The Bill Cowan Barr Smith Library Fellowship

Library Fellows

In response to the news of his success, Ming Hwa Ting said 'I am indeed honoured to be selected by the panel as the inaugural Bill Cowan Barr Smith Library Fellow'. Ming is a Doctoral Candidate from Singapore undertaking his research at the Centre for Asian Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Adelaide.

Ming Hwa Ting's PhD topic is Singapore's Foreign Policy: Socialising Anarchy, which he is undertaking under the supervision of Professor Purnendra Jain, Professor of Japanese Studies. Ming's research is concerned to bring an alternative theoretical framework - known as the English School theory - to the analysis of Singapore's foreign policy. The English School encompasses theorists well represented in the Barr Smith collections, such as Hedley Bull, F.S. Northedge, Martin Wight and Herbert Butterfield. The collections are also strong in the realist school on which most scholarly work on Singapore's foreign policy is currently based - authors like H.J. Morgenthau, E.H. Carr, Kenneth Waltz and John Mearsheimer - and which Ming wishes to subject to an alternative analysis.

Dr Gerry Groot, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Asian Studies, commented that Ming's work is 'especially significant given the geographical proximity between Singapore and Australia and that Singapore is Australia's main partner in Southeast Asia. Ming is attempting to address nuances that have been overlooked in present scholarship'.

Ming has received a number of past awards and recognitions for academic excellence including :

• 2004 United Nations Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement
• 2005 John F Kennedy Memorial Scholarship for Politics
• 2006 Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarship
• 2006 University of Adelaide Scholarship
• 2007 Academia Sinica Visiting Scholar Travel Grant

Ming has a growing publications record

• 'The Benign and the Belligerent: Re-framing Taiwan's Role in Southeast Asia's Stability', Asia-Pacific Forum, vol. 38, Dec 2007, 49-74.
• 'Singapore-Malaysia Relations: Beyond Realism' (paper presented at the Australian Political Studies Association Conference, Brisbane, 6-9 July 2008).

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