SSEAC Newsletter
September 2021 edition
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Welcome to the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre's Newsletter.
Below you will get a glimpse of some of our current research projects, education initiatives, development programs, news, and past and upcoming events.
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ASEAN Forum 2021
This year, due to ongoing travel restrictions, the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre held its annual ASEAN Forum online once again. This year, the Forum focused on human rights issues, offering a snapshot of the current human rights situation in ASEAN, the approach ASEAN is taking and how human rights is faring in the context of increasing geopolitical power struggles across the region.
The keynote address was delivered by Professor Catherine Renshaw (Western Sydney University), who reflected on the future of human rights in Southeast Asia. She highlighted that it has become increasingly clear that the international human rights system will be unable to address the human rights challenges of the 21st century. Against this backdrop, Professor Renshaw argued that ASEAN is central to the promotion and protection of human rights, with an emphasis on regionalism in the governance of human rights. She further contended that a new order of Asian Values, centred on principles of solidarity, dignity, decency and good governance, would emerge from this new human rights architecture.
The ASEAN Forum continued with a panel discussion bringing together expert academics and practitioners to engage in a discussion about ASEAN and its member countries’ response to the US/China tensions specifically in relation to human rights issues. Chaired by SSEAC Deputy Director Dr Elisabeth Kramer, the panel featured Mr Ben Bland (The Lowy Institute), Ms Elaine Pearson (Human Rights Watch Australia), and Associate Professor James Reilly (The University of Sydney).
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ARC DECRA Success
Congratulations to Dr Aim Sinpeng who has been awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) in the latest round. Dr Sinpeng participated in SSEAC's ARC Fellowship Hothouse in 2020-2021, an intensive mentoring program designed to support the development of high-quality applications to the ARC's DECRA and Future Fellow schemes. Dr Sinpeng will investigate the impact of digital repressive technologies on activism in autocracies through a case study of online opposition movements in Thailand. The project advances a new conceptual framework for the analysis of networked counterpublics, which outlines the conditions under which social media aids or contains digital dissidents. Expected outcomes include a comprehensive study of interactions between the Thai State and Free Youth Movement and a series of conceptual tools to assess strategies for collective action in digitally repressive environments. It will also provide a roadmap to assist civil society and policymakers in building resilience against cyber repression and reclaiming online spaces for progressive change.
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Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research grant success
Congratulations to Dr Aaron Opdyke who is lead of a project that seeks to advance local flood decision-making for disaster risk reduction in Indonesia and the Philippines. Recognising that disasters pose a significant threat to global development and poverty reduction, particularly in data scarce environments, this research aims to transform disaster risk assessments by understanding how climate change will impact localised flood risk and unpack how these assessments can be better incorporated into local planning processes. The project will accomplish this through in-depth study of two catchment basins located in the Municipality of Carigara (Leyte, Philippines) and the Regency of Singkil (Aceh, Indonesia). Hydrological modelling will incorporate downscaled climate change models, in combination with vulnerability assessments, to examine shifting flood risk patterns. The project also seeks to develop a flood decision tool for local governments to better understand and apply flood climate models. Results will inform strategies to improve resilience of resource-constrained communities.
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Professor Gregory Fox awarded the 2021 Royal Australasian College of Physicians International Medal
Congratulations to Professor Gregory Fox from the Faculty of Medicine and Health who was awarded the 2021 Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) International Medal. The RACP International Medal recognises a member of the College who has provided outstanding service in developing countries.Professor Fox was also recently appointed to lead a World Health Organisation review of drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment guidelines.
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Dr Sophie Chao wins the Duke University Press Scholars of Color First Book Award
Congratulations to Dr Sophie Chao whose forthcoming book In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua, Durham: Duke University Press has been awarded the Duke Press Scholars of Color First Book Award.
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Best Thesis in Asian Studies (2020)
Congratulations to our outstanding alumni Dr Cheng Nien Yuan who has won the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA)'s John Legge Prize for Best Thesis in Asian Studies. The John Legge Prize is one of six prize/grant schemes offered by the ASAA. This prize recognizes cutting edge research performed by postgraduates across our broad field of research.
