Nicolas Weber

Fields of Interest:  

• Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary History
• Vietnamese Modern and Contemporary History
• Ethno-history and Cham History
• Asian migrations and Diasporas

Education:

• PhD: 2005, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris, France
• Postdoc: 2008-2011, University of Malaya 2008-2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Bio:  

Nicolas Weber specializes in Southeast Asian history (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia), ethno-history and diasporas. He has worked extensively on Cham and Champa history and the Cham Diaspora in Southeast Asia. His first monograph, published in French in 2014, features the first synthesis of ten centuries of Cham diasporic history in Southeast Asia. He has also published in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, SOJOURN and Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Asiatic Society, as well as Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient, Archipel and Péninsule.

His research involves extensive analysis of sources in vernacular languages, and particularly in Cham and Vietnamese.Through his research, publications and talks, he has sought to give

importance to underrepresented groups’ perspectives. He believes that, in a multifaceted history, such as that of Vietnam, it is important to demonstrate the different narratives that exist within the various ethnic groups. In addition, it creates the opportunity to give voice to people who have been involved in crucial historical events.

His current project reexamines nineteenth-century Cham history through a corpus of underexplored Cham sources. It restores the Cham as central actors in the making of modern mainland Southeast Asia, showing how they negotiated authority, navigated displacement, and shaped the politics of Vietnam and Cambodia. Seen through their eyes, nineteenth-century state formation reveals that incorporating so-called “minorities” into Southeast Asian history is not additive but corrective.

At Fulbright, while highlighting the contributions of ethnic minorities to the histories of Vietnam and Southeast Asia, his goal is to introduce students to fresh perspectives on Vietnam’s remarkable diversity and its multifaceted history and culture.

Select publications:

2021. “Malays in the Indochinese Peninsula: The Rise and Fall of a Malay ‘Tuan’ in Precolonial Indochinese Peninsula,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 94, Part 2, Number 321, pp. 43-66.

2021. “Malays in the Indochinese Peninsula: Adventurers, Warlords and Ministers,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 94, Part 1, Number 320, June, pp. 1-24.

2019. “’We Were Moving in an Endless Single Line’. Memory, Exile and History in Cam Diaspora’s Narrative Poems,” SOJOURN – Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 34 no. 1, pp. 76-109.

2016. “The Cham Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Patterns of Historical, Political, Social and Economic Development,” in Engelbert, Jörg Thomas (ed.) Vietnam’s Ethnic and Religious Minorities: A Historical Perspective, Peter Lang, pp. 157-202.

2014. Histoire de la diaspora Cam [History of the Cham Diaspora], Les Indes Savantes, Paris.

2012. “The Destruction and Assimilation of Campā (1832-5) as seen from Cam Sources,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 43(1), pp. 158–180.

2011. “Securing and Developing the Southwestern Region: The Role of the Cham and Malay Colonies in Vietnam (18th-19th centuries),” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 54, pp. 739-772.