Graeme Walker, a behavioral economist from Simon Fraser University in Canada, and Dr. Andrew Bellisari, a historian from Harvard University in the United States, have joined the Founding Faculty of Fulbright University Vietnam.
Graeme Walker was trained as an economist at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada where he completed his PhD in 2015. His research interests lie at the cross-section of psychology, sociology and neuroscience – commonly referred to as behavioural economics.
Graeme first became interested in behavioural economics while participating in experiments as a graduate student. Graeme’s inability to select a Nash Equilibrium in many of these experiments made him start wondering why.
It was this experience that led to a research agenda investigating how various aspects of our psyche could lead people to hold different beliefs on how they should behave. His research suggests how different psychological factors – such as cognitive dissonance – drive social phenomena including conformity, homophily and polarization – that ultimately affect decisions made in financial, commercial, and political markets.
“I am truly excited and proud to be joining FUV. This is really the opportunity of a lifetime. Where else will you have the opportunity to work in an entrepreneurial environment at a university? This spirit at FUV is something I look forward to being a part of.”
Over the past four years, Graeme has lectured in Ho Chi Minh City.
During this time, he has taught thousands of Vietnamese students in undergraduate courses related to statistics and economics as well as MBA courses in strategy and operations management. He has also supervised a number of MBA research projects on topics related to foreign managers in Vietnam, power structures in Vietnamese organizations and open innovation in Vietnamese SMEs.
In his free time, you will find Graeme spending time with his wife, Sarah, and three-year-old son, Ben, exploring Ho Chi Minh City.
Dr. Andrew Bellisari received his Ph.D in Modern European History at Harvard University. While studying at Harvard, he was also an affiliate of the Center for European Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Currently, Dr. Bellisari is a research associate at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Dr. Bellisari first experience with Fulbright came when he was selected to be a U.S. State Department Fulbright scholarship recipient at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences) in Paris where he studied postcolonial theory and the history of colonialism.
As a past recipient of a Fulbright fellowship, Andrew looks forward to promoting the core values that characterize both the Fulbright program and the mission of Fulbright University Vietnam: a dedication to international and intercultural education, an emphasis on fostering global reach and local engagement, and a commitment to cultivating interdisciplinary dialogue.
“As a historian, I am committed to the idea of re-evaluating older narratives to reveal new perspectives. For that reason, I am drawn to Fulbright University Vietnam’s mission, not only for the opportunities it provides to re-imagine the university, but also for the possibilities it offers to re-imagine how we can teach history.”
Dr. Bellisari’s research explores the political and cultural processes (and consequences) of decolonization across the French empire, particularly in North Africa and he has published his work in the Journal of Contemporary History and the Journal of North African Studies.
His current book project, The Loose Ends of Empire: Cultures of Decolonization in France and Algeria, examines the material complexities of decolonization in French Algeria to understand how transfers of power operate and postcolonial sovereignty is constructed on a local level.
At FUV, Andrew will begin researching his next project, which will explore the trans-imperial network of colonial subjects who fought in the French army during the First Indochina War (1946-1954).
Dr. Bellisari speaks Arabic, French, and German; and he holds a bachelor’s degree in History and French from Rutgers University.
