James Robert Rush is an American historian, writer, editor, researcher, essayist, consultant and professor. Rush studied modern Southeast Asian history at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. Rush obtained a PhD degree from Yale University in 1977. As a public historian

Public Historian

There are two categories of public historians. The first, and most widely understood definition of a public historian is a practitioner of public history. This definition holds that public historians are generally regarded as those people who create history for public consumption; history as...

, Rush is an expert on modern Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

. As an educator, Rush is an associate professor of history at the Department of History of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University

Arizona State University

Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...

 in Tempe, Arizona

Tempe, Arizona

Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2010 population of 161,719. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale...

. He is the Director of Arizona State University's Program for Southeast Asian Studies. He is also the Associate Chair of the History Department of the university. As a consultant, Rush worked with The Asia Society, El Colegio de México

El Colegio de México

El Colegio de México, A.C. is a prestigious Mexican institute of higher education, specializing in teaching and research in the social sciences and the humanities...

, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund , , is an international philanthropic organisation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family. It was set up in New York City in 1940 as the primary philanthropic vehicle of the five famous Rockefeller brothers: John D...

. As a researcher, Rush's research in Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 was under a Fulbright Senior Scholarship Program.

Selected works

Rush's works are related to issues discussing colonialism and religion in Indonesia during the nineteenth and the twentieth century. From 1987, Rush was also the leader of the biography project of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation in Manila, Philippines. In connection with the Ramon Magsaysay Award

Ramon Magsaysay Award

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel...

 Foundation's biography project, Rush conducted interviews with more than one hundred awardees, and from 1991 to 2006 Rush edited six volumes of biographical essays. Rush's own essays for the biographical project of the Ramon Magsaysay

Ramon Magsaysay

Ramón del Fierro Magsaysay was the third President of the Republic of the Philippines from December 30, 1953 until his death in a plane crash in 1957. He was elected President under the banner of the Nacionalista Party.-Early life:Ramon F...

 Award series include the biographies of Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Pramoedya Ananta Toer was an Indonesian author of novels, short stories, essays, polemic and histories of his homeland and its people...

, Abdurrahman Wahid

Abdurrahman Wahid

Abdurrahman Wahid, born Abdurrahman Addakhil , colloquially known as , was an Indonesian Muslim religious and political leader who served as the President of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001...

, Bienvenido Lumbera

Bienvenido Lumbera

Bienvenido Lumbera is a prizewinning poet, critic and dramatist from the Philippines.He is a National Artist of the Philippines and a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communications...

, Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar

Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...

, Veditantirige Ediriwira Sarachchandra, and Fei Xiaotong

Fei Xiaotong

Fei Xiaotong, or Fei Hsiao-Tung was a pioneering Chinese researcher and professor of sociology and anthropology; he was also noted for his studies in the study of China's ethnic groups as well as a social activist...

. The titles of Rush's books include the following:

• Hamka's Great Story: Islam for Indonesia
• Java: A Travellers' Anthology (1996)
• The Last Tree: Reclaiming the Environment in Tropical Asia (1991)
• Opium to Java: Revenue Farming and Chinese Enterprise in Colonial Indonesia, 1860–1910 (1990)
• Asia in Western Fiction (with Robin W. Winks) (1989)