Ashley Thompson

Ashley Thompson is specialist in Southeast Asian Cultural Histories, with particular expertise on Cambodian classical and pre-modern arts and literatures — with additional work on the contemporary period -, and the Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. 

As an undergraduate exchange student in Paris in 1985 – 6, she attended philosopher Hélène Cixous’s seminar, as well as the Théâtre du Soleil’s staging of Cixous’s The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia. From that experience stemmed her lasting interest in Cambodian culture and history, as well as a distinctive approach of Southeast and South Asian cultural histories, with a view to theorising Asian politico-cultural formations informed by deconstruction and psychoanalysis.

Ashley Thompson’s thematic focus on questions of memory, historical consciousness, subjectivity, sexual difference and more recently post-colonial critical perspectives gives a specific dimension to an academic career — starting with a BA at Harvard University (1988), a MA at Université de Paris 3 (1993), a PhD at Université de Paris 8 (1999), with a doctoral thesis under Hélène Cixous’ supervision, ​“Mémoires du Cambodge”, exploring Cambodian ways and means of memory in post-Angkorian period religious works, a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) — as an Assistant Professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies of the University of California, Berkeley, an Associate Professor in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds since 2005, a tenure at SOAS London and assignments as Visiting Professor in the Department of Women’s Studies of the University of Paris 8, and at the Department of Archaeology of the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), Phnom Penh (1999−2001).

Before taking up academic work in the West (France, the US, the UK), she spent ten years in Thailand and Cambodia working in post-war reconstruction in the fields of education, art, archaeology and cultural heritage research and management. In 1989 – 1991, she worked in an an education programme directed by Father Pierre Ceyrac in Site 2 Cambodian refugee camp on the Thai-Cambodian border, followed by a a field research in Cambodia (1994−1997) with the support of the Social Sciences Research Council, New York. In the 1990s and with the support of UNESCO, she served as an Advisor to Vann Molyvann, Cambodian State Minister of Culture, Urban Planning and Territorial Management and, in this capacity, helped to found the research branch of the national organ for the management of Angkor that would become APSARA Authority. 

While her work as art historian applied to Hindu and Buddhist sculpture, cult or ritual practices and texts, as well as other forms of fine and performing arts, Ashley Thompson’s command of the Khmer language — Beginning Certificate in Khmer Language at the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (SEASSI, University of Hawai’i) in 1988, and a Diplôme supérieur in Khmer at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), Paris, in 1991 — allowed to teach Khmer Civilisation at RUFA in Khmer, and to explore rare literary documents in this language. She also obtained an Advanced certificate in Thai language from SEASSI, Cornell University, Ithaca (NY) in 1990.

