Clifford James Geertz (23 Aug. 1926 – 30 Oct. 2006) was an American anthropologist specializing in 'symbolic anthropology'. He was until his death professor emeritus at Princeton University, Institute for Advanced Study.A master in 'thick description' (finding the deepest cultural and symbolical… Read more

Heng Piphal is a Cambodian archaeologist, currently a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA-Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. After receiving his degree in archaeology from the Cambodia's Royal University of Fine Arts in 2002, and a MA and PhD degree in Anthropology from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in… Read more

The French School of the Far East (École française d'Extrême-Orient, abbreviated EFEO) was founded in 1900 with headquarters in Hanoi, in what was then French Indochina. After the independence of Vietnam, its headquarters were transferred to Phnom Penh in 1957, and to Paris in 1975. Its main fields… Read more

Mimi Palgen-Maisonneuve (1918-1995) was a photographer and a journalist with Radio-Cambodge, active in Cambodia during the decades 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Married to Jacques Palgen, who was a professor of geodesy and photogrammetry, and a scientific consultant with the United Nations, Mimi… Read more

May 4, 1950 — August 27, 2019 San FranciscoStephen O. Murray, Ph.D., a San Francisco-based sociologist, anthropologist, and independent scholar, died August 27, 2019 from an aggressive lymphoma. He was born and raised in Minnesota. Steve's publications include studies in sociolinguistics, the… Read more

As an anthropologist and archaeologist, Professor Helaine Silverman (3 Nov 1952) focuses on the cultural politics of the production and consumption of heritage sites. Her research addresses tourism, economic development, local and national imaginaries, performances of identity and regimes of… Read more

A Doctor in geology, Vittorio Roveda (1929, Milano, Italy -2024, Bangkok, Thailand), Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London) until 2007, was one of the world's pre-eminent scholars on Khmer civilization.Dr. Roveda has been teaching Asian Art in Singapore from… Read more

Kim Chhay (1 Sept 1998, Phnom Penh) moved to Siem Reap in 2017, a step that encouraged him to further his taste (and skills) for photography. While he has traveled around Southeast Asia -- with Penang, Malaysia, as one of his favorite spots --, Kim remains focused on Cambodia's traditions and… Read more

Christophe Loviny (1960) is a French writer and photographer who co-founded the Angkor Photo Festival in 2005, and then the Yangon Photo Festival in 2008. Under his direction, the YPF has become one of the most popular photo events in South-east Asia. A jury member of the Tokyo International Foto… Read more

Dr. MAK Phoeun ម៉ក់ ភឺន (b. 1940) is a Cambodian historian who publishedd numerous articles and books on pre-colonial Cambodia, in particular in the 16th-18th centuries, and a reference study on the Khmer Royal Chronicles.From 1975 on, he conducted with Cambodian scholar Khin Sok studies,… Read more

A professor of linguistics at California State University (Chico, CA), Graham Thurgood specializes in tonogenesis, historical linguistics, language contact, and second language acquisition. He has reconstructed Chamic (Austronesian), Hlai languages (Kra-Dai and Kam-Sui), and parts of Tibeto-Burman… Read more

Anthony Reid (19 June 1939, Wellington, NZ - 8 June 2025, Canberra, Australia) was a New Zealand-born historian of Southeast Asia, with a focus on Indonesia (Sumatra, Aceh), Malaysia (Chinese diaspora), the nationalist and revolutionary movements in the region, and the "age of commerce" (15th-17th… Read more

Historian, archaeologist and orientalist, expert in poliorcetics (the art of leading and resisting military sieges) and polemology, Victor Lluís Pérez Garcia teaches at Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain).He has studied fortifications and walled cities from the Roman Empire, in Tibet and… Read more

Initially a mason and building engineer in Southwest France like his father, Pascal Royère (6 July 1965 - 5 Feb. 2014, Villeneuve-lès-Boulloc) graduated the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture in Nantes in 1994 with a restoration project dedicated to the Southern Kleang at Angkor Thom. In… Read more

Jean Despujols (19 March 1886, Salles en Gironde, France - 1965, Shreveport, USA) was a French -- later naturalized American in 1945 -- painter who extensively pictured Angkor and Indochina through his artwork. A pupil of Paul Quinsac at the école des Beaux-Arts of Bordeaux who won the Prix de Rome… Read more

Marie-Etienne-Auguste Barth (22 March 1834, Strasbourg - 15 Apr 1916, Audierne, France) was a secondary school teacher in his native Alsace (in Bouxwiller) when he started to study ancient Indian literature and Sanskrit by himself. Within less than two decades, the self-taught Indianist became one… Read more

French civil engineer, indefatigable traveler and compulsive big-game hunter Marie Auguste Edgar Boulangier (1850-1899) visited Cambodia in 1880-1881, his first official mission for which he was granted logistical support by King Norodom. This 'mineralogical-hydrological' exploration was supposed… Read more

A visiting Researcher at the Asian Culture Research Institute, Sophia University, Tokyo, Nhim Sotheavin specializes in Cambodian history. Graduated from the Cambodian Royal Academy of Fine Arts (RUFA) in 1996, he worked he worked as an archaeological researcher at the Sophia University Angkor… Read more

26 December 1896 (1896-12-26) Metaramba, Galle, British Ceylon Occupation Archeologist and an Epigraphist Books Ceylon and Malaysia, SinhalayoSenarath Paranavitana, CBE (Sinhala:සෙනරත් පරණවිතාන) (26 December 1896 – 4 October 1972) was a pioneering archeologist and epigraphist of Sri Lanka. His… Read more

An associate professor at University of Hawaii Manoa, Paul A. Lavy received his BA in cultural anthropology and his MA and PhD in South and Southeast Asian art history. He taught ancient art history at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and Asian and Islamic art history at Pennsylvania State… Read more