Ben Kerkvliet

Benedict John Kerkvliet (born 1943) is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Political and Social Change, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies, Australian National University. He works across the areas of comparative politics, Southeast Asia and Asian studies. Kerkvliet was born and raised in Montana, surrounded by working-class relatives and friends for whom political discussion and debate were part of life. After graduating from the local public high schools, he earned his B.A. at Whitman College (Walla Walla, Washington) and his M.A. and Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin–Madison. He taught at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa) for nearly twenty years before joining the Australian National University in 1992 where he was a Professor and Head of the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies. Kerkvliet currently resides in Hawaiʻi with his wife Melinda.