Publications

1. “Oh Cambodia! Poems from the Border,” New Literary History 24 – 3, 1993: 519 ‑544.
2. [with Ang Choulean & Eric Prenowitz] Angkor: A Manual for the Past, Present and Future (with Ang Chouléan and ), UNESCO/APSARA, 1995; KH, ENG & FR reprint 1997; KH reprint 2006.
3. The Calling of the Souls: a study of the Hau Bralin, Phnom Penh/​Melbourne, 1996.
4. [with Ang Choulean & Eng Sun Kerya] New Clues to Angkor’s Secrets, Phnom Penh, 1997.
5. “Le Cambodge après Angkor,” in H. L. Jessup, & T. Zéphir eds., Angkor et dix siècles d’art khmer, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1997. ISBN 9782711834549. [catalogue for an exhibition of Khmer art in Paris (Grand Palais), Washington (National Gallery), Tokyo and Osaka, 1997 – 1998, also in ENG]
6. [with Ang Choulean] Help Save Cambodia’s Past! Help Save Cambodia’s Future! Preserve Angkorian Pottery and Kiln Sites, Phnom Penh, 1998. [also Khmer and Japanese versions]
7. [communication] ​“Lost and Found: the stupa, the four-faced Buddha and the seat of royal power in Middle Cambodia,” Proceedings of the 7^th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Berlin, 1998.
8. “The Ancestral Cult in Transition: Reflections on Spatial Organization of Cambodia’s early Theravada Complex,” in Southeast Asian Archaeology 1996. Proceedings of the 6^th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Leiden, 2 – 6 September 1996, eds. M.J. Klokke, T. De Brujin, Hull: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hull, 1998: 273 – 295.
9. “Mémoires du Cambodge”, thèse de doctorat sous la direction d’Hélène Cixous, Centre de recherches en études féminines de Paris VIII, 1999. [unpublished]
10. [with Toni Samantha Phim] Dance in Cambodia - La Danse au Cambodge, Oxford University Press, 1999, 112 p. [ENG-FR] ISBN 978 – 9835600593.
11. “Entrer dans sa chambre à elle: Le Gars de Marina Tsvetaieva”, in N. Setti ed., Marina Tsvetaeva, de poète à poètes, Actes du colloque Marina Tsvetaieva au Collège International de Philosophie, Travaux et documents, Université Paris VIII, 2000. ISBN 9782911860089.
12. “Introductory Remarks Between the Lines: Writing Histories of Middle Cambodia,” in B. Watson Andaya ed., Other Pasts: Women, Gender and History in Early Modern Southeast Asia, University of Hawai’i (Center for Southeast Asian Studies), 2000: 47 – 68. ISBN 9781930734005.
13. [communication] ​“An Oblique View of the Bayon,” Fifth International Symposium on the Preservation of Bayon, Phnom Penh, Dec. 2000.
14. “Dancing on Death,” in Ly Daravuth & Ingrid Muan ed., Visions of the future : an exhibition of contemporary Cambodian art, Phnom Penh, Reyum Institute of Arts and Culture, 2003. ISBN 9781588860422. [ENG & KH]
15. [preface to] Vann Molyvann, Khmer Cities of the Modern Period, Phnom Penh, 2003.
16. “Drawing Cambodia’s Borders: Notes on modern Buddhist Temple Murals in Kampuchea Krom (Vietnam),” Udaya 4, 2003.
17. “Par-delà les frontières : histoires de Kampuchea Krom,” Bulletin intérieur de l’Association d’amitié franco-vietanamienne, 2003.
18. “The Future of Cambodia’s Past: A Messianic Middle-Cambodian Royal Cult,” in J. Marston & E. Guthrie eds., History, Buddhism and New Religious Movements in Cambodia, University of Hawai’i Press, 2004: 13 – 39.
19. “The Suffering of Kings”: Substitute Bodies, Healing and Justice in Cambodia,” in J. Marston & E. Guthrie eds., History, Buddhism and New Religious Movements in Cambodia, University of Hawai’i Press, 2004: 91 – 112. ISBN 9780824826666.
20. [with Ang Choulean] Calling the Souls. A Khmer Ritual Text — L’appel des ames, un texte rituel khmer, Phnom Penh: Reyum Publishing House, 2005, 169 p. [ENG-FR] ISBN13 9781588860743. [catalogue of the 2004 exhibition]
21. [translation of ]‘Le principe de l’hospitalité.’ Jaques Derrida interviewed by Dominique Dhombres for Le Monde (2 Dec. 1997), 2005.
