Bruce M. Lockhart

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Bruce McFarland Lockhart (* 1960 ) is an American historian , linguist and Southeast Asian scholar who teaches at the National University of Singapore . His research focus is the history of Thailand , Laos and especially Vietnam .

Life

Bruce Lockhart grew up in a small town near Philadelphia . After the end of the Vietnam War, numerous refugees from South Vietnam were settled in its neighborhood . Lockhart's new Vietnamese neighbors soon became good friends for him, who aroused his interest in the culture of their home country and taught him the Vietnamese language . He then studied Asian Studies and Linguistics ( Asian studies and Linguistics ) at the Cornell University , followed by a Master's program of East Asian Studies ( East Asian Studies ) in Yale . He then returned to Cornell University for his PhD; In 1990 his dissertation on the monarchy in Siam and Vietnam was published .

Since it was extremely difficult for him as an American to get an entry permit for Vietnam, he instead went to Laos , which was a little more politically open , where he taught English as a volunteer for a Christian aid organization. After three years he was allowed to enter Vietnam and got a job as an English teacher at a university in Hanoi , which he also practiced for three years.

In 1998, Lockhart finally became a lecturer at the National University of Singapore , where he has been since then. In the meantime (as of 2020) he is Associate Professor and Vice Dean for the Graduate Studies in the Department of History. His lectures have received the University's Teaching Excellence Award and Outstanding Educator Award .

Research and Works

Bruce Lockhart, who speaks French, Thai, Lao, Vietnamese and Chinese fluently, primarily deals with the history of continental Southeast Asia, in particular with Vietnam, Laos and Thailand - the countries where he himself was active in his research .

Even during his doctorate, he dealt with the complex of topics “Monarchy and royalty”. In his books "Monarchy in Siam and Vietnam, 1925-1946" (1990) and "The End of the Vietnamese Monarchy" (1993) he describes the development of the constitutional monarchy in Thailand and the parallel decline of the Vietnamese monarchy in the first half of the 20th century.

In addition, he published several specialist articles on Vietnamese and Laotian historiography , in which he examined how these countries perceive and record their own history.

In 2006, together with William J. Duiker , he was responsible for the third edition of the reference work "Historical Dictionary of Vietnam" . In 2010 a new release appeared under the title "The A to Z of Vietnam" .

As co-editor and co-author he is involved in many other works, including MC Ricklefs ' overview presentation "A New History of Southeast Asia" (2010) and Masaya Shiraishi's research project on Japanese-French-Vietnamese relations during the Second World War . He is co-editor of the compilations “Studies in Malaysian and Singapore History” (2010, with Lim Tse Siang ) and “The Cham of Vietnam: History, Society and Art” (2011, with Trà̂n Kỳ Phương ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Trove - National Library of Australia: Lockhart, Bruce McFarland (1960-)
  2. ^ Frank Joseph Shulman (ed.), Association for Asian Studies: Doctoral Dissertations on Asia , Volume 15, 1993, p. 99
  3. ↑ Jovita Chua, News at Nine: Retracing Professor Lockhart's Journey to Singapore (accessed January 2020)
personal data
SURNAME Lockhart, Bruce M.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lockhart, Bruce McFarland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian, linguist, Southeast Asian scholar, and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH 1960