33 Facts About Duncan McCargo

Duncan McCargo is a British academic who is serving as Director of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen.

Duncan McCargo is currently a Visiting Professor in the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds, where he was a faculty member from 1993 to 2020.

Duncan McCargo attended Sandbach School and later gained three degrees from the University of London: a First in English ; then an MA in Area Studies and a PhD in Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Duncan McCargo was an undergraduate exchange student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Duncan McCargo has taught at Queen's University, Belfast, and at Kobe Gakuin University, Japan.

Duncan McCargo is best known for his writing on contemporary Thailand and Asia-related topics.

Since then Duncan McCargo has published several other books on Thailand.

Apart from his twelve books, Duncan McCargo has published a number of articles in journals including Critical Asian Studies, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of Democracy and New Left Review.

Duncan McCargo's writings regarding the "network monarchy", a term he coined to describe King Bhumibol Adulyadej and his proxies, particularly former Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanond, have been influential among Thai academics.

Duncan McCargo's was the only journal article selected by Foreign Affairs for their seven-item list of essential reading on Thai politics.

Duncan McCargo was critical of the 2006 and 2014 military coups in Thailand.

From 2005 to 2010, Duncan McCargo worked primarily on the violent conflict affecting Thailand's southern border provinces, spending a year driving around the region and interviewing more than 270 informants.

Duncan McCargo gives a thorough explanation of why unrest began in southern Thailand, and why it has spread.

Duncan McCargo's core argument is that the southern conflict is a political problem.

Duncan McCargo has conducted research in Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.

Religion has been a central theme of Duncan McCargo's work, dating back to his doctoral research on Chamlong's links with the Santi Asoke Buddhist movement.

Duncan McCargo's writings on Thai Buddhism, which he claims is an obstacle to, rather than an asset for processes of democratization in the country, have generated controversy, and have been extensively challenged in two books by the leading scholar-monk Prayudh Payutto.

Between 2011 and 2014, Duncan McCargo held a Leverhulme Trust major research fellowship to examine issues relating to justice and politics in Thailand, from which he has published a number of articles.

Duncan McCargo spent 2012 conducting fieldwork in Thailand, including participant-observation in courts and police stations; his primary focus was on a number of politically related court cases brought since 2006.

Duncan McCargo has written critical examinations of transitional justice initiatives, both in Southeast Asia and more broadly.

In 2011, Duncan McCargo published an influential article with his former PhD student Naruemon Thabchumpon in which they coined the term "urbanized villagers", to describe the socio-economic basis of the pro-Thaksin redshirt movement.

In 2020, Duncan McCargo published Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party.

Duncan McCargo appears regularly in the broadcast media, especially on BBC radio and television, and his op-ed and commentary pieces have appeared in Time magazine, as well as in the Guardian Weekly, The Telegraph, The Economist, The Guardian, and The Independent, The Financial Times, The New York Times, and a dozen other newspapers around the world.

Duncan McCargo has given lengthy interviews to The Chronicle of Higher Education and the New Mandala website.

Duncan McCargo's photographs have appeared in Asia Times, The New York Times and Nikkei Asian Review, as well as in various academic publications.

Duncan McCargo is cited by his undergraduate alma mater, Royal Holloway, as one of their notable alumni in the field of education.

Duncan McCargo is one of only five recipients of this degree.

Duncan McCargo was the first head of the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, a post he held twice.

Duncan McCargo was appointed a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2011, nominated by the Political Studies Association.

On 12 April 2012, Duncan McCargo made his stage debut at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

Duncan McCargo co-starred in Titanic Tales: Stories of Courage and Cowardice, a specially commissioned production commemorating the centenary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

Duncan McCargo co-created the Nordic Asia podcast series in 2020.

Duncan McCargo is a host on the Literature and Southeast Asian Studies channels of the New Books Network.