Interview with Professor Lauriston Sharp

Abstract

Martin Hatch and Tamara Loos sit down with Lauriston Sharp, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies, Emeritus, on November 17, 1993. Together with Professor Emeritus Knight Biggerstaff, Professor Sharp founded the Cornell Southeast Asia Program in the 1950-51 academic year with the generous support of Dr. C. Burton Fahs and the Rockefeller Foundation. Here Professor Sharp recounts his experience of spearheading the study of Southeast Asia at Cornell, focusing on the “proto-history” of SEAP in the late thirties to its founding in the early fifties. Professor Sharp outlines a sketch of the early program, putting particular emphasis on the early stages of Southeast Asian language training at Cornell and the interdisciplinary nature of the Southeast Asia Program. Martin Hatch is now Professor Emeritus of Music, and Tamara Loos is a Professor in the History Department.