Brian Turner
I am a first year PhD student in the field of Southeast Asian History. I have B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural economics (the latter from the Univ. of Florida). My plan is to research some aspect of Vietnamese agrarian history in the Red River Delta in the French colonial period, possibly expanding backwards and/or forwards in time.
I expect my fields to be Southeast Asia, Modern China, Economic History of Early Modern Europe, and either Environmental History or Population Demography for a fourth. Ben Kiernan will be my main advisor and I also look forward to working with Fabian Drixler on population issues, as well as fellow students sharing these interests.
My masters research was on China's rural development in the Maoist period as well as
the intellectual roots of Maoist development ideas. Out of that came a general interest
in Asian communism and the history of socialist thought.
From 2003-2008 I lived in Vietnam working at Hanoi University as a lecturer in a new
experimental department of International Studies where the students study everything in
English. I taught microeconomics, development economics, economic history of
Modern China and of course, English language. Prior to that, I clerked and worked at
the information desk of the children's department of a public library so those doing
dissertations on the Berenstain Bears, Madeline or Curious George may tap my rich
expertise.
I have a daughter, Lan (rhymes with “John”) who is 4 and teaches me Vietnamese
pronunciation.
