SSEAC Newsletter
December 2023 edition
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Welcome to the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre's Newsletter.
Featuring some of our current research projects, education initiatives, development programs, news and events.
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6th Conference on Human Rights
SSEAC co-convened the 6th Conference on Human Rights in October, alongside the Department of Politics and Government at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta. Focusing on the theme of indigeneity and human rights in Asia and the Pacific, the conference showcased papers by scholars from around the region and covered a range of human rights-related issues.
Plenaries included presentations by Dr Herlambang Wiratraman, a legal scholar from UGM, who spoke about the need to advocate for climate constitutionalism. SSEAC Deputy Director Professor Sonja Van Wichelen presented on global bioethics in the pursuit of open science, including how inequalities in bioscientific exchange impact health and human rights.
Several panel sessions detailed the myriad ways climate change is affecting the human right to health, housing, water, food and livelihoods. The Southeast Asia region is especially prone to the global ecological crisis, with many papers detailing deforestation, nickel exploitation, rising coastal flooding and loss of biodiversity.
You can read more about the conference here. The 7th Conference on Human Rights will be held in August 2024 at the Faculty of Law at Universitas Brawijaya in Malang. The call for papers will close on 31 January 2024. For more details, see our Events page.
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2023 SSEAC Grants Scheme winners
SSEAC is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 SSEAC Grants Scheme. A total of 16 projects across four programs have been awarded funding for use over 2023 to 2025.
The successful projects cover a range of research areas. They include collaborative projects examining mathematical modelling for predicting high-risk periods of Japanese encephalitis in the Philippines and an analysis of humanitarian and development work in education in the Thai/Myanmar border communities.
Seed grant projects include the uneven impacts of the nickel boom in Indonesia against emerging electric vehicle global production networks, waste management policies and practices in Timor-Leste and the social impacts of transforming empty multi-purpose ground floors in Singapore’s high-density housing projects to shared spaces. Several workshop grants, including on feminist writings in Southeast Asian Art, and two writing fellowships were also awarded.
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Food crises in times of political conflict
Congratulations to Associate Professor David Ubilava and Professor Justin Hastings who have been awarded ARC Discovery Project funding for their research on political conflict, inefficient markets and food crises. The project aims to investigate the effect of political conflict on food markets in low- and middle-income countries across Africa and Southeast Asia, utilising data on ethnopolitical conflict, prices and institutions. This work builds on a SSEAC Collaborative Research Grant awarded to David Ubilava and Justin Hastings in 2021.
If you missed David Ubilava on our SSEAC Stories podcast discussing harvest time violence and why this is occurring in Southeast Asia, you can listen here.
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This month we say farewell to SSEAC’s brilliant Director, Professor Michele Ford. Michele was instrumental in conceptualising and establishing SSEAC as one of the University’s first multidisciplinary initiatives, and has served as Director since SSEAC was formally established in 2013. Over the past decade, Michele has been actively involved in bringing together academics and students who share a passion for Southeast Asia, fostering multidisciplinary research teams, mentoring early career researchers, building Southeast Asia literacy, driving engagement with the region, and championing SSEAC members and their research.
Apart from her significant work at SSEAC, Michele’s energy, leadership and support will be very much missed. We’ll have more to say on her many achievements and contributions in our 2023 Yearbook. We wish Michele all the very best in her future endeavours.
We also farewell SSEAC’s excellent Deputy Director, Professor Sonja Van Wichelen. Sonja has been with the Centre since the start of 2023, and in that time brought a lot of expertise and energy to the role. She successfully led the 6th Human Rights Conference, hosted delegations from the region and coordinated our flagship events. Sonja will be very much missed at SSEAC, but we are delighted that she will continue in her role on SSEAC’s Executive Committee. We wish Sonja all the very best on her return to the School of Social and Political Sciences at the beginning of 2024.
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Workers and Intellectuals now available in Indonesian
Professor Michele Ford’s Workers and Intellectuals: NGOs, Trade Unions and the Indonesian Labour Movement, originally released in 2009, has been published in Indonesian translation. The book was translated by Muliawarman Ford together with Achmad Choirudin of InsistPress. The translation was launched to a full auditorium at the 6th Conference on Human Rights at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta in October. Congratulations to Michele on the publication of this important study of the Indonesian labour movement in Bahasa Indonesia.