22. “D’une mémoire l’autre”, Labyrinthes 23 – 1, 2006: 15 – 26.
23. “From the Linga to the Popil : an Art of Making Space,” in Wibke Lobo ed., Angkor : göttliches Erbe Kambodschas [Angkor: Cambodia’s Glory], Bonn/​Zurich, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2006 – 2007. ISBN 9783791361178.
24. “Terrible but Unfinished: Hélène Cixous’ Stories of History’”, New Literary History, Winter 2006.
25. “Paul Mus vu de l’Ouest : à propos des cultes indiens et indigènes en Asie du Sud-est”, in C. Goscha ed., Paul Mus et l’Asie (1902−1969): L’espace d’un regard, Paris, Les Indes savantes, 2006. ISBN: 9782846541312.
26. “Buddhism in Modern Cambodia: Rupture and Continuity,” in Stephen C. Berkwitz ed., Buddhism in Contemporary Societies, ABC-CLIO, 2006: 129 – 167. ISBN 9781851097821.
27. “Voir à Lire”, in Marta Segarra ed., L’événement comme écriture: Lire Cixous et Derrida se lisant, Paris, CampagnePremière, 2007: 327 – 341. ISBN 9782915789294.
28. “Angkor Revisited: the State of Statuary,” in J. Mrazek & P. Morgan eds., What’s the Use of Art: Asian Visual and Material Culture in Context, University of Hawai’i Press, 2007: 179 – 213. ISBN 9780824830632.
29. “Performative Realities: Nobody’s Possession,” in A. R. Hansen, & J. Ledgerwood eds., Songs on the Edge of the Forest: Narrative and Problems of Meaning in the Work of David Chandler, Asian Studies Press, Cornell University, 2008: 93 – 120. ISBN 9780877277460.
30. [with Eric Prenowitz] ​“Cambodia’s Trials : Theatre, Justice and History Unfinished”, in L. Noszlopy & M. Cohen eds.,Contemporary Southeast Asian Performance: Transnational Perspectives, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, , Contemporary Southeast Asian Performance: . Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010. ISBN 9781443825757.
31. “Sparrow,” in Bruno Clement & Marta Segarra eds., Rêver croire penser: Autour d’Hélène Cixous, Paris, CampagnePremière, 2010: 328 – 332. ISBN 9782915789638.
32. “Post-cosmopolitical Theories: Sexual Difference, Vernacularisation and Art After Angkor”, Transeuropéennes: International Journal of Critical Thought (Genève), 2010.
33. [afterword to] Cambodge : mémoire contemporaine, Phnom Penh, 2010.
34. [curatorial presentation] Angkor Wat: from Temple to Text, exhibition at Henry Moore Gallery, Leeds (UK), 2010 – 2011. [unpublished]
35. [Historical and Linguistic Director of Khmer language for the production of] Hélène Cixous’ The Terrible but Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia Cambodia, co-production by Phare Ponleu Selpak (Battambang) and the Théâtre du Soleil (Paris), Lyon, 28 October 2011. [unpublished]
36. “Théories post-cosmopolitiques: différence sexuelle, vernacularisation et la fabrique de l’Asie du sud-est”, in Anne Berger and Eleni Varikas eds., Genre et postcolonialismes: Dialogues transcontinentaux, Editions des archives contemporaines, 2011; reprint 2020, EAN13 9782813000217.
37. “In the Absence of the Buddha: ​“Aniconism” and the Contentions of Buddhist Art History,” in A Companion to Asian Art and Architecture, eds. R. Brown & D. Hutton, Hoboken: Wiley Blackwell, 2011: 398 – 420.
38. “Writing Tongues”, introduction to beyond the mother tongue, Parallax 18 – 3 (special issue), 2012: 1 – 8.
39. “Mnemotechnical Politics: Rithy Panh’s Cinematic Archive and the Return of Cambodia’s Past,” in N. A. Taylor & B. Ly eds., Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art: An Anthology, Ithaca, Coenell University (Southeast Asia Program Publications), 2012: 225 – 240.
40. “Forgetting to Remember, Again: on Curatorial Practice and ​“Cambodian” Art in the Wake of Genocide.” Diacritics, Review of Contemporary Criticism 41 – 2, 2013: 82 – 109.
41. “The Person of Vann Nath,” in Yvon Chalm ed., Vann Nath Tribute, Cercle des Amis de Vann Nath, 2013 [catalogue for the exhibition held at Bophana Center, Phnom Penh, 12 Jan.-12 Feb. 2013.]
