, and Kyoto University Associate Prof Pavin Chachavalpongpun.
Charnvit’s tireless efforts in creating networks of scholars and student exchange programmes among Southeast Asian countries also won praise from members at the AAS board meeting last Saturday, before it named him its 2014 awardee. The award ceremony will take place on March 28 next year at the AAS meeting in Philadelphia.
The Association for Asian Studies was founded in 1941 as a scholarly, non-political, non-profit professional association. Today, with some 8,000 members worldwide, representing all the countries of Asia and all academic disciplines, is the largest organisation of its kind. Among its the distinguished past awardees are Clifford Geertz, OW Wolters, Ben Anderson, Jane Hanks, Taufik Abdullah and Anthony Reid.
Charnvit studied diplomacy and history at Thammasat University, Bangkok, from 1960 to ’63 and graduated with Honours and the King Bhumibol Prize. He then pursued a Master’s degree at the Occidental College, Los Angeles, California. He obtained his PhD in Southeast Asian History from Cornell University in 1972.