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Belitung book launch
Dr Natali Pearson’s new book, Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck, was launched by Associate Professor David Reeve at Gleebooks in November. This moving and thought-provoking book traces the lives and afterlives of the Belitung (Tang) shipwreck, a 9th century vessel found and commercially salvaged in Indonesian waters in the late 1990s.
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More awards for Sophie Chao’s In the Shadow of the Palms
Congratulations to Dr Sophie Chao on her two recent awards for her highly praised book, In The Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua.
In September Dr Chao received the Critical Anthropology Book Award from the Association for Legal and Political Anthropology (APLA). The Committee described the book as a “vividly drawn portrait of a peopled ecology” and “exemplary of the breadth and depth of contemporary political anthropology”. She was also awarded the biannual American Ethnological Society (AES) Sharon Stephens Prize in October. The book will be celebrated at the AES/APLA regional meeting in the US in 2024.
Earlier recognition for her work includes the 2021 Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award, the 2020 John Legge PhD Thesis Prize and the 2019 Australian Anthropological Society Best PhD Thesis Prize.
For a beautifully drawn review of the book, see here.
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Hans Pols awarded Triennial Medal
Congratulations to Professor Hans Pols, pre-eminent historian of science and medicine in Indonesia and Southeast Asia and a leading international scholar of the development of global neurosciences, who has received the Royal Society of NSW History and Philosophy of Science Award. The Royal Society of New South Wales is dedicated to enriching lives through knowledge and inquiry since 1821. The Awards for 2023 were announced at the 1318th Ordinary General Meeting of the Society held on 29 November.
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Highly cited researchers recognised
Three SSEAC members – Professor Lyn March (Northern Medical School), Professor Budiman Minasny (School of Life and Environmental Services) and Professor Dietmar Muller (School of Geosciences) – were among the 27 University of Sydney academics recognised as leaders in their field in the 2023 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers list. The list recognises researchers who have authored multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% cent by citations for their field and year in the Web of Science over the past decade.
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FASS 2023 Teaching Awards
Congratulations to SSEAC members Dr Anjalee Cohen, senior lecturer in social and cultural anthropology, and Dr Russell Toth, senior lecturer in the School of Economics, on their Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) Teaching Excellence Awards. The FASS Teaching Awards program recognises teaching excellence of staff at all career levels, to encourage teachers to engage in reflective teaching practices and to promote and support the development of high-quality and innovative teaching.
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Student Innovation Awards
Former SSEAC Field School student Ethan Tien (Sydney Pharmacy School) has won the Best Social Impact Startup category and People’s Choice First Prize at the 2023 Student Innovation Awards in recognition of the Mii healthcare tech startup he co-founded to revolutionise Electronic Health Records systems. Ethan participated in the ‘COVID vaccination rollout in Singapore’ New Colombo Plan Field School in June 2023. Congratulations, Ethan!
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TS4 | Women’s political leadership in the ASEAN region: The case of Thailand
What barriers do women face in their pursuit of political leadership in Southeast Asia? Do female politicians and women leaders of civil society organisations face the same barriers? How have the pathways to political success changed with the rise of social media? These are some of the questions Dr Aim Sinpeng and Associate Professor Saowanee Alexander (Ubon Ratchathani University) discuss in this TS4 webinar held in November.
Research led by Dr Sinpeng of women political leaders in the ASEAN region, with case studies on Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, found that the top three barriers to political leadership are lack of financial resources, sexism and state repression. Structural issues such as religion and culture represent the most enduring barriers. And social or financial assets are no guarantee of success.
If you missed this insightful discussion focusing on Thailand, you can watch it on our YouTube Channel. You can also read the report published by the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.
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APCOVE launches training packages for new generations of ‘animal disease detectives’
Associate Professor Navneet Dhand from the School of Veterinary Science and leader of the Asia Pacific Consortium of Veterinary Epidemiology (APCOVE) was at the Global Field Epidemiology Partnership (GFEP) meeting in Berlin in October to launch its world-class training program for ‘animal disease detectives.’
The multi-country program was established to help veterinary practitioners and animal handlers detect and prevent infectious diseases in the field before they emerge as pandemics. More than 40 APCOVE partners from 11 countries have contributed to the development and testing of the training package, including eight countries in the Asia-Pacific – Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Myanmar and Vietnam. The 36 training modules cover outbreak investigation, surveillance, data analysis, One Health, biosecurity and leadership, making it the most comprehensive training on field veterinary epidemiology globally.
