23 Facts About Lauriston Sharp

Lauriston Sharp was a Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Cornell University.

Lauriston Sharp was the first person appointed in anthropology at the university, and he created its Southeast Asia Program, research centers in Asia and North and South America, a multidisciplinary faculty and strong language program.

Lauriston Sharp was a founding member of the Society for Applied Anthropology and a founding trustee of the Asia Society.

Lauriston Sharp attended this same institution, studying for a Bachelor of Arts.

Lauriston Sharp encountered Berber culture while on an expedition to Algeria in 1930 with the Beloit-Logan Museum.

Lauriston Sharp moved to Austria to study Southeast Asian Ethnology under Robert Heine-Geldern, receiving the Certificate in Anthropology from the University of Vienna in 1931.

Lauriston Sharp enrolled in the PhD program at Harvard University in 1932 and completed his thesis in 1937, after two years of fieldwork studying Australian Aborigines.

Lauriston Sharp contributed to the Bennington-Cornell Thailand Project with expertise in anthropology and ceramics.

Professor Lauriston Sharp began teaching at Cornell in 1936; he was the university's first appointment in anthropology.

Lauriston Sharp remained devoted to Cornell, creating and directing programs, and teaching at and remaining connected with the university for 56 years.

Lauriston Sharp remained active as the Goldwin Smith Professor Emeritus, even after his formal retirement in 1973.

Lauriston Sharp established Cornell research centers in South and Southeast Asia and North and South America.

In 1947, Lauriston Sharp began the Cornell-Thailand Project, a ground-breaking initiative to collate baseline data in a comprehensive study of a farming village on the outskirts of Bangkok.

Lauriston Sharp founded and was the first director between 1950 and 1960 of Cornell's Southeast Asia Program, for which he recruited a multi-disciplinary faculty, developed a strong language program and started what become the foremost library resource on South East Asia.

Lauriston Sharp provided for scholars from the areas studied to receive training in such programs, in addition to hundreds of Western scholars.

Lauriston Sharp chaired the Cornell Faculty Committee, which in 1961 saw the creation of the university's Center for International Studies.

Lauriston Sharp worked with his research documents on Thailand as well as on Australian Aborigines.

Lauriston Sharp had a reputation for passion in passing on his experiences to future generations.

Lauriston Sharp was president of the Association for Asian Studies from 1961 to 1962.

Lauriston Sharp was a founding member of the Society for Applied Anthropology and a founding trustee of the Asia Society.

Lauriston Sharp served on the governing boards of the American Anthropological Association and the Siam Society.

Lauriston Sharp won Guggenheim, Fulbright, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships.

Lauriston Sharp died at the age of 86 at his Ithaca, New York home on December 31,1993.