Security Specialist Appointed Inaugural Frances M. and Stephen F. Fuller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Southeast Asian Studies
By Karla Schneider
Assistant Director, Center for International Studies
Dr. Carlyle Thayer, American-born professor of politics at the University of New South Wales, Australia, has taken up his post as the inaugural Frances M. and Stephen F. Fuller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Ohio University. Thayer is internationally known for his research and publications on Vietnamese politics and security issues in Southeast Asia.
Thayer earned his M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies from Yale University in 1971 and his Ph.D. in International Relations in 1977 from The Australian National University (ANU). Thayer’s attachments have included teaching appointments at The Royal Military College-Duntroon, the Australian Defense Force Academy, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, the Center of Defense and Security Studies at the Australian Defense College, and the Australian Command and Staff College. He spent three years as a senior research fellow at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at ANU and has served as an official UN observer for elections in Cambodia.
In 2005, Thayer was appointed C.V. Starr Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
“We are indeed very fortunate to have Carl Thayer at Ohio University this year as the foundation Frances M. and Stephen F. Fuller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Southeast Asian Studies,” said Gene Ammarell, Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. “Students and faculty stand to benefit enormously from classes and conversations with this eminent specialist in the politics of Southeast Asia.” In collaboration with the Department of Political Science, Thayer is teaching a two-course sequence in government and politics of Southeast Asia and will work closely with Southeast Asian Studies graduate students. He will be in residence in Athens until June.
Thayer is the first Frances M. and Stephen F. Fuller Distinguished Visiting Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, an endowed professorship established by the estate of the late Stephen F. Fuller. An Athens native and graduate of Athens High School and Ohio University, Fuller went on to earn his MBA and DBA from Harvard University, where he eventually became Associate Dean of the Harvard Business School. The founding President of the Asian Institute of Management in the Philippines, Fuller received an honorary doctorate from De La Salle University in 1971 and was awarded the Presidential Merit Medal from the Philippine government the same year. He was recipient of the Harvard Business School’s Distinguished Service Award in 1999. Fuller’s business career included Vice President of General Motors and President of Worldbook. His widow, Frances M. Fuller, resides in Massachusetts.
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