Freeman, James Montague
Date Updated
4-21-2020
Department
Anthropology
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
2000
Facebook or Website URL
Freeman (James) collection on Southeast Asian refugees Online Archive of California
Educational Background
Harvard University, Social Relations, 1968 Ph.D.
Harvard University, Social Relations, 1964 M.A.
Northwestern University, Anthropology, 1958 B.A.
Dissertation Title
Power and Leadership in a Changing Temple Village of India
Teaching Experience
SJSU, 1966-2000
Administrative and Professional Experience
Department Chair, several years
Service
Nonprofit Service: Co-founder and former CEO of two nonprofit organizations: Aid to Children Without Parents; and Friends of Hue Foundation. Assisted Vietnamese refugees and immigrants, as well as unaccompanied minors in Southeast Asian detention centers and those repatriated to Vietnam.
Selected Publications
Seven books and more than 50 academic and magazine articles. The most significant books are “Hearts of Sorrow,” “Untouchable,” and “Voices from the Camps.”
Files
Personal Commentary
San Jose State University provided me a distinctive opportunity to balance teaching, scholarship, and public service in such a way that each enhanced the other. For this, I am ever grateful.
SJSU Awards: Outstanding Professor; President’s Scholar; Austen Warburton Award.
Fellowships: Eight major awards, including Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; and National Endowment for the Humanities.
Literary Awards: Four, including an American Book Award for “Hearts of Sorrow.” The same book also won the Outstanding Book Award for the Association for Asian-American Studies.
Film Award: Best Short Documentary, Silicon Valley Film Festival for “The Myth of the Buddha’s Birthplace.”
Screenplay Awards: More than twenty, including the Golden Fox Award, Calcutta International Cult Film Festival, for “Untouchable Thief.” The same screenplay won five additional best script awards.
Personal: Jim is a second-generation SJSU professor. His father, Eugene Freeman, was a Professor of Philosophy. Jim and his wife have one son.