Murdoch Announcements & Events

  • Login

Free Public Lecture by Award Winning Historian


Date: 23rd May 2013
Time: 12:30 PM - 14:30 PM

Location: Senate Room, South Street Campus

Internationally recognised historian and Professor of History and South-east Asian Studies Jim Warren will present a free public lecture outlining his lifetime of work to date.


The lecture will be held at the Senate Room this Thursday 23 May, from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Professor Warren, who recently received the prestigious Grant Goodman Prize for his outstanding contribution to Philippine historical studies, will speak on key moments that shaped his research and teaching path at Murdoch University and abroad.

His talk – Back to the Future: The story behind the story of four decades of historical research and teaching on South-east Asia and the World – will include family memories, his experience serving in the United States Peace Corps in Sabah, recollections of Murdoch in its early years, and his lifelong interest in the ethnic and social history of Sulu, Singapore and Japan.

Professor Warren obtained his PhD in South-east Asian History from the Australian National University (ANU) in 1975 before moving to Murdoch in 1976.

He has been recognised for his ground-breaking historical writings, in particular the publications The Sulu Zone 1768-1898 (1981) and Iranun and Balangingi (2002).

He has been commended for his articles, totalling more than 50, dealing with issues of slavery, external trade, the meaning and constitution of ‘culture’ and ethnogenesis, which is how ethnic identities have been constructed and reconstructed through space and time.

Professor Warren has enjoyed an energetic and productive academic career at Murdoch and held undergraduate and postgraduate teaching positions at the ANU, Yale University, the National University of Singapore and Kyoto University in Japan.