Ngo Vinh Long, received a Ph. D. in East Asian History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1978. We first joined the Department of History at Maine in 1985 and have offered a variety of courses on East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the relations of the countries in these regions with each other and with the United States. Currently, we teach the introductory survey of East Asian Civilization (HTY 107), South and Southeast Asia (HTY 108), History of Modern China (HTY 436), History of Modern Japan (HTY 437), The United States and Vietnam: A History (HTY 442), and The Cold War and Its Aftermath in East Asia (HTY 599.) This last course is a graduate seminar designed to give graduate students a detailed examination of the Cold War in East Asia from the perspectives of the major power as well as those of the impacted nations in the region. The aim is to give graduate students the necessary background and overall analyses on the relationships and interactions between national and international issues during this crucial period so as to enable these students to develop courses of their own once they begin their teaching careers. In addition to these regular courses I also offer Research and Reading Courses (HTY 550) to both undergraduates as well as graduate students every year.
My research has focused on the problems of the peasantry and of rural development in East and Southeast Asia. In recently years I have paid increasing attention on the question of development and the roles of governments in general. During the 2000-2001 academic year I served as a Fulbright scholar in Vietnam, teaching courses on the history of economic development in East and Southeast Asia since the end of World War II and the history of foreign relations in East and Southeast Asia since the end of the Cold War.