1. Ian Buruma was born on 28 December 1951 and is a Dutch writer and editor who lives and works in the United States.
15 Facts About Ian Buruma
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Ian Buruma was the Paul W Williams Professor of Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College from 2003 to 2017.
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Ian Buruma's father, Sytze Leonard "Leo" Buruma, was a Dutch lawyer and son of a Mennonite minister; his mother, Gwendolyn Margaret "Wendy" Schlesinger, was a Briton of German-Jewish descent.
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Ian Buruma went to study at Leiden University in 1971, and obtained a Candidate degree in Chinese literature and history in 1975.
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Ian Buruma subsequently pursued postgraduate studies in Japanese cinema from 1975 to 1977 at the College of Art of the Nihon University in Tokyo, Japan.
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Ian Buruma later traveled throughout Asia working as a freelance writer.
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Ian Buruma is a board member of Human Rights in China and a fellow of the European Council of Foreign Relations.
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Ian Buruma held fellowships at the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC, and he was an Alistair Horne fellow of St Antony's College in Oxford, United Kingdom.
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From 2003 to 2017, Ian Buruma was Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights and Journalism at Bard College in New York City, New York.
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Ian Buruma has been a regular contributor to Project Syndicate since 2001.
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In September 2018, Buruma left the NYRB position following a dispute about his publication of an essay by Canadian talk show host Jian Ghomeshi.
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In 2008, Ian Buruma was awarded the Erasmus Prize, which is awarded to an individual who has made "an especially important contribution to culture, society or social science in Europe".
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Ian Buruma was included in Foreign Policy magazine's 2010 list of the "100 top global thinkers".
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Ian Buruma is a nephew of the English film director John Schlesinger, with whom he published a series of interviews in book form.
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Ian Buruma argued in 2001 for wholehearted British participation in the European Union because they were the "strongest champions in Europe of a liberal approach to commerce and politics".