Dr Cheng's thesis, “The Storytelling State: Performing Life Histories in Singapore", was praised by the judges as "a fine display of smooth and clear prose, cunningly mixed with dry humour and wit. [...] Cheng’s use of performance studies perspectives to explain Singaporean politics, culture, and society is a key achievement in its own right, but she combines this analytical trajectory with an enviable capacity for theoretical sophistication. [...] Very few indeed are the theses that offer such reading pleasure while also providing cogent applications of Althusserian interpellation."
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Team appointed by UNICEF to undertake research on maternal and child health services in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic
The research aims to systematically understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted maternal and child health services to inform planning of programs, services and strategies. It will begin in Indonesia, chosen as a high COVID-19 incidence setting, and is a partnership with researchers at Universitas Indonesia’s Faculty of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology; the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the University of Melbourne and Australian National University (ANU).
This is the first phase of the multi-country study, led by Professor Julie Leask, and involves a desk review of relevant literature, and collaborative protocol development with a Technical Advisory Group convened by UNICEF. The team in Jakarta will undertake data collection in several provinces across Indonesia, which will be led by Dr. Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, and Dra. Oktarinda, MSi. Their team will conduct a survey of 700 caregivers of children aged 2 years old or less, and 300 immunisation and maternal and child health workers. The findings will be shared with the Ministry of Health, UN agencies, Donors, NGOs and Private Sector to inform planning to ensure access to high-quality pregnancy, postnatal care, and immunisation services.
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SSEAC Writing Fellow Dr Paul-David Lutz
Congratulations to Dr Paul-David Lutz, who recently became a SSEAC Writing Fellow. Dr Lutz is an Honorary Associate at the University of Sydney’s School of Social and Political Sciences. He recently received his PhD from the University of Sydney’s Department of Anthropology. His thesis "Sert Has Gone" gives a ‘once-removed’ ethnographic history of the ethnic Khmu and Akha village of ‘Sanjing’ in Phongsali, northernmost Laos. His research brings development studies into conversation with both history’s interest in locally-specific ways of relating to the past, and anthropology’s burgeoning focus on ‘future-making’ and ‘more-than-human lifeworlds.’ Prior to his PhD, Paul-David Lutz worked for several years as a rural development advisor in Laos and Vietnam.
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SSEAC Writing Fellow Dr Jamie Wang
Congratulations to Dr Jamie Wang, who recently became a SSEAC Writing Fellow. Dr Wang is a research affiliate in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research is at the intersections of environmental humanities, urban imaginaries, more-than-human studies, and sustainable development in the context of planetary urbanism, climate change and environmental injustice. In particular, her current work focuses on some of the many cultural, political, ethical and philosophical issues that arise in the pursuit of an ecological modernised urban future.
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Postgraduate Skills Dating Workshop
Being successful as a postgraduate student is about much more than just producing a good thesis. From finding the right software referencing system and crunching stats to managing supervisor relationships and getting to grips with your methodology, there is a lot for postgraduate students to get up to speed on.
Recognising the many challenges of the PhD research journey, we hosted an innovative workshop on 16 June, bringing together students from across the University to help them identify what they’re great at, what they need help with and, most importantly, to learn from and share these skills with their peers.
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Public Speaking Workshop
With Australia’s borders still closed, the days of delivering a face-to-face research presentation to an international audience remain a distant dream for most of us. Instead, webinars and online conferences will be the norm for researchers at Australian universities for the foreseeable future. This online shift will have a particularly significant impact on postgraduate students and early career researchers, who only have limited time to share their research projects but may not yet have the networks to support them in presenting online.
In this virtual public-speaking workshop, we brought together Higher Degree by Research students from across the University of Sydney to learn how to deliver an engaging online presentation, why speaking to a screen feels so different to presenting in person, and what to do when everything goes wrong. Dr Paul-David Lutz contributed to the workshop by presenting his strategies for developing and sustaining an online audience, and highlighted the importance of opening hooks and visually engaging slides. The workshop participants were also delighted to discuss with Associate Professor Ian Maxwell (Department of Theatre and Performance Studies), who shared actors' tips and tricks for presenting, or rather performing, on Zoom.