42. [editor with Pamela N. Corey] ​“Note from the Editors”, special issue ​“Contemporary Art in Cambodia: A Historical Inquiry,” Udaya 12, 2014.
43. “A Witness to Genocide: Vann Nath,” in J. T. McDaniel, M. M. Rowe, & J. Samuels eds., Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia, University of Hawai’i Press, 2016: 25 – 33.
44. “Contemporary Cambodian Buddhist Traditions: Seen from the Past,” in Michael Jerryson ed., The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2016: 236 – 257.
45. Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor, Routledge, 2016, 220 p. ISBN 9780415677721.
46. “21 Emergenc(i)es: History and the Auto-Ethnographic Impulse in Contemporary Cambodian Art,” In L. S. Wee & P. D. Flores eds., Charting Thoughts: Essays on Art in Southeast Asia, National Gallery of Singapore, 2017: 292 – 303. [via jstor]
47. “Hiding the female sex: a sustained cultural dialogue between India and Southeast Asia,” in A. L. Dallapiccola, & A. Verghese eds., India and Southeast Asia : cultural discourses, K. R. Cama Oriental Institute, 2017. ISBN 9789381324127.
48. “Portrait of the Artist as a Buddhist Man,” in Steven Collins & Juliane Scober eds., Theravada Encounters with Modernity, Routledge, 2017: 118 – 136. ISBN 9781315637600.
49. “Anybody: Diasporic Subjectivities and the Figure of the ​“Historical” Buddha”, in Patrick D. Flores & L. Paracciani eds., Interlaced Journeys: Diaspora and the Contemporary in Southeast Asian Art, Hong Kong: Osage Art Foundation, 2020, p 113 – 127.
50. [co-editor with Ang Choulean], Udaya 15 (special issue), 2020.
51. [co-editor and contributor] ​“Figuring the Buddha,” in Gregory Mikaelian, Ashley Thompson, & Siyonn Sophearith eds., Liber Amicorum: mélanges réunis en hommage à, in honor of, Ang Chouléan, Association Péninsule-Association des Amis de Yosothor, 2020: 211 – 237.
52. “Revenons, Revenants: Mémoires d’Angkor”, in J. Thach, E. Bourdonneau, & G. Mikaelian eds., Temps et Temporalités khmères : de près, de loin, entre îles et péninsules, Bern, Peter Lang, 2021: 345 – 375. ISBN 9783034338042.
53. [column with S. Murphy] ​“Cambodia is turning the tide on looted statues, but some things cannot be returned,” The Guardian, 13 Feb. 2021.
54. [editor with Stephen C. Berkwitz], Routledge Handbook of Theravada Buddhism, Routledge, 2022. ISBN: 978−1−138−49393−3.
55. “ICONS: Standing out from the narrative in Theravādin art,” in Routledge Handbook of Theravada Buddhism, Routledge, 2022, p 305 – 26 (Chapter 20).
56. [editor] Early Theravadin Cambodia: Perspectives from the History of Art and Archaeology, Singapore, NUS Press, 2022.
57. “Early Theravadin Cambodia: Terms of Engagement”, in A. Thompson (ed.), Early Theravadin Cambodia: Perspectives from the History of Art and Archaeology, Singapore, NUS Press, 2022, p 1 – 57.
58. “Calling the Earth to Witness. [Post: Notes on Art in a Global Context]”, blog post, May 2023.
59. “Mainland Southeast Asia after Angkor: On the Legacies of Jayavarman VII”, in M. Hendrickson, M. T. Stark, & D. Evans eds., The Angkorian World, Routledge, 2023, 32 p.

Reviews

1. “The Journey of One Buddhist Nun by Sid Brown, Albany: University of New York Press, 2001,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 34 – 1, 2003: 185 – 189.
2. “Art and Architecture of Cambodia by Helen Ibbitson Jessup, Thames and Hudson (World of Art Series), London. 2004,” Orientations (Hong Kong) 37 – 3, 2006: 88.
3. “Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice by Ian Harris, University of Hawai’i Press, 2005,” Buddhist Studies Review 24 – 2, 2007: 250 – 256.
4. “Review of Sheldon Pollock, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India,” Bryn Mawr Review of Comparative Literature 10 – 1, 2012: 1 – 13.
5. “ ​‘Il n’y a pas de hors-texte’: à propos du Language of the Gods in the World of Men”, Péninsule 65, 2012: 245 – 258.