The Asian Institute's Jacques Bertrand has been awarded the Dr. David Chu Professorship (Chair) in Asia-Pacific Studies
Congratulations to the Jacques Bertrand, Director of the Collaborative Master Specialization in East and South-East Asian Studies at the Asian Institute and Professor for Political Science, who has been awarded the Dr. David Chu Professorship (Chair) in Asia-Pacific Studies by the Department of Political Science. This appointment recognizes excellence and commitment to research and leadership in the study of Asia-Pacific.
Professor Bertrand is the Founding Director for the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at the Asian Institute and the current Director of the Asian Institute’s Collaborative Master Specialization in East and South-East Asian Studies. He is a dedicated professor and researcher who has supervised more than a dozen doctoral dissertations on the region and continues to support generations of students. He is also the co-founder of the PostCor Lab at the Department of Political Science, a research hub dedicated to the study of civil wars and war-to-peace transitions where much of his focus is on civil wars in Southeast Asia.
Professor Bertrand has worked for many years on issues of ethnic conflict, nationalism and secessionism in Southeast Asia. Most recently, he received the 2024 Dean’s Research Excellence Award from the Faculty of Arts and Science, which recognizes significant and sustained research achievement and impact. His research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and twice by the United States Institute of Peace. Professor Bertrand was also co-investigator and executive member of a SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Initiative on Ethnicity and Democratic Governance.
His most recent book, just published in July 2022, is entitled Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar (w/ Ardeth Thawnghmung and Alexandre Pelletier, Cornell UP, July 2022). Prior to that, he published Democracy and Nationalist Struggles in Southeast Asia: From Secessionist Mobilization to Conflict Resolution (Cambridge UP, 2021). He is also the author of Political Change in Southeast Asia (Cambridge, 2013) as well as Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia (Cambridge, 2004).
He is a member of the editorial board of Pacific Affairs. He is also past President of Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies. As the Dr. David Chu Professor, Professor Bertrand will continue to pursue excellence in his scholarship on the region, contribute to strengthening undergraduate and graduate education in Asia-Pacific Studies, and continue to provide dedicated and empowering leadership in support of scholarly activities on the region.