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Virtual Honours Bootcamp
Over three days, participants of this Honours Bootcamp co-hosted by the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (University of Sydney) and the ANU Indonesia Project (Australian National University) took part in a range of interdisciplinary workshops, seminars, discussions and group activities designed to help them complete their Honours research project and plan for life after Honours.
In this special pandemic edition, students learnt from scholars and professionals working in a diverse range of Southeast Asia-related positions about how to do research in the time of COVID, what academia is REALLY like, and how to pivot from research to a non-academic profession.
"Thank you for organising this opportunity. It was so refreshing and enriching to hear from so many like-minded scholars working on such diverse topics - and that despite the diversity, we were united by a passion and interest in better understanding Southeast Asia."
- Jenny Nguyen, student participant
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SSEAC Emerging Scholars Conference
First held in 2018, the annual SSEAC Emerging Scholars Conference is an opportunity for postgraduates and early career researchers working on Southeast Asia-related topics to present their research in preparation for upcoming conferences. It’s also a chance for academics, practitioners and the wider community to engage with the next generation of Southeast Asia research excellence.
In 2021, the conference brought together 23 young scholars from all around the world who presented their research across SSEAC’s five areas of research strength:
- Economic and social development
- Environment and resources
- Health
- Heritage and the arts
- State and society
"Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the conference. The questions were really engaging and gave me ideas on what other aspects to explore in my research."
- Ruchie Mark Pototanon, conference speaker
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IS4 Webinar | Competence and control: The effect of democratization on the civil service
On 24 June 2021, for the third Indonesia Social Science Seminar Series - IS4 webinar, Associate Professor Jan Pierskalla (Ohio State University) and Professor Tom Pepinsky (Cornell University) explored the effect of democratization on Indonesia's civil service.
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IS4 Webinar | The Consequences of Child Marriage in Indonesia
On 30 July 2021, SSEAC hosted the fourth Indonesia Social Science Seminar Series - IS4 webinar, where Professor Lisa Cameron (University of Melbourne) and Assistant Professor Margaret Triyana (Wake Forest University) discussed one of Indonesia's most complex social issues: child marriage. The Zoom webinar was attended by over 100 people, while the event livestream on Facebook has been viewed more than 200 times to date.
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Fighting Fear: #whatshappeninginmyanmar
On 4 June, as part of the Early Career Researcher mini writing retreat, and to celebrate the final exhibition date of “Fighting Fear: #whatshappeninginmyanmar” at the 16Albermarle Gallery, the Centre organised an exclusive networking event. The evening featured a moving testimonial from Sydney-based activist Ms Sophia Sarkis, who shared some of the challenges encountered by the Myanmar diaspora in bringing help to fellow activists in Myanmar. This was followed by a brief update on recent political developments in Myanmar, given by Dr Susan Banki. Dr Banki concluded her talk by urging event attendees to take action, sign relevant petitions demanding action from the Australian Government, and support the exhibition's artists by purchasing some of the artwork. The event concluded with an opportunity for the guests to mingle and view the exhibition while enjoying drinks and nibbles.
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Showcasing SSEAC's research excellence on state and society-related themes in Southeast Asia
Throughout June-July, SSEAC continued to showcase the breadth of our research with a special webinar series focused on state and society-related themes in Southeast Asia.
For the first webinar in the State and Society series, Dr Rosemary Grey (Law) provided an insight into the prosecution of wartime sexual violence in the International Criminal Court and Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. You can watch her talk on Facebook.
The second webinar featured Dr Aim Sinpeng (School of Social and Political Sciences), who discussed how the Thai State uses social media as a tool for political repression and propaganda. Dr Sinpeng's eye-opening presentation is available on Facebook.
Mr Thomas Power (School of Languages and Cultures) gave the third talk in the series, exposing the illiberal tendencies of Indonesian democracy under Joko Widodo's presidency. You can watch his talk on Facebook.
For the last talk in the series, Dr Susan Banki (School of Social and Political Sciences) discussed the dilemmas faced by Myanmar political activists who have fled overseas. You can watch the talk here.
