RPCVs Contributions to Scholarship on Southeast Asia 

Eugene Ammarell taught science and math as a PCV in Malaysia (Group 20) from 1968 to 1970. He received his PhD in anthropology from Yale University in 1994 and is currently Associate Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Ohio University. He is the author of Bugis Navigation (Yale University SE Asia Studies Monograph, 1999). His primary research interests have included continuity and change of navigational knowledge and practice as well as ship design and construction among the Bugis of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, along with other Malayo-Polynesian peoples; and the political ecology of subsistence fishing and the impacts of destructive fishing practices and climate change on fisheries and the people who depend upon them for livelihood.

Conner Bailey was a PCV in Sik Kedah, Malaysia XIX, from 1968 to 1971. He received his PhD in Rural Sociology in 1980 from Cornell University and is a past President of the Rural Sociological Society. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Rural Sociology, Auburn University. He is the author of Broker, Mediator, Patron, and Kinsman: An Historical Analysis of Key Leadership Roles in a Rural Malaysian District (Ohio U Press, 1976), The Sociology of Production in Rural Malay Society (Oxford University Press, 1983), the translator (with John Miksic) of Sejarah Kerajaan Melayu Patani by Ibrahim Syukri (Silkworm Books 2005) and many other books and articles about aquaculture and fisheries in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia. In addition to his scholarship on Southeast Asia and the U.S., Bailey is a champion swimmer, winning the U.S. Masters Swimming’s 2017 Ultramarathon Distance Open Water National Championship in Chattanooga.

John G. Butcher served as a PCV in Sabah from 1966 to 1968 and holds a 1975 PhD in Southeast Asian History from the University of Hull. For more than three decades, Butcher taught Southeast Asian history at Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), where he was Associate Professor of in the Department of International Business and Asian Studies. He was also adjunct associate professor in the Department of International Business and Asian Studies at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. Butcher is the author of The British in Malaya 1880-1941: The Social History of a European Community in Colonial South-East Asia. (Oxford University Press, 1979), The Rise and Fall of Revenue Farming: Business Elites and the Emergence of the Modern State in Southeast Asia (Palgrave McMillian 1993), The Closing of the Frontier: A History of Fisheries of Southeast Asia, c, 1850-2000. (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2004), Sovereignty and the Sea: How Indonesia Became an Archipelagic State (National University of Singapore Press, 2019) and many articles and chapters on Southeast Asian history.

James T. Collins was a PCV, Malaysia XIX, from 1968 to 1970. He earned his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1980. Collins is a comparative linguist who was professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Northern Illinois University and also served as Professor of Malay-Polynesian Linguistics at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia at Bangi. He has authored numerous books, including dictionaries, on the languages of Indonesia and Malaysia. For an overview of his many publications and career, see this Wikipedia page.  The Center for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU notes: “Linguist James T. Collins was recruited from the National University of Malaysia and appointed CSEAS director, serving until January 31, 2012. During Collins’ tenure, NIU renews its focus on Malay, the first Southeast Asian language taught at NIU as part of the Peace Corps training program for Malaya volunteers in the early 1960s.”

Patricia A. Matusky was a PCV, Malaysia 82A, from 1977 to 1978. She received her PhD from the University of Michigan in 1980 for her study of MUSIC IN THE MALAY SHADOW PUPPET THEATER. Matusky is an ethnomusicologist and has taught for many years at several universities including Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, University of Malaya, and Singapore. Her many publications include Malaysian Shadow Puppet Theatre and Music: Continuity of an Oral Tradition (Oxford University Press, 1993) and Muzik Malaysia Tradisi Klasik, Rakyat dan Sinkretik (Kuala Lumpur: Asian Centre 1997 and University of Malaya Press 2012). For an overview of her career, see kawahbuku  and academia.edu and a partial list of her publications are ResearchGate and Amazon.

Diane K. Mauzy, served as a PCV, Malaysia VIII, from 1964 to 1967 in East Malaysia. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of British Columbia (Canada) in 1978. She is currently Professor Emeritus at UBC and is the author of many books including Politics and Government in Malaysia (University of Michigan Press, 1978), Barisan Nasional: Coalition Government in Malaysia (Marican & Sons, 1983), Malaysia : Tradition, Modernity, and Islam (Westview Press, 1986), Malaysian Politics Under Mahathir (Routledge, 1999) and Singapore Politics Under the People’s Action Party (Routledge, 2002), and many articles and book chapters on contemporary politics in Malaysia. Mauzy was Chair of the Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei Study Group of the Association of Asian Studies, past President of the Canadian Council of Southeast Asian Studies, and Vice-President of the Canadian Asian Studies Association.

John N. Miksic served as a PCV, Malaysia XIX, from 1968 to 1972 and helped to set up a farmers' cooperative and developed an irrigation system in the Bujang Valley in Kedah. He received his PhD in anthropology from Cornell University in 1979. After serving as a Rural Development Advisor with USAID in Indonesia and teaching at Gadjah University, he moved to the National University of Singapore. He is currently an emeritus professor at NUS and a Senior Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He is the author of more than a dozen books and more than 100 articles and book chapters for details see FASS Staff Profile (nus.edu.sg) and  John N. Miksic - Wikipedia One of his recent books, Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea 1300-1800 (NUS Press, 2013) won numerous awards and the local newspaper labeled Miksic as the Indiana Jones of Singapore’s history.  Also see this fascinating interview here (pages 150-161).