The training modules are available for free, improving equity in the availability of quality training resources for field veterinary epidemiology and strengthening the capacity of veterinary services globally. The training has also been translated into several languages including Lao, Khmer, Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese and Burmese.
For more information visit the APCOVE website.
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Recent highlights
—workshops, webinars, events & more
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ICOC 2023: Indonesia 25 years on
This year marks 25 years since Indonesia’s rejection of more than three decades of authoritarianism following the resignation of President Suharto in May 1998 amid mass protests and an economic crisis. ‘Indonesia 25 years on’ was also the theme for the Indonesia Council Open Conference (ICOC) 2023 co-hosted by SSEAC (Professor Michele Ford), Western Sydney University (Associate Professor Zulfan Tadjoeddin) and Indonesia Council (Dr Natali Pearson) in September.
Over two days, in-person and online, more than 300 speakers shared their research on Indonesia. The conference opened with a plenary session featuring three emerging scholars – Dr Annisa R Beta (University of Melbourne), Dr Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan (École française d’Extrême Orient) and Ms Kestity A Pringgoharjono (University of Technology Sydney) – who shared their reflections on what it means to be Indonesian today. Three roundtables on Kwir theory, Indonesia’s democratic trajectory and Australia–Indonesia research partnerships also elicited great discussions. Other highlights included a well-attended postgraduate workshop and a delicious food and culture tour to western Sydney.
Indonesia Council President Dr Natali Pearson expressed her gratitude to all who contributed to making ICOC 2023 such a vibrant and rewarding experience.
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Improving health security in Vietnam
The University of Sydney’s Australia Awards Fellowship program, ‘Strengthening Health Security Capacity in Vietnam’, wrapped-up in Hanoi on 1 November. Sponsored by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and hosted by the Sydney Vietnam Academic Network, the program brought together 15 of Vietnam’s emerging leaders in health from government and the university sector to engage with research, industry and policy leaders from across Sydney University and Australia in areas such as antimicrobial resistance, emerging infectious diseases, food safety, health systems, health policy and leadership.
The eight-week program led by Professor Greg Fox and Associate Professor Justin Beardsley embraced a ‘One Health’ approach to strengthening health security, recognising the interconnectedness of human health, animal health and the environment. The intensive training program included site visits and field trips to Australian laboratories and hospitals, providing practical insights, and finished with a two-week in-country component in Vietnam.
Australia’s Ambassador to Vietnam, His Excellency Andrew Goledzinowski, congratulated the Fellows at the graduation ceremony for their dedication to improving health security in Vietnam. The program coincided with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and Vietnam.
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Ministerial trade delegation visit
A delegation of federal, state and territory trade ministers visited the University of Sydney in
mid-October as part of the second meeting of the Ministerial Council on Trade and Investment, co-hosted by the federal Minister for Trade and Tourism, Senator the Hon. Don Farrell, and NSW Minister for Industry and Trade, Anoulack Chanthivong.
SSEAC staff and members were invited to brief the delegation, who were interested in the university’s engagement and research initiatives in Southeast Asia. Following an introduction by Vice Chancellor Mark Scott AO, Dr Natali Pearson presented on SSEAC’s work and the university’s research and presence related to Southeast Asia, Professor Greg Fox outlined the work of the Sydney Vietnam Academic Network and Professor Adrian Vickers briefed delegates on the value of Asian language capability. Professor Daniel Tan also led the full PPE laboratory demonstration on microbes such as E. coli, the use of plasma activated water for sterilising wash water and possible applications in detecting and mitigating microbial contamination in food in countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines where contaminated water is often used to wash fruit and vegetables after harvest and before being sold.
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MDI Showcase: Pathways to research impact
SSEAC was one of the six Sydney University multidisciplinary initiatives (MDIs) that came together in October to showcase the value and impact of multidisciplinary research. Rupal Ismin, Director of Sydney Knowledge Hub, moderated the first session where academics from the Charles Perkins Centre, Brain and Mind Centre, Sydney Environment Institute, Sydney Nano and SSEAC had five minutes each to present their approaches to translating research into real-world applications. SSEAC’s Thailand country coordinator, Dr Aim Sinpeng, spoke on her work on driving positive change through tech industry engagement in Southeast Asia.
