Thomas Brown

Adjunct Instructor

Joined the Huntington University faculty in 2020.

Thomas Brown returned to his alma mater to teach in the Department of History, where he specializes in Southeast Asian politics and power and American foreign relations.

Thomas believes that as a teacher, he is a steward of his students’ potential. He is committed to cultivating spaces for them to empower themselves through their own agency and transforming them into thinkers and learners. He hopes his students become people who are not afraid of what they do not know and who learn the fundamental skills of analysis, synthesis, and research and by applying a critical lens to the ideas of power, social justice, and conflict.

Originally from Muncie, Indiana, Thomas currently resides in Fort Wayne. He enjoys making and listening to music across a multitude of genres, growing plants, brewing the perfect cup of coffee, reading books that make him think, yoga, and spending time in Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Education:

Master of Arts in history; Northern Illinois University
Bachelor of Arts in history and international development studies; Huntington University

Notable Experiences:

Teaching assistant, 3 years; Northern Illinois University
Substitute teacher, 3 years; Yorktown Community Schools
Editor of the NIU Center for Southeast Asian Studies Podcast, 2019-2020
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship Recipient, summer 2018 and 2019 (lived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia)

Publications/Awards:

MA Outstanding Student Award, Department of History, NIU, May 2019
S.G. Whittle Johnston Memorial Award in History, Huntington University, 2017
“Modernizing the Past: Economic Change and National Identity in Sihanouk’s Cambodia,” presented at the NIU History Graduate Student Association Conference, November 2019
“Heralds and Hawks: American Journalism and Cambodia, 1965-1970,” presented at the NIU Southeast Asian Studies Conference, April 2019
“The Ideology of Expansionism: Concepts of American Foreign Relations,” NIU Spring 2019
“Politics, Patronage, and Potency: Concepts of Power in Southeast Asia,” NIU Spring 2019
“Internal and External Influences on Khmer Identity, 1970-1975,” NIU, Fall 2019

Involvements:

American Historical Association
Association for Asian Studies
HU Centre for Non-Western Studies
Northern Illinois University History Graduate Student Association
TESOL Certified, VIPKid and Tesol International Association