Title: Remembering Benedict Anderson: His Life and Impact on Thai and Southeast Asian Studies

Speaker: Prof. Charnvit Kasetsiri, former rector of Thammasat University and guest scholar at CSEAS

Date and Time: July 7th (Fri.), 2017 10:30 – 12:00　→ 14:00 – 15:30

Venue: Tonan-tei (Room No. 201) on the 2nd floor of Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, CSEAS, Kyoto University

Moderator: Dr.Pavin Chachavalpongpun (CSEAS)

Abstract:
Prof. Anderson (August 26, 1936 – December 13, 2015) is one of the most well-known scholars on Southeast Asia (see his CV below). His academic masterpiece: 1983 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, has been translated into 33 languages in 38 countries, including Thai. Like most Southeast Asian academics his specialty is on one country i.e. Indonesia. However, in the period of teaching and researching for half a century Anderson had managed to cross the fixed national boundaries and language limitation. He crossed over from Indonesian into Thai and Philippine studies. His works on Thailand starting in late 1970s have a strong impact on leading Thai academics and students as well as elsewhere in Southeast Asian Studies.

About the speaker:
Prof, Charnvit Kasetsiri is a visiting senior fellow at CSEAS. He is a former rector of Thammasat University. He continues to teach at the History Department after retirement in 2001. Currently, he also holds the post of Secretary of the Social Sciences and Humanity Textbook Foundation, Thailand. Among his most well known book is “The Rise of Ayudhya: A History of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries”, published by Oxford University Press.