William Cummings joins the department in Fall 2012. He received his PhD from the University of Hawai'i and specializes in Southeast Asian history and culture, about which he has published three books and numerous articles. His first book won the Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies for its exploration of how the advent of literacy changed perceptions of the past in seventeenth-century Indonesia. His research and teaching interests focus on cross-cultural encounters, translation, non-Western conceptions of history, and the use of film to represent the past. Dr. Cummings is married to Sharon, an abstract artist, and when not on campus is most likely either playing with his great danes or riding his motorcycle.