Southeast Asian Studies

Sport, development and globalization: Perspectives from south-east Asia, in D.M. Nault (ed.), Developing Asia. Boca Raton: Brown Walker Press, 195-214.

by John Nauright

Published  in D.M. Nault (ed.), Developing Asia. Boca Raton: Brown Walker Press, 2009, pp. 195-214.

Co-authoed with Charles Little.

Before Biotech: Ariff Bongso, IVF, and the Developmental Context of the Life Sciences in Singapore, 1966-1997

by John P. DiMoia

working draft for "Asian Biopoleis" wokshop, July 26th, 2012

Evers, Hans-Dieter, and Solvay Gerke. 2012. "Globalisation of Social Science Research on Southeast Asia." Pp. Chapter 5 in Knowledge and Social Science in a Globalising World, edited by Wan Zawawi Ibrahim. Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Sains Sosial Malaysia ( Malaysian Association of Social Sciences).

by Hans-Dieter Evers

Evers, Hans-Dieter, and Solvay Gerke. 2012. "Globalisation of Social Science Research on Southeast Asia." Pp. Chapter 5 in Knowledge and Social Science in a Globalising World, edited by Wan Zawawi Ibrahim. Kuala Lumpur: Persatuan Sains  Sosial Malaysia ( Malaysian Association of Social Sciences).

Evers-Nordin2012-Cyberjaya-WP-2012-05-20

by Hans-Dieter Evers

Thinking out-of-the-box: questions concerning critical history

by Eunice Seng

A Review of William Lim (2004) Architecture.Art.Identity: Is There Life in Singapore After Tabula Rasa? Singapore: Select Publishing.

Architecture.Art.Identity contains an impassioned appeal to history to secure the place for future artistic leaders.... more Architecture.Art.Identity contains an impassioned appeal to history to secure the place for future artistic leaders. This essay questions the relationship between history and the perpetuation of rhetoric in order to reveal the substance for a critical artistic practice in Singapore.

Review - James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed (New Haven, 2009)

by Uday Chandra

Religion and Society: Advances in Research, Vol. 2 (2011), pp. 194-96.

Before Rolling Thunder: Hyundai Construction in Southeast Asia, 1965-1973

by John P. DiMoia

in process, aiming to submit to JAS, JKS or Positions later in 2012? in process, aiming to submit to JAS, JKS or Positions later in 2012?

Landscapes of political memories: War legacies and land negotiations in Laos

by Ian Baird

Ian G. Baird and Philippe Le Billon (Published online, May 2012) Political Geography

Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping ‘post-conflict’ landscapes through... more Wars and their aftermaths frequently transform land use and ownership, reshaping ‘post-conflict’ landscapes through new boundaries, population movements, land reforms and conditions of access. Within a global context of controversial land concessions and farmland acquisitions, we bring to light the continued salience of historical memories of war in the ways land conflicts are being negotiated in Laos. Considering circumstances at different scalesdfrom bilateral government relations to village-level claimsdwe find that political capital linked to memories of wartime affiliations have crucial spatial and place-based connections, and that they affect the ways investors, government officials and villagers negotiate over land concessions. Ethnographic evidence, spatial analysis and a survey of expatriate development workers engaged with land issues in Laos suggest that such ‘political memories’ are an important but often overlooked factor in shaping an uneven concessions landscape. We discuss implications for foreign development organizations that tend to privilege technical and legal aspects of land
management over such political dimensions.

Making blood white: Historical transformations in early modern Makassar (William Cummings) University of Hawaii Press, 2002. Journal article by Stephen Druce; Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 34…

by Stephen Druce

Rights and Conflicts in the Management of Fisheries in the Lower Songkhram River Basin, Northeast Thailand

by Kenneth Ruddle

(2008) Environmental Management, 43:557-570 (M.Khumsri, K.Ruddle and G. P.Shivakoti).

On the Origins, Diffusion and Cultural Context of Fermented Fish Products in Southeast Asia

by Kenneth Ruddle

2010,  pp. 1-17. In Globalization, Food and Social Identities in the Asia Pacific Region, James Farrer (ed.). Tokyo: Sophia University Institute of Comparative Culture. (K.Ruddle and N. Ishige)

Canadian Complicity in the East Timor Near-Genocide: A Case Study in the Sociology of Human Rights

by Jeffery Klaehn

‘Canadian Complicity in the East Timor Near-Genocide: A Case Study in the Sociology of Human Rights,’ Portuguese Studies Review, 2004, Vol. 11(1): 49-65.

This research assesses the extent to which Canadian economic and political self-interest can be seen to have motivated... more This research assesses the extent to which Canadian economic and political self-interest can be seen to have motivated the complicity of successive Canadian governments in the East Timor near-genocide perpetrated by the government of Indonesia. The research considers ways in which Canada facilitated and legitimized Indonesia’s occupation vis-à-vis
diplomatic actions at the UN, pro-Indonesian foreign policy, direct investment in Indonesia, bilateral aid, and authorization of military export permits, thus in effect “aiding and abetting” the near-genocide. The research is intended to encourage debate concerning the relationship between the political and economic policies of Western nations and the state of human rights
elsewhere in the world.

Corporate Hegemony: a critical assessment of the Globe and Mail’s news coverage of near-genocide in occupied East Timor 1975–80

by Jeffery Klaehn

‘Corporate Hegemony and the Marginalization of Dissent: A Critical Assessment and Review of the Globe and Mail’s News Coverage of Near-Genocide in Occupied East Timor, 1975-1980,’ International Communication Gazette, 2002, Vol. 64(4): 301-321. Reprinted in Filtering the News: Essays on Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model (Montreal: Black Rose, 2005), 138-163.

