Tim Soutphommasane
{{Short description|Australian columnist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = Dr
| image = Tim Soutphommasane 2015-01.jpg
| caption = Soutphommasane in 2015
| name = Tim Soutphommasane
| birth_name = Thinethavone Soutphommasane
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1982}}
| birth_place = Montpellier, France
| nationality = Australian
| citizenship =
| education = University of Sydney
Balliol College, Oxford (MPhil, DPhil)
| occupation = Race Discrimination Commissioner
Professor
}}
Thinethavone "Tim" Soutphommasane ({{IPAc-en|s|uː|t|ˈ|p|ɒ|m|ə|s|ɑː|n}} {{respell|soot|POM|ə|sahn}}; born 1982) is an Australian academic, social commentator and former public servant. He was Australia's Race Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2013 to 2018.{{cite web |url=https://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/commissioners/race-discrimination-commissioner-dr-tim-soutphommasane |title=Race Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane |publisher=Australian Human Rights Commission (Humanrights.gov.au) |date=20 August 2013 |access-date=27 May 2014}} He has previously been a political staffer for Bob Carr, a columnist with The Age and The Australian newspapers, a lecturer at Sydney and Monash Universities, and a research fellow with the Per Capita think tank. He is a member of the board of the National Australia Day Council, and an ex officio member of the Council for Multicultural Australia.{{cite web |url=http://www.amc.gov.au/members/ |title=Council members: Australian Multicultural Council |publisher=Amc.gov.au |date= |access-date=27 May 2014}}
Early life
Soutphommasane was born in Montpellier, France in 1982 to Chinese and Lao parents who had fled Laos as refugees in 1975.{{cite journal |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2012/08/ns-profile-tim-soutphommasane |title=The NS Profile: Tim Soutphommasane |journal=New Statesman |date=16 August 2012 |publisher=newstatesman.com |access-date=27 May 2014}}
His family was resettled by the Family Reunion Program of the Australian Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs to Sydney's south-western suburbs in 1985,{{cite web |url=http://www.usyd.edu.au/sydney_ideas_quarterly/people/profiles/03_tim_soutphommanse.shtml |title=Tim Soutphommasane: Taking back the light |work=Sydney IQ |publisher=The University of Sydney (Usyd.edu.au) |date=1 December 2009 |access-date=27 May 2014}} where he was raised. He was educated at Hurlstone Agricultural High School.
Academia
Soutphommasane graduated from the University of Sydney with a first-class honours degree. He was then a Commonwealth Scholar and Jowett Senior Scholar at Balliol College of the University of Oxford where he completed a Master of Philosophy with distinction and a Doctor of Philosophy in political theory.
From 2010 to 2012 he was a Lecturer in Australian Studies and a Research Fellow at the National Centre for Australian Studies of Monash University.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} He was one of six chief investigators on an Australian Research Council Linkage project studying the history of ANZAC Day.{{cite web |title=Anzac Day at Home and Abroad: A Centenary History of Australia's National Day: Team |url=http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/research-showcase/anzac-day-at-home-and-abroad-a-centenary-history-of-australias-national-day/ |work=Arts Research Showcase |publisher=Monash University-Faculty of Arts |access-date=27 May 2014 |date=10 January 2013}}{{cite web|title=Dr Tim Soutphommasane-Biography|url=http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/tim-soutphommasane/biography/|publisher=Monash University|access-date=27 May 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140527185151/http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/tim-soutphommasane/biography/|archive-date=27 May 2014|df=dmy-all}}
In 2019, he was appointed Professor of Practice in Sociology and Political Theory at the University of Sydney to teach human rights related theory.{{cite web |title=Tim Soutphommasane returns to the University of Sydney |url=https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2019/01/21/tim-soutphommasane-returns-to-the-university-of-sydney.html |website=The University of Sydney |access-date=21 January 2019 |language=en-AU}}
Journalism
Soutphommasane was a regular writer for The Australian newspaper, to which he contributed feature articles and the Ask the Philosopher column each Saturday. He also wrote for The Monthly magazine. While living in England, Soutphommasane was a freelance journalist, contributing blog entries to The Guardian and The Financial Times, as well as opinion pieces and reviews to The Spectator, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Soutphommasane, Reclaiming Patriotism (Port Melb: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p.i. Paperback, {{ISBN|978-0-521-13472-9}}
Writing
Soutphommasane's first book Reclaiming Patriotism: Nation-Building for Australian Progressives was published in 2009. Loosely based on research undertaken toward his doctoral thesis, the book argues that people with progressive politics must re-engage with ideas of patriotism and national identity, which Soutphommasane claims were surrendered to the right during the Prime Ministership of John Howard.
His The Virtuous Citizen: Patriotism in a Multicultural Society{{cite book|title=The Virtuous Citizen: Patriotism in a Multicultural Society|last=Soutphommasane|first=Tim|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2012|isbn=9781107025141}} was published in 2012 and Don't Go Back To Where You Came From: Why Multiculturalism Works, published the next year, won the NSW Premier's Literary Award in the 'Community Relations Commission Award' section.{{cite press release |url=http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/media/enclosures/PLA2013_winners_mediakit.pdf |title=Winners announced for 2013 NSW Premier's Literary Awards |publisher=State Library of New South Wales |date=19 May 2013 |page=5 |access-date=27 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620192300/http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/media/enclosures/PLA2013_winners_mediakit.pdf |archive-date=20 June 2014 |df=dmy-all }}
He was also co-editor (with Nick Dyrenfurth) of All That's Left: What Labor Should Stand For (New South Books, 2010).
Other roles
File:Tim Soutphommasane and David Morrison.jpg in 2016.]]
Soutphommasane was appointed to the Council for Multicultural Australia in August 2011.{{cite web |url=http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-18089 |title=Speech to the Australian Multicultural Council Launch, Canberra |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia) |access-date=8 October 2016 |date=22 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009162209/http://pmtranscripts.dpmc.gov.au/release/transcript-18089 |archive-date=9 October 2016 |df=dmy-all }}
Political activity
Books
- Reclaiming Patriotism: Nation-Building for Australian Progressives (Port Melb: Cambridge University Press, 2009) Paperback, {{ISBN|978-0-521-13472-9}}
- Don't Go Back To Where You Came From: Why Multiculturalism Works (New South Books, 2012)
- The Virtuous Citizen: Patriotism in a Multicultural Society (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
- I'm Not Racist but... (NewSouth Publishing, 2015)
- On Hate (Melbourne University Press, 2019)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{commons category}}
- {{Official website|http://www.soutphommasane.com.au/}}
- [http://www.humanrights.gov.au/about/commissioners/race-discrimination-commissioner-dr-tim-soutphommasane Race discrimination commissioner profile]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soutphommasane, Tim}}
Category:Australian columnists
Category:Australian people of Laotian descent
Category:University of Sydney alumni
Category:French emigrants to Australia
Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Category:Academic staff of Monash University
Category:Australian public servants
Category:People educated at Hurlstone Agricultural High School