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Supporting diaspora Southeast Asian communities during the pandemic
On 3 August 2021, SSEAC organised a webinar focusing on the lived experiences of COVID-19 by the Indonesian community in Sydney. We were delighted to host Mr Heru Subolo, Consul General of the Republic of Indonesia in Sydney, to provide a brief update on the COVID-19 situation in Indonesia. This was followed by a short conversation with SSEAC Deputy Director, Dr Elisabeth Kramer, and University of Sydney student Ms Yunie Nurhayati Rahmat, who shared how they have maintained links with their loved ones overseas and with co-nationals in Australia, at this difficult time. Watch it here.
SSEAC continued its community engagement efforts by hosting another community forum event, this time for the Filipino community in Australia, on 4 August 2021. We were delighted to host Ms Ma Corina Reyes, First Secretary and Consul at the Embassy of the Philippines in Canberra; award-winning journalist, editor and publisher, Ms Michelle Baltazar; and University of Sydney PhD candidate Ms Naomi Cerisse Cammayo, to discuss the pandemic in the Philippines and Sydney. Watch the event livestream here.
The series of community engagement webinars concluded on 5 August with an event dedicated to Vietnam, where we had the honour of hearing from Ms Nga Pham, Minister Counsellor at the Embassy of Vietnam in Canberra; Fairfield City Councillor, Ms Dai Le; and University of Sydney student Mr Thomas Le. Watch the event recording here.
Professor Michele Ford was featured in the University of Sydney's Culture Chat with Professor Tim Soutphommasane, to discuss these online community forums.
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Transitional Justice and Preventing Violent Extremism: Lessons from Southeast Asia
On 29 June, we hosted Patrick Burgess, co-founder of Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR), to explore the links between violent extremism and past mass crimes, and discuss how transitional justice can help prevent the growth of violent extremism. Watch the talk here.
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 | Spirits, Development and Chinese (Hydro)power: Ethnographic (Hi)stories from Upland Laos
In the extreme north of Laos, in Phongsali Province, lies a tiny village home to around 24 households. Until recently it was a monoethnic Khmu village. Khmu are autochthonous to northern Laos. Khmu have had a historically ambivalent relationship to the national majority in contemporary Laos. In recent years, Sanjing has also become home to a group of Akha, another ethnic group that have been described as state evaders seeking to avoid lowland politics and who migrated to northern Laos within the last two centuries. This small hamlet is a window into Laos’ march into a particular type of post-colonial modernity, where massive infrastructure projects, interethnic dynamics, spirit beliefs and animistic practices coexist and collide.
Dr Paul-David Lutz joined Dr Natali Pearson on SSEAC Stories to share the stories of this hamlet, and reflect on the importance of “animist” beliefs and practices in shaping a culturally-specific sense of modernity in the uplands of far-north Laos.
| |  | Building Bridges Across the Seas: A Discussion of Australia-Indonesia Cooperation for the Preservation of Underwater Cultural Heritage
Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic state, its waters home to hundreds, if not thousands, of shipwrecks. As maritime neighbours with both a common boundary and a shared history, protecting and preserving this maritime heritage is an important element of the Australia-Indonesia relationship. In recent years, government agencies from both countries have cooperated to manage the wreck of HMAS Perth (I), an Australian warship sunk off the coast of Java in World War II. However, efforts to engage the next generation have been limited.
For this special episode, Dr Natali Pearson jumps on the other side of the mic and chats with Dr Thushara Dibley about her recent work building links between Indonesia and Australia to increase cooperation for the preservation of underwater cultural heritage. She notably discusses her recent initiative coordinating a capacity-building course in Indonesian maritime archaeology with funding from the Australia Indonesia Institute. Delivered through online learning modules and field site visits, the course brought together students from across the archipelago to learn more about the challenges and opportunities of managing and interpreting underwater cultural heritage in an Indonesian context, and paved the way for future cooperation across the seas to preserve the nation’s wealth of maritime histories.
