in fine arts at Harvard College in 1962, Woodward joined the Peace Corps and taught English at Silpakorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.
With a thesis on the Art of Central Siam, 950–1350 A.D. he completed his Ph.D., also at Yale, in 1975.
From 1972 until 1982, Woodward taught as assistant professor of History of Art at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and subsequently until 1986 as associate professor at the University of Vermont.
[1] He has published mainly on Buddhist sculpture from Southeast Asia, as well as art and architecture in the area of present-day Thailand from prehistoric times until the inception of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya in the 14th century.
In 2013, the SOAS University of London created an endowed chair in Southeast Asian Art named after Hiram W.