Special Seminar On Thai-Cambodian Relations: The Questions of the Preah Vihear Temple and a Clash of Two Nationalisms
Date & Time：March 29, 2013 14:00 - 16:00
Place：Middle size meeting Room (Room No. 332), Inamori Foundation Memorial Building, Kyoto University
Speakers：Professor Charnvit Kasetsiri, Professor Emeritus at Thammasat University & Associate Professor Pavin Chachavalpongpun, CSEAS, Kyoto University
Title：Thai-Cambodian Relations: The Questions of the Preah Vihear Temple and a Clash of Two Nationalisms
Abstract：
In this presentation, Professor Charnvit Kasetsiri will briefly explore conflicts between Thailand and Cambodia, the clashes of their brands of nationalism, and the question of war and peace. Citing the example of the July 2008 registration by UNESCO of the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site belonging to Cambodia, Prof. Charnvit pointed out that history had been distorted for Thailand's domestic politics. Meanwhile, Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun will support this argument by elaborating on the politicisation of the Preah Vihear issue in Thailand which led to numerous armed conflicts between the two countries. In the end, Prof. Charnvit will propose to set up an ASEAN Eco-Cultural Trans-Boundary World Heritage site was designed to foster close cooperation and collaboration at the Temple site.
Bio note：
Charnvit Kasetsiri is a prominent historian and Thai Studies scholar. He is Professor Emeritus at Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in Diplomacy with Honor from Thammasat, 1963, he pursued his 1967 M .A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs at Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, under a Rockefeller scholarship, and his 1972 Ph.D. in Southeast Asian History at Cornell University. His thesis, The Rise of Ayudhya and a History of Siam in the 14th and 15th Centuries, was published by Oxford in Asia, 1972. He served as Lecturer of History at Thammasat from 1973-2001 and founded, in 2000, the Southeast Asian Studies Program. He was the President of Thammasat University in 1995-96. He has written approximately 200 articles and a number of publications on Thai and Southeast Asian History. He has been visiting fellow at various Southeast Asian studies institutions: Kyoto, Berkeley, Cornell, Singapore, etc.
Charnvit has launched a "Siam not Thailand" campaign to rename the country as to reflect the reality about its ethnics, languages and cultural identities. His latest works deal with questions of war and peace and good ASEAN neighbor relations, especially between Thailand and Cambodia.
Pavin Chachavalpongpun is associate professor at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. Earning his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, Pavin is the author of two books: A Plastic Nation: The Curse of Thainess in Thai-Burmese Relations and Reinventing Thailand: Thaksin and His Foreign Policy. He has written extensively on the issue of Thai-Cambodian relations, including “Embedding Embittered History: Unending Conflicts in Thai-Cambodian Relations”, Asian Affairs, Vol. XLIII, No. 1 (March 2012), pp. 81-102; and, “Temple of Doom: Hysteria about the Preah Vihear Temple in the Thai Nationalist Discourse”, Legitimacy Crisis in Thailand, edited by Marc Askew (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2010). Pavin and Charnvit, together with Pou Sothirak, are editing a forthcoming book, Preah Vihear: A Guide to the Thai-Cambodian Conflict and Its Solutions, to be released early 2013