Edwin Moise served as a PCV, Malaysia XX, from 1968 to 1970 as a high school and college teacher in Miri, Sarawak. He received his PhD in history from the University of Michigan in 1977 and is a professor of history at Clemson University in South Carolina, 1979-present. He is a distinguished teacher and scholar of modern China and Vietnam with particular expertise on the Vietnam War Among his many books and publications are:  The Myths of Tet: The Most Misunderstood Event of the Vietnam War (2017) and Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (2019). For more details on his career, see his cv and webpage

Daniel Regan served as PCV teacher, Malaysia XIV, from 1966-69. He completed a MA in Southeast Asian Studies in 1971 and his PhD in 1977 from Yale University. He taught at the National University of Singapore in the early 1970s and was then a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh from 1975 to 1996, including Sociology Department chair from 1988 to 1994. In recent decades, he has served as senior university administrator, first at Lewis Clark State University in Idaho, and most recently at Northern Vermont University. He has published a number of articles on the medical profession in Malaysia and the role of intellectuals and civil religion. His current publications focus on higher education in the U.S.

James R. Rush was a PCV teacher, Malaysia XVIII, at St. Augustine's Secondary School, Sarawak, Malaysia from 1967 to 1969. He received his (PhD in history from Yale University in 1979. He is Professor of History Emeritus at Arizona State University with interests in colonialism, religion, biography, and current affairs in Southeast Asia. Author of Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2018), Opium to Java: Revenue Farming and Chinese Enterprise in Colonial Indonesia, 1860-1910, Hamka's Great Story: A Master Writer's Vision of Islam for Modern Indonesia, The Last Tree: Reclaiming the Environment in Tropical Asia, and "Java: A Traveller's Anthology.  His webpage includes a career overview, many publications, and CV.

Judith V. Strauch was a PCV in North Borneo/Sarawak II from 1963 to 1965. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University in 1975. She served on the faculty of several universities, including the University of Washington, Harvard, and Tufts. She is the author of Chinese Village Politics in the Malaysian State (Harvard University Press, 1981), The Chinese Exodus from Vietnam: Implications for the Southeast Asian Chinese, (Cultural Survival, 1980) and numerous articles on the Chinese community and politics in Malaysia and elsewhere.

Carl A Trocki served a PCV teacher, Malaysia VIII, in Sabah from 1964 to 1966 and received his PhD in History from Cornell University.  Trocki is a historian specializing in the history of Southeast Asia and China. He was Professor of Asian Studies at the Queensland University of Technology and Director of the Centre for Community and Cross-Cultural Studies. He is at the author of many books including Prince of Pirates: The Temenggongs and the Development of Johor and Singapore, 1784–1885 (University of Singapore Press 1979), Opium and Empire: Chinese Society in Colonial Singapore, 1800–1910 (Cornell University Press, 1990), Gangsters, Democracy and the State (ed., Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1998), Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A History of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950 (Routledge, 1999, Singapore: Wealth, Power and the Culture of Control (Routledge, 2006), Paths Not Taken: Political Pluralism in Postwar Singapore (Editor, University of Hawaii Press 2009)See his Career overview on Wikipedia. Peace Corps history was made when Carl was a PCV in Malaysia, his brother and sister were also serving in the Peace Corps (see box on page 23) in Thailand and Tunisia.

Carol A. Warren was a PCV, Malaysia XVIII, in Sabah from 1967 to 1969 and is a social anthropologist at Murdock University in Perth Australia whose teaching and research focus on social, economic and environmental change in Southeast Asia. has written widely on political ecology and community development issues. Her publications include:  Adat and Dinas: Balinese Communities in the Indonesian State (Oxford University Press 1993); The Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia (Routledge 1998); and Community, Environment and Local Governance in Indonesia: Locating the Commonweal (Routledge 2009,), Land for the People: The State and Agrarian Conflict in Indonesia Ohio University Press 2013). Her research interests concern the environment, land tenure, rural development and cultural heritage policy in Southeast Asia. 

James F. Warren was a PCV in Sabah from 1967 to 1969. He earned his PhD in History from Australian National University and is Professor Emeritus at Murdock University in Perth Australia. Warren is the author of many books on Southeast Asia, including The North Borneo Chartered Company's Administration of the Bajauy, 1878-1909, 1971; The Sulu Zone, 1768-1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State, 1981; Rickshaw Coolie: A People's History of Singapore, 1880-1940, 1986; At the Edge of Southeast Asian History: Essays, 1987; Ah Ku and Karayuki-san: Prostitution in Singapore, 1870-1940, 1993; The Sulu Zone, the World Capitalist Economy and the Historical Imagination, 1998; Iranun and Balangingi: Globalisation, Maritime Raiding and the Birth of Ethnicity, 2001. For an overview of his career, see James Francis Warren - Murdoch University - Overview and also his Google Scholar  page.