Our teaching faculty comes from diverse nationalities and academic backgrounds. We are committed to the cause of building a just, inclusive and peaceful society and wholeheartedly assist you to succeed in your academic journey at our Department of Peace Studies.
Dr. Le Ngoc Bich Ly
(Head of Department of Peace Studies, Core Lecturer)
Dr. Le Ngoc Bich Ly is the head of the International Ph.D. program in Peacebuilding at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She teaches courses related to religion, gender, and peacebuilding and also coordinates interfaith activities and public presentations at the university. Ly earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Can Tho University, Vietnam, in 2004 and a Master of Divinity from Payap University in 2011. She received her Ph.D. in Inter-Religious Studies from the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies in Indonesia in 2017. Her research focuses on gender issues in religion, interfaith dialogue, Buddhism, and peacebuilding.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mark Tamthai
(Founder of the peacebuilding program, Core Lecturer)
Dr. Tamthai is the former head of the Philosophy Department at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and the former director of the Institute of Religion, Culture, and Peace at Payap University, Thailand. He has taught and written in the fields of Philosophy of Science, Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy, and Peace-Conflict Studies. Some of his papers are “Democracy with a Heart”, “The Democratic-Peace Hypothesis and building a Culture of Peace in Southeast Asia”, “Citizenship and the struggle for rights in fledgling democracies”, “The Philosophical and Cultural Dimension of Peacebuilding”, and most recently, “Weaving Patani’s dream non-violently.” He is the former president of the Philosophy and Religion Society of Thailand, was a member of Thailand’s National Reconciliation Commission, and headed the government’s peace talk team with the Patani Movement in Southern Thailand.
Dr. Rey Ty
(Core Lecturer)
R. Ty is a faculty member of the Department of Peace Studies as well as the Director of the Religion, Culture, and Peace Lab (RCPL). His peer-reviewed academic publications on youth and interfaith peacebuilding, human rights, environmental action, gender, refugees, migrant labor, statelessness, climate change, and other issues are indexed in Academia | BASE | ERIC | Google Books | Google Scholar| ORCID | Sci-Hub | Scopus| Semantic Scholar | WorldCat. Dr. Ty received his Master’s degree in Asian Studies (Political Science) from the University of California at Berkeley. He received his second Master’s degree in Political Science (Comparative Politics, Political Theory, International Relations, Southeast Asian Politics) and doctorate degree in Education (adult and higher education administration; public policy; human resource development; community development; social movement) from Northern Illinois University. His doctoral dissertation focused on human rights and peace education.
For the Ph.D. in Peace Studies, he teaches Research Methodology, Human Rights and Peacebuilding, and Cultural Dimensions of Peacebuilding. In the U.S., he has taught Political Science courses (American Politics, Conflict and Peace Studies, International Political Economy, International Relations) and Education (International Education, Research Methodology).
He has completed his human rights internship at the Directorate of Human Rights of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. He has completed research on the relationship among human rights, the laws of war, and international humanitarian law in Geneva, Switzerland. As a member of different international NGOs with consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations, he has been engaged in advocacy before the United Nations offices in Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.; Vienna, Austria; Geneva, Switzerland; and Bangkok, Thailand. He has taught European-wide teachers and teachers all over the world in summer schools in Bossey, Switzerland that a U.N. funded INGO with consultative status with the U.N. over the years. He was part of an international team that gave advice to the Parliament of Nepal when it transformed from absolute monarchy to democracy. In a United Nations organized training program, he has trained judges, police, media, and civil society in Kathmandu, Nepal.
He initiated the Peace Studies Present, the Peer Mentoring Program, and the Annual International Conference on Religion, Culture, Peace, and Education.
Aside from English, Dr. R. Ty speaks Mandarin (Chinese), Fujianhua (Chinese), Tagalog (Filipino), French, Spanish, and basic Indonesian.
Dr. Mon Mon Myat
(Core Lecturer)
Dr. Mon Mon Myat is a published poet, novelist, and short story writer in Myanmar. She has published books of fiction and poetry, in both Myanmar and English, including Heartless Forest: An Anthology of Burmese Women Writers, in 2013. In 2016, she produced a documentary film about Aung San Suu Kyi’s political journey: “A Long Way Panglong.” Mon Mon Myat has written for many news agencies, newspapers, and magazines, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), Bangkok Post Newspaper, and the Irrawaddy News Magazine. She has published articles in academic journals and on university websites, featuring various works arising from her Ph.D. research. And she has contributed book chapters to three books.