Two workshops followed. The Pitch & Connect workshop provided early and mid-career academics practical skills for communicating research including tips on vocal and physical presence and creating compelling and succinct pitches. Associate Professor Amanda Tattersall's interactive workshop on successful community engagement and co-design practice explored two key co-design practices – relational meetings and power analysis – and strategies for identifying community partners and powerful methods for initial engagement.
Congratulations to program leads Nancy Lee (Charles Perkins Centre) and Oksana Markovych (Brain and Mind Centre) and all the MDIs on a successful inaugural event!
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Human rights, sustainability and the regional challenge
In October SSEAC hosted Professor David Cohen – a leading expert in the fields of human rights, international law and transitional justice from Stanford University – for a roundtable discussion chaired by Professor Sonja Van Wichelen on the intersection of human rights, security, economic development and sustainability in ASEAN. A range of cross-border issues were discussed including transboundary haze from peatland fires, the destruction of reefs and overfishing in the South China Sea, and hydropower dams and their impact on the health of the Mekong River system. Discussant Dr Justin See outlined three of the most important environmental issues for Southeast Asia: climate change, deforestation and healthy rivers. The discussion that followed included looking at how ASEAN can come together more on social and humanitarian issues.
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One year of Anwar: State of the nation
A year on from Malaysia’s 15th General Elections in November 2022, what progress has been made on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s reform agenda, reformasi? What is the government doing to tackle key issues on the economy, anti-corruption, and social and cultural polarisation? And will the opposition Perikatan Nasional, which has dominated the Malay heartlands and press, maintain their momentum or can Anwar win back Malay voters?
SSEAC’s Malaysia Country Coordinator, Associate Lecturer Jake Chen, in collaboration with the Malaysia & Singapore Society of Australia and the Malaysian Student’s Council of Australia brought together a distinguished panel including Professor James Chin, University of Tasmania, Dr Tricia Yeoh, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), and Professor Greg Barton, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, for a lively discussion moderated by Assistant Professor Walid Jumblatt Bin Abdullah, Nanyang Technological University.
Watch it on our YouTube Channel.
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Demystifying spatial data
How can we put spatial data to work in our anthropological, geographical, political, medical, artistic and ecological investigations of Southeast Asia? In this introductory workshop, Dr Sabin Zahirovic (School of Geosciences) shows how visualising your data – or understanding spatial data visualisation – is simpler than you think. Using datasets from Southeast Asia, the workshop covers the basics of the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the open-source platform QGIS, defines vector and raster data, shows how to import data from different contexts, and explains how to apply distance analysis and make risk observations.
If you missed this excellent workshop on demystifying spatial data, you can watch it here.
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What's coming up?
—events and opportunities
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Science, Technology, & Human Values: STS School 2024
Applications are open for the 2024 Science and Technology Studies (STS) intensive school, which will be held in Singapore on 3–6 June 2024. The STS School is a rare opportunity to join a dynamic community of scholars for an immersive research and training program in the field of STS. Participants will have the chance to investigate timely critical debates and perspectives, contribute to a rich scholarly program, and sharpen research and publication skills.
The STS School has reserved three funded places for SSEAC Members.
Details and how to apply are available on the STHV website. Applications close Friday 12 January 2024.
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Grant opportunities
Asia-Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Research
The annual APN call for proposals for funding from October 2024 is closing soon. APN promotes understanding of global environmental change through collaborative regional research and scientific capacity building, with a specific focus on the Asia-Pacific region. This year, APN is inviting proposals in its two core programmes: the Collaborative Regional Research Programme (CRRP) and the Scientific Capacity Development Programme (CAPaBLE).
Details on the submission and review process are on APN’s website here. Applications close at midnight on Sunday 10 December Japan time and 2am AEDT.
Australia–ASEAN Council Grants Round
Applications have opened for the Australia–ASEAN Council (AAC) 2023–24 grants round. The grants program aims to build people-to-people, institutional and business connections between Australia and Southeast Asia. This year the AAC will support projects in four key priority areas: cross-cultural collaborations; economic, education and scientific cooperation and innovation; climate resilience (climate change, clean energy transition and green economy); and regional international relations.
Details and guidelines are available on DFAT’s website here. Applications close at 11.30 pm (AEDT) on Sunday 17 December 2023.
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Field Schools prove more than just academic: A special SSEAC Stories podcast series
In June and July 2023, SSEAC ran five multidisciplinary field schools in Southeast Asia, funded by the New Colombo Plan. Over a six-week period, 88 University of Sydney students from 16 different disciplines took part across the five field schools.
