ATHENS, Ohio -- Ben Kiernan, the A. Whitney professor of history anddirector of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University, will speakon "War, Genocide and Resistance in East Timor and Cambodia" Friday, Nov. 8, at 4 p.m. in Scripps Hall's Anderson Auditorium at OhioUniversity. The event is free and open to the public.

As founding director of the Center for Genocide Studies (CGP), Kiernanwas instrumental in unearthing and disclosing documents attesting togenocidal crimes of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, through research supported by the U.S. State Department. The thousands of documentsgathered, including confidential correspondence, are considered keyevidence against Khmer Rouge leaders who may be brought to trial, eitherin Cambodia or before an international tribunal.

Kiernan's research and teaching focus is on the early and modern history of Southeast Asia. In 1998, he founded the Genocide Studies Program atYale's Center for International and Area Studies. Funded by the MellonFoundation, this interdisciplinary, inter-regional program researchesissues relating to the phenomenon of genocide.

The CGP established and continues to fund the Documentation Center of Cambodia, a research archive in Phnom Penh, and maintains a highly acclaimed Web site, www.yale.edu/cgp.

Among Kiernan's numerous publications are the books "How Pol Pot Came to Power: A History of Communism in Kampuchea, 1930-1975" (1985);"Cambodia: The Eastern Zone Massacres" (1986); and "The Pol Pot Regime:Race, Power and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979"(1996), published by Yale University Press.

His works are cited extensively by the United Nations-commissioned Group of Experts, whichearlier this year recommended the creation of an international tribunalto judge the crimes of the Khmer Rouge. Kiernan's work has beentranslated into nine languages.

Vichea S. Tieng, a native of Cambodia and a first-year graduate studentin the Southeast Asian Studies Program, believes his country benefitsfrom Kiernan's research and lectures. "More people will know aboutCambodia, Cambodian history and the genocide," said Tieng.

A native of Melbourne, Australia, Kiernan received a bachelor's degreeand a doctorate in history from Monash University.

Kiernan's lecture is sponsored by Ohio University's Southeast AsianStudies Program and by the Center for International Studies and is partof the International Studies Forum, a series of lectures on diversetopics of international concern.