AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our talented and eclectic membership, AHA Today features a regular AHA Member Spotlight series.       

Paul Vauthier Adams is a professor emeritus at Shippensburg University. He currently lives in both Pennsylvania and Mindanao, Philippines, and has been a member of the AHA since 1972.

Current school and alma mater/s: PhD, SUNY, Buffalo; professor emeritus, Shippensburg University

Fields of interest: comparative world history, agricultural and demographic themes (mostly western Europe and Southeast Asia)

When did you first develop an interest in history?

In the 6th grade, during elementary school.

What projects are you working on currently?

Two books: Born Global, Global Still: The Philippines in World History and History before History (i.e. global history before c. 3000 BCE).

Have your interests changed since graduate school? If so, how?

From western Europe, I went global in teaching and research. I developed a second field in Southeast Asia.

Is there an article, book, movie, blog etc. that you could recommend to fellow AHA members?

James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009).

What do you value most about the history profession?

A shared appreciation of good teaching and good writing.

Do you have a favorite AHA annual meeting anecdote you would like to share?

At the 1976 meeting I found Eugen Weber’s book, Peasants into Frenchmen, and was so taken by it that I telephoned him, at the meeting, and he graciously met me to talk about it over coffee.

Other than history, what are you passionate about?  

Farming, carpentry, raising children, social and environmental issues.

Any final thoughts?

Great profession, wish I had written more while teaching.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.