Dr. Harish Mehta has taught at McMaster University, University of Toronto, and Trent University in Canada, courses such as the Vietnam Wars, U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1898, World History up to 1800, World History from 1800 to the Present, History of Southeast Asia, and Human Rights in History. He was awarded a PhD degree by McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada in the history of American foreign relations and Vietnam, with specializations in the twentieth-century history of China, and Christian-Muslim Encounters in the Early Modern World (Ottoman Empire). He did graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after a Bachelors’ degree from the University of Lucknow, and a post-graduate diploma from St. Xavier’s College, Bombay.
He is the author of Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under Six Regimes (White Lotus, Bangkok and Cheney, 1997); Warrior Prince: Norodom Ranariddh, Son of King Sihanouk of Cambodia (Graham Brash, Singapore, 2001); Strongman: The Extraordinary Life of Hun Sen (Marshall Cavendish, Singapore, 2013); and People’s Diplomacy of Vietnam: Soft Power in the Resistance War, 1965-1972 (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2019).
His articles on Vietnamese diplomacy have appeared in the academic journals International History Review, Diplomatic History, Peace and Change, The Historian, and History Compass, and his review articles have appeared in H-Diplo.
His major awards are: (a) the Samuel Flagg Bemis research award (twice) from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, (b) the “Asian Print Media Write Award” in 1997 by the Asian Media Information and Communication Center, Singapore for his research paper entitled “The Chilling Fields: Cambodia’s Press Under Six Regimes” that was published in Media Asia, (c) the “Freedom Forum Fellowship” awarded in 1995 by the Freedom Forum of Washington, DC, and (d) the “Journalist of the Year Prize” awarded in 1988 by the Press Foundation of Asia (Manila), and Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan) for excellence in reporting economic and political developments in Southeast Asia.
View Dr. Mehta’s presentation at the U.S. State Department Conference.
