In 1964, before he completed his PhD, Stan O'Connor was invited to become an in­structor in the Department of the History of Art; this was the first university-level appointment in America of a specialist in the field of Southeast Asian art. In 1971, he was appointed full professor.

Contrary to the usual stereotype of an art historian, he was an excellent administrator. From 1966 to 1970 he served as chair of the Department of Asian Studies; from 1971 to 1976 he chaired his own department; and from 1979 to 1984 served the Southeast Asia Program as one of its ablest directors.

Thak Chaloemtiarana retired from the Department of Asian Studies and as director of the Southeast Asia Program in 2010. He retains appointments in the Graduate School in the fields of Asian literature, religion and culture, and Asian studies. He continues to serve on graduate student committees and teaches the Thailand country seminar with Tamara Loos. He was associate dean and director of admissions for the College of Arts and Sciences from 1985 to 1998.

David Holmberg advises all Cornell Fulbright applicants. Find out more about Fulbright at Cornell.

Geographic Research Area: Nepal and the Himalaya region

Teaching/Research Interests: Ritual syncretism, ritual and myth with power, state system of forced labor, and history of anthropology of the Himalayas

Geographic Research Area: India

Teaching/Research Interests: Agrarian political economy and agrarian reform; ethnicity and conflict; political ecology and development; and social conflicts around science and genetic engineering

Geographic Research Area: Sri Lanka

Teaching/Research Interests: Teaching Sinhala as a second language, English-Sinhala translation

Geographic Research Area: India

Teaching/Research Interests: South Asian religions, North Indian devotional traditions, and modern Indian religious movements

Julia Finkelstein is the Follett Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow and associate professor of epidemiology and nutrition. She is a 2021–22 Global Public Voices fellow.

Gustavo Flores-Macías's research and teaching interests include topics related to political and economic development. His research focuses on the politics of economic reform, taxation and state capacity, and populism and the militarization of law enforcement. 

The research in Alexander S. Flecker’s lab is at the interface between community and ecosystem ecology and aims to understand the functional significance of biodiversity. Much of the research focuses on stream ecosystems in both the tropics and temperate zone, addressing questions pertaining to the importance of species diversity and identity for ecosystem functioning. Flecker’s research team has found that species that engineer their physical and chemical environments can be particularly important drivers of ecosystem structure and function.

María Fernández’s research and teaching concern three areas and their intersections: the history and theory of digital and new media art, postcolonial and gender studies and Latin American art and architecture.

Fernández has taught courses in the history and theory of digital art, Latin American art of various periods as well as feminist art in new media. Recent seminar topics include: Feminist Postumanisms, Latin American Modernisms and Technology, BioArt (with Angela Douglas, Depts. Entomology, Molecular Biology & Genetics) and Video Game Criticism.