SEA Spotlight - 9/13/24 - Michael Puett

To the Asia Center Community,

I am deeply honored to join the Asia Center as the next Victor and William Fung Director.  One of my strongest hopes is to continue and build upon the outstanding work of my predecessor James Robson in nurturing the study of Southeast Asia at Harvard.

Southeast Asia is one of the most vibrant areas of the world.  Yet it has not been an area where Harvard has traditionally provided a great deal of institutional support.  As a result, the large number of scholars and students interested in Southeast Asia have tended to be spread across the many schools of Harvard without a connecting home.  Moreover, many of the basic aspects necessary for supporting the study of Southeast Asia have been neglected.  In terms of the languages of Southeast Asia, only Vietnamese has been regularly taught at Harvard.  Other languages – such as Thai and Indonesian – have been taught for specified periods of time, but without the long-term institutional support that is necessary to maintain a full language program.

One of the most important missions of the Asia Center is to change this.  We are striving to bring together the many scholars and students at Harvard who are working on Southeast Asia and to develop a robust set of programs and outreach efforts to generate excitement for the study of Southeast Asia.  In terms of languages, James Robson obtained funding from generous donors to support the teaching of Filipino languages (Tagalog) in perpetuity.  My fervent hope is to build upon this extraordinary work of my predecessor.  Together with Jorge Espada, our wonderful Associate Director for Southeast Asia Programs, I very much look forward to working with all of you as we continue to nurture a flourishing community studying Southeast Asia and build the necessary infrastructure for such a community to endure.

Let me also say a bit about my own research in Southeast Asia.  I have long been interested in the cultures of Southeast Asia as well as the maritime trade routes that have spread throughout Southeast Asia and that connect Southeast Asia with the rest of the world.  My advisor in graduate school was Marshall Sahlins, a scholar of Austronesia, and I did a great deal of coursework on Southeast Asia with Nancy Munn, James J. Fox, and Valerio Valeri.  More recently, I have become deeply interested in the temple and trade networks that have spread throughout Southeast Asia, as well as the roles these networks have played in global history.  I was fortunate to be at a university during my graduate studies that allowed such interests to be explored.  I deeply hope to help make Harvard such a home for the next generation of students.

Thank you all so much for being part of the vibrant study of Southeast Asia at Harvard.  I very much look forward to working with all of you as we continue to build a thriving and flourishing community!

All my best,
Michael

Victor and William Fung Director, Harvard Asia Center
Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology

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