Ian Buruma

Paul W. Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism

Academic Program Affiliation(s): Human Rights

Biography:

Studies in Chinese literature and history at Leyden University; graduate studies in Japanese cinema at Nihon University, Tokyo. Documentary filmmaker and photographer in Tokyo (1977–80); cultural editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong (1983–86); foreign editor of The Spectator, London (1990–91). Fellowships: Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin (1991–92); Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C. (1998–99); Alistair Horne Visiting Fellow, St. Antony’s College, Oxford (1999–2000). Regular contributor to New York Review of Books, New York Times Magazine, New Republic, New Yorker, and The Guardian. Books include Behind the Mask (1983); God’s Dust (1988); Playing the Game (1990); The Wages of Guilt (1995); The Missionary and the Libertine (1997); Anglomania: A European Love Affair (1999); Bad Elements (2001); Inventing Japan: 1853–1964 (2003); Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance (2006). Coauthor, Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies (2004). At Bard since 2003.

Contact:

Phone: 845-758-7535
E-mail: buruma@bard.edu