HYI Alum Theara Thun awarded Honorable Mention for the Harry J. Benda Prize from AAS

Theara Thun (NUS-HYI Joint Doctoral Scholar, 2012-16) recently received an Honorable Mention for the 2026 Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). His book, Epistemology of the Past: Texts, History, and Intellectuals of Cambodia, 1855–1970 (University of Hawai’i Press, 2024), developed from his PhD dissertation, which was awarded the prestigious Wang Gungwu Medal and Prize for “the Best PhD Thesis in the Social Sciences and Humanities” at the National University of Singapore. The book offers a compelling analysis that reshapes our understanding of the interface between Cambodia and Southeast Asia’s precolonial historical perceptions and those shaped by Western thought during the colonial encounter. It reveals the persistence and transformation of indigenous traditions of history-making in contemporary forms—dimensions that have not been systematically discussed in earlier scholarship.

The Harry J. Benda Prize of the AAS is given annually to an outstanding newer scholar from any discipline or country specialization of Southeast Asian studies for a first book in the field. The award, which honors one of the pioneers in the field of Southeast Asian studies, has been presented since 1977.