Abstract / The study asks whether the news coverage accorded the near-genocide in East Timor by the Globe and Mail... more Abstract / The study asks whether the news coverage accorded the near-genocide in East Timor by the Globe and Mail (G&M) followed the predictions of the ‘propaganda model’ (PM) of media operations laid out and applied by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. The research asks whether the G&M’s news coverage of the near-genocide in East Timor and of Canada’s ‘aiding and abetting’ of ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ in occupied East Timor was hegemonic or ideologically serviceable given Canada’s (geo)political-economic interests in Indonesia throughout the invasion and occupation periods. Did the news coverage provide a political and historical benchmark by which to inform the Canadian public (or not) and influence (or not) Canadian government policy on Indonesia and East Timor?

Keywords / Canadian foreign policy / democracy / East Timor / media / power and hegemony / propaganda model

The Decline of Pan-Indian Identity and the Development of Tamil Cultural Separatism in Singapore, 1856-1965

by John Solomon

Published in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 35:2, 257-281

This paper explores the rise and fall of pan-Indianism as the dominant identity narrative amongst the Indian diaspora... more This paper explores the rise and fall of pan-Indianism as the dominant identity narrative amongst the Indian diaspora in Singapore in the mid twentieth century, and its replacement with a normative Indian identity based primarily on Tamil culture. It will analyse some of the reasons why a Tamil cultural separatism came to dominate negotiations of ethnic identity in early post-war Singapore. This will include an examination of colonial ethnographic representations, the effects of demographic trends in Indian migration to Malaya during the colonial period, transnational political linkages between Singapore and India, and the effects of the Japanese occupation on Indian identity during World War II. The paper will also focus on the growth of the Tamil reform movement and the ways in which it came to shape the framing of Tamil ethnic identity in Singapore.

Contemporaneity and Art in Southeast Asia

by Joan Kee

This is an introduction to a special issue on contemporary art in Southeast Asia I co-edited with Patrick Flores. <Third Text>, August 2011

Asian Integration - Scope and Limits

by Reuben Wong

In ISPI Analysis no.14, Milan: Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI), 2010.

"East Asia" shows signs of integrating into a more coherent economic area, and some optimistic observers... more "East Asia" shows signs of integrating into a more coherent economic area, and some optimistic observers even envisage a political unit in the making. This paper argues that integration in Asia is necessarily limited because it is essentially a series of overlapping state-directed initiatives without a clear overarching vision, and with low civil society participation. There are paradoxes - two internal and one external – in the current integration process(es) in Asia. First, these initiatives and activities are a response to economic imperatives for more ease (or rather, lower barriers to) trans-border flows of trade, investment, production and finance; they have achieved very little in promoting regional consciousness and identity. Second, there are no concrete commitments to resolving longstanding inter-state (much less intra-state) conflicts, and no shared visions of what an integrated Asia would look like. Third (and this is the external contradiction), there is a problem grappling with the place and role of the United States- how should the US be included? If it is, can the US be counted on as a full-fledged member of the region? These paradoxes will be examined in turn.

Book Review: Benny Widyono’s "Dancing in Shadows"

by Alvin Lim

Explorations 9 (2009): 127-129.

Breakfast with the Dictator: Memory, Atrocity, and Affect

by Alvin Lim

Theory & Event 13.4 (2010)

In August 2007, I accompanied a Czech political scientist and a Cambodian journalist to the Cambodian border town of... more In August 2007, I accompanied a Czech political scientist and a Cambodian journalist to the Cambodian border town of Pailin. We were there to interview Nuon Chea, the chief ideologue of the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime’s Brother Number 2. This interview was to be one of his last before his arrest the following month by the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity. I shall discuss this and other encounters with Cambodia’s memorials of atrocity in this paper, which explores the affective intersection of haptic space with places of memory.

Reassembling Memory: Rithy Panh’s "S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine"

by Alvin Lim

In "The New Violent Cartography: Geo-analysis After the Aesthetic Turn," edited by Sam Okoth Opondo and Michael J. Shapiro. New York, NY: Routledge, 2012.

On 26 July 2010, Kaing Guek Eav was convicted by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) of crimes... more On 26 July 2010, Kaing Guek Eav was convicted by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) of crimes against humanity. Kaing, better known by his nom de guerre Duch, committed these crimes in his position as the commandant of the Khmer Rouge’s secret S-21 prison. In the wake of this historic decision, I offer here a re-reading of Rithy Panh’s groundbreaking 2003 documentary "S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine." Panh’s documentary reassembles the living memory of Duch’s S-21 by bringing together two of its surviving victims with a group of its surviving prison guards and torturers. At the former prison cells and torture chambers of Tuol Sleng, the central nexus of S-21, Panh gets these former guards and torturers to reenact their daily rounds of discipline, interrogation, and execution of their prisoners, at moments under the gaze of the two former victims. I will read Panh’s remarkable reassemblage of the lived memory of the victims and perpetrators in counterpoint with Maurice Blanchot’s notion of the de-scribing effect of the Disaster and Dominick LaCapra’s readings of the memoirs and testimonials of the Nazi Holocaust, and will conclude by reflecting on S-21 and "S-21" as signifiers of the radical contingency of the world.

The role of Islamists in post-Suharto Indonesia

by Felix Heiduk