Dr Kenneth McPherson

BA Hons, MA, PhD (ANU)

Kenneth McPherson was Associate Professor and foundation director of the Indian Ocean Centre at Curtin University until 2000. The Centre was funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Kenneth was a member of the official Australian delegation that negotiated the establishment of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation.

In 2002 he was appointed Mercator Professor at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. In 2004 he was Visiting Professor at the University of Heidelberg and also became a Fellow of the South Asia Institute of the University. In 2005 he was Senior Humboldt Fellow at the Institute and also was made Adjunct Professor at La Trobe Univerity in Melbourne.

Kenneth's work has primarily been in the area of early Portuguese contact with South Asia, Muslims in Bengal and Tamil Nad and the history of the Indian Ocean region (cf. The Indian Ocean. A History of People and the Sea, OUP, Delhi 1993 and later editions). Currently he is completeing a study on Muslims in Tamil Nad and beginning a project on fisheries in Tamil Nad as part of the part of the History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) project.

Kenneth can be contacted at E-mail: drkennethmcpherson@yahoo.com.au