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 | Connectivity and Displacement in Laos: Exploring Intersectional Infrastructure Violence with Dr Kearrin Sims
More than anywhere else in the world, Asia is experiencing an infrastructure boom. Although it is driven by both internal and external factors, this boom has accelerated noticeably as a result of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which seeks to extends port, railway and other connections throughout and across Southeast Asia. But what is the cost of this aggressive infrastructure development? What do we know about the people and places that are negatively impacted by these large-scale projects? In Laos, the government has placed enormous emphasis on infrastructure expansion as a mechanism for driving economic growth and poverty alleviation. Yet this infrastructure rollout has come at severe social and environmental costs.
Dr Kearrin Sims joins Dr Natali Pearson on SSEAC Stories to discuss how these large-scale infrastructure projects have led to increased political oppression and the repeated displacement of local communities in Laos.
| |  | Homeland Activists Without a Home: Why Proximity and Precarity Matter for Myanmar’s Refugees
February 2021 witnessed yet another military coup in Myanmar. Whether it was unexpected or entirely predictable is, perhaps, a matter of debate. But what is without a doubt different this time around is the way the population of Myanmar has responded, with younger generations in particular taking to social media to call for change, in a bid to avoid the suffering of their parents’ generation. Among those actors pressing for change are members of the diaspora, many of whom spent years in refugee camps and who continue to live proximate to Myanmar.
For World Refugee Day, Dr Susan Banki joins Dr Natali Pearson on SSEAC Stories to discuss the political mobilisation of refugee and migrant populations from Myanmar seeking to enact change in their home country, arguing that the physical proximity of these diaspora communities is key to their empowerment, but has, until now, been relatively unexplored.
Photo credit: UN Women/Allison Joyce via Flickr
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Distance and Closeness: A Creative Writer and Teacher’s ‘Autoethnographic’ Adventures in Malaysia
Join award-winning writer Dr Beth Yahp as she reflects on the challenges of distance and closeness in storytelling.
In this talk. Dr Yahp will address challenges of distance and closeness in her research, writing and teaching practices in Malaysia, focussing on research projects undertaken there in recent years, before and after Covid. What can a writer take from the ‘closeness’ required of autoethnographic practices of immersion, attentiveness and note-taking and the seemingly paradoxical ‘distance’ required to tell a larger story? How do we square lived experiences, our own as well as our subjects’, with the ‘narrative mess’ of life, for example, in pre- and post-Covid Malaysia Baru? In life writing (particularly memoir, personal essays and autobiography), who gets to tell a story, and once told, whose story is it? Dr Yahp will also consider some creative writing techniques – visualisation, focalisation – as possible ways of thinking through these questions and issues.
When: Thursday 2 September 2021, 9am CEST / 3pm SGT / 5pm AEST
Where: Online via Zoom
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Expanding “Women’s Archive”: Womanifesto, Dr Melani and a Discourse on Hospitality in Southeast Asian Art History
Join Dr Yvonne Low for an insight into new feminist research on the archives of Womanifesto and Dr Melani Setiawan.
There is no quintessential “Women’s Archives”. Yet this term as a figure - and figment - has the potential to invoke, intervene and challenge hegemonic positions in what has been a period of reflexive archiving by cultural practitioners and institutions within Asia. Whilst current discourse on the “archive” and the titular role it plays in the visual culture and art history of Southeast Asia as cast from a postcolonial perspective does not preclude female participation, how feminist praxis might have contributed to archival development and practice in the region has yet to be sufficiently explored. This paper is an inaugural study of the power and politics of historical storytelling in two recent but markedly different archives: the Womanifesto archive in collaboration with Asia Art Archive, and the ‘photo-archives’ that were designed by Indonesian collector, Dr Melani Setiawan. This paper takes stock of women’s invisible labour and the often enterprising and creative work that is expended when keeping records of art and artists, with the aim to ultimately explore the ethos of hospitality that underpins such work.
When: Thursday 9 September 2021, 9am CEST / 3pm SGT / 5pm AEST
Where: Online via Zoom
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PhilS4 Webinar | The Afterlives of María Clara
For the inaugural PhilS4 webinar, we are delighted to host Professor Caroline Hau (Kyoto University) to explore the staying power of 19th century literary character María Clara as a female icon in Philippine society.