In this special SSEAC Stories podcast series, we share the transformation that occurs when undergraduates are given the opportunity to work across disciplines and across cultures. While there were some shared experiences across all field schools – such as navigating language and cultural differences – each field school was unique (including meeting the head of state in Timor-Leste) and brings its own insights into the value of multidisciplinary research, for students and field school leaders alike. Well worth a listen!
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 | Working children: The luxury and complexity of childhood in Lombok, Indonesia
It is estimated 30 million children are engaged in paid work in Southeast Asia, 17 million are engaged in unpaid work and 50 million don’t attend school. These figures can be a shock to people living in countries like Australia where childhood is typically a non-productive stage of life more readily associated with schooling and dependence on adults. What is the meaning of “childhood” in contexts of adversity where if children don’t work, the family won’t survive? What does it mean when a child attending school places the family in a precarious financial situation?
Dr Maria Amigó, a social anthropologist and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney who has studied children and childhood in contexts of adversity for over 20 years, discusses these questions with Natali Pearson.
| |  Is Laos a criminal state?There is a growing list of human rights abuses and acts of violence against those who have sought to promote political transparency and freedom in Laos. The authoritarian state has long had no tolerance for public criticism. Increasingly, however, it appears to be also becoming a criminal state, where corrupt elites have enmeshed themselves within the state apparatus for the purpose of accumulating wealth. Dr Kearrin Sims, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at James Cook University, joins Natali Pearson to discuss whether Laos is now a criminal state. Dr Sims researches the politics of development and regional connectivity within Mainland Southeast Asia, with a focus on ethical and inclusive development. His recent work examines the intersections between extractive development, criminality and human rights. Listen here.
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Journal publications
Looking for some summer reading? Here’s a round-up of some of the journal articles our members have published on Southeast Asia this year.
- Decision-making factor interactions influencing climate migration: A systems-based systematic review, WIREs Climate Change (Emily Nabong, Lauren Hocking, Aaron Opdyke and Jeffrey Walters)
- Calling multinational enterprises to account: CSOs, supranational institutions and business practices in the global south, Global Networks (Michele Ford, Michael Gillan and Htwe Htwe Thein)
- Male and stale? Questioning the role of “opinion leaders” in agricultural programs, Agriculture and Human Values (Petr Matous)
- Too little, too late? Redefining the legacy of HMAS Perth (I), an Australian warship sunk in Indonesian waters, Historical Archaeology (Natali Pearson)
- Saving Two Fish with One Wreck: Maximizing synergies in marine biodiversity conservation and underwater cultural heritage protection, Marine Policy (Natali Pearson and Benjamin S. Thompson)
- After biosovereignty: The material transfer agreement as technology of relations, Social Studies of Science (Sonja van Wichelen)
- How do national laws filter down to the local? Tobacco control regulations and smoke free areas in a decentralised Indonesia, Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs (Elisabeth Kramer, Masduki, Rizanna Rosemary, Eni Maryani, Lestari Nurhajati and Anastasia Maria Sri Redjeki)
- Tracking, calculating, watching: Governing and delay in the Jakarta Smart City, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (Sophie Webber, Sophia Maalsen and Leah Emmanuel)
- Communicating justice: Cambodian press coverage of the ECCC’s final judgment, International Criminal Law Review (Rosemary Grey and Rachel Killean)
- Evaluation of mungbean varieties for adaptation to rice-based cropping systems and profitability in North-West Cambodia, Journal of Agricultural Science (Robert Martin, Pao Srean, Sophea Yous, Harry Campbell-Ross, Chariya Korn, Ratha Rien, Sokunroth Chhun, Santik Kheav, Saro Ratt and Daniel Tan)
- Tourism workers’ resilience in Siem Reap during COVID-19, Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights (Michele Ford and Soksamphoas Im)
- Coverage gaps in empiric antibiotic regimens used to treat serious bacterial infections in neonates and children in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, The Lancet Regional Health – Southeast Asia (Phoebe Williams et al.)
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Join the conversation!
SSEAC is connecting with thousands of individuals and organisations engaging in Southeast Asia every month on social media. Join the conversation to share your work, hear about our latest events and seminars, and be the first to know about grants, research, and opportunities in Southeast Asia.
If you have a recently published article, book review, or interview that you'd like to share with a Southeast Asia-focused community, let us know! Email sseac@sydney.edu.au with the details, or tag us in your tweet @seacsydney.
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