Tom Griffiths: Oxford University Scholar
Tom Griffiths has a long-held interest in Asia and when he began his university studies in International Relations and Political Philosophy his passion in the area of Asia-New Zealand relations intensified. Tom’s academic concentration has been mostly on China, but he maintains a keen awareness of the region at large.
Tom’s scholarship within the wider area of Asian Studies has involved the completion of three essays during his Honours year at Victoria University, 2008. One essay in particular looked at the role that Buddhism plays in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand with respect to the government and the citizens. In this essay, Tom analysed Buddhist justifications for political violence in order to reassess the common view that Buddhism is both non-violent and beyond the physical world of politics.
Tom became a member of the Asia New Zealand Young Leaders Network at the end of 2007, when he attended the Young Leader’s Forum. Since then he has been actively involved in network activities. He took part in a leadership panel during the 2008 New Zealand Leadership Week. This year he gave a presentation at our Wellington Principals' Forum and attended a Track 2 meeting.
More recently, Tom was selected by Asia:NZ to attend the Asia-Pacific Roundtable meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, along with fellow Young Leader, Leon Gaskin. Tom comments that the highlight of this trip for him was, “the contacts that I made with members of the CSIS [American-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies] and other attendees at the forum.” Apart from engaging in the networking and social aspects of the Kuala Lumpur forum, he recalls particularly enjoying a lively discussion on the subjects of religion, fundamentalism and terrorism. Read more about how they got on in our 'out and about' section.
Tom has been accepted into Oxford University to read for his Masters in Chinese Studies, from October this year. He proposes to look at the influence of exile on Classical Chinese authors and their political philosophical writings.