This seminar provides an overview of the critical and popular reception of José Rizal's María Clara in the nearly one hundred and forty years since the publication of the Noli me tángere (1887). The lively, at times heated, debates over this literary character’s exemplarity intervene in broader intellectual and public discussions not only about the colonial legacies and postcolonial issues and challenges confronting Philippine society, but also about women’s evolving positions and oppression in that society. The staying power of María Clara as a female icon persists in the very gap that opens up between the ideals she is made to exemplify and the historically evolving, gendered lives and gendering of lived experience in the Philippines of which she serves as an example. Rather than affirming the rules and norms governing Philippine society, María Clara’s exemplarity has critical potentiality, serving as an instrument of contestation, often by Filipino women.
When: Wednesday 15 September 2021, 5pm PT / 8pm ET
Thursday 16 September 2021, 7am PHT / 10am AEST
Where: Online via Zoom
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The Power and Privilege of Blue-and-white in 14th-century Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula
Delve into the past and learn all about the 14th century trade of precious ceramics from Asia with Dr Alex Burchmore.
In June, The Straits Times reported the salvaging of two historic shipwrecks in Singaporean waters by renowned maritime archaeologist Dr Michael Flecker. Chinese ceramics carried by these vessels date their demise to the 14th and 18th centuries – pivotal moments in the global China Trade. Notably, the older wreck yielded the largest cargo of Yuan-dynasty blue-and-white porcelain discovered to date, potentially transforming current scholarly paradigms derived from Dr Flecker’s own previous salvage operations. In contrast to a prevailing emphasis on exchange between China, West Asia, and Europe, this cargo sheds light on the pivotal role played by Southeast Asian merchants and consumers. The taste for Chinese ceramics in the Islamic states of the Malay Peninsula, for example, for which this cargo may have been intended, closely mirrors that of their counterparts in West Asia. The esteem reserved for the same ceramics in Vietnam, on the other hand, reflects a parallel sphere of trade largely overlooked in canonical narratives. Even a cursory glance at these polities can greatly enrich our understanding of blue-and-white porcelain as a global commodity.
When: Thursday 16 September 2021, 9am CEST / 3pm SGT / 5pm AEST
Where: Online via Zoom
Photo credit: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute
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TS4 Webinar | Of Harems and Eunuchs: Theravada Buddhist Courts of Mainland Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective
For the inaugural TS4 webinar, we are delighted to host Professor Katherine A. Bowie (University of Wisconsin-Madison) to delve into the complex world of harems in the Theravada Buddhist courts of mainland Southeast Asia.
Unlike Europe, Asian courts were characterized by the presence of harems whose members ranged from empresses to eunuchs. Once the focus of prurient interests, recent scholarship on harems has increasingly highlighted their complex roles in ensuring the continuation of dynasties over time and forming political linkages, both within and across empires. These studies have typically focused on specific courts. However a comparative perspective reveals that the structure of harems varied widely and that its members were embedded in very different networks of power.
Join Professor Bowie as she considers ways in which the harems of the Theravada Buddhist courts of mainland Southeast Asia differed from those of the Chinese, Mughal and Ottoman empires, highlighting differences in the power of court women, the regulation of sexuality, the rules of succession, the selection of queens, and the role of eunuchs.
When: Thursday 16 September 2021, 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm CET / 9pm ICT
Where: Online via Zoom
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IS4 Webinar | Is there Indonesian history before 1945? Unconnected histories, and the (near) absence of postcolonial concerns
We warmly invite you to join Emeritus Professor Henk Schulte Nordholt from KITLV, in conversation with Professor Bambang Purwanto from Universitas Gadjah Mada Yogyakarta, Indonesia, to explore the diverse narratives around Indonesia's pre-1945 history.
Indonesian historiography is extremely compartmentalized. For most Indonesians their history starts in August 1945, unconnected with the colonial past. This prevents for instance an analysis of the transition of colonial modernity to its postcolonial manifestations, and may explain the near absence of postcolonial debates in Indonesia.
Dutch colonial history shows a reversed pattern: it stops in 1950 and shows no interest in postcolonial Indonesia. Indonesian and Dutch historical interests hardly overlap. Even the period 1945-1950 reveals a wide gap. For the Dutch it was a period of 'decolonization' with, currently, an emphasis on Dutch military violence; for Indonesia it was the war of independence with an emphasis on nation-building and state formation. What prevents historians to break through these temporal and conceptual barriers? Would it be possible to identify and explore shared concerns?
When: Thursday 30 September 2021, 8am CET / 2pm WIB / 5pm AET
Where: Online via Zoom
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SSEAC Productivity Workshop
Beat the overwhelm: learn how to create mental space and clarity for more productive research
Whether you’re a committed list maker, a haphazard scribbler of notes or someone who works their best under deadline, staying on top of multiple areas of focus is a constant struggle for most academics. What would it be like to be not only on top of your responsibilities, but to have the mental space for more creative, flexible and deep thinking? Join our online workshop designed to help you boost your productivity with the 'Getting Things Done' (GTD) system.
When: Thursday 14 October 2021, from 12:30-16:30 (AEDT)
Where: Online via Zoom
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TS4 Webinar | The United States and the Thai Royal Family from a Historical Perspective
Join A/Prof Pavin Chachavalpongpun (Kyoto University) to examine the ties between the United States and the authoritative institution of Thailand – the monarchy.
Thailand is the United States’ oldest ally in Asia. The two countries signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce in 1836 which served as a foundation for strong bilateral ties. It is evident that the United States’ amicable relations with Siamese kings assisted greatly in strengthening the power of the throne. Bilateral relations were progressively solidified particularly during the Cold War when the two nations cooperated in their attempt to combat the threat of communism, even when Washington openly supported a series of despotic regimes in Thailand against democratic forces. King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Thailand's most powerful and revered monarch, was reinvented into an all-time US protagonist. As Bhumibol strove to maintain his royal political hegemony, the US was ready to lend its support to Bhumibol’s “network monarchy” of which Washington became a kind of member ex officio. Washington invested massively in Bhumibol throughout the Cold War. But when the Cold War was over and the Thai political landscape changed drastically, the United Stated was rooted to the old network of the ailing king. Additionally, with the rise of China, a question must be asked: What must the United States do to maintain its influence over this old ally in Southeast Asia?
When: Thursday 14 October 2021, 5pm PT / 8pm ET
Friday 15 October 2021, 7am ICT / 11am AEST
Where: Online via Zoom
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SSEAC Indexing Workshop
Sure, writing a book is hard – but what about the index?
A good index can orientate your reader to the themes and nuances of your book and even guide them to make new conceptual connections. But index preparation is usually an afterthought when writing a book. The task itself can seem overwhelming, and it is often tempting to use a professional indexer rather than do it yourself – especially when deadlines are tight. So what makes a good index, and why should you think about doing it yourself?
Rather than outsourcing the job, crafting your own index can be a powerful exercise in identifying the key concepts in your book and guiding your reader accordingly. Join us for this special SSEAC Indexing Workshop to help you understand the value of preparing your own index, how to use an index table to get your ideas together, and what you can do in advance to avoid getting stung by a short deadline.
When: Friday 15 October 2021, from 14:00-16:30 (AEDT)
Where: Online via Zoom
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PhilS4 Webinar | Island Urbanisms in the Philippines: Gender, Urban Development, and Transnationalism
Join Assistant Professor Arnisson Andre Ortega (Syracuse University) to discuss the complex interactions between gender, urban development and transnationalism in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, several rural islands have transformed into “world-class” destinations, becoming new sites of urban accumulation. At the heart of these changes are Filipinas who, typically with foreign spouses, invest in properties and establish resorts. These resorts, in turn, facilitate a mode of urbanization reliant on the transnational mobilities of tourists, expats, and capital.
Through island narratives from Visayas and Mindanao, Assistant Professor Ortega will discuss the spatial dynamics of inclusion and exclusion of Filipinas in island accumulation, including how gender and sexuality are important forces shaping urban island accumulation and translocal mobilities. He will make a case for islands as terrains of urban theorization, foregrounding the salience of gender and transnationalism in framing extended urbanization to include non-metropolitan contexts in retheorizing contemporary forms of urbanization.
When: Wednesday 20 October 2021, 4pm PT / 7pm ET
Thursday 21 October 2021, 7am PHT / 10am AEST
Where: Online via Zoom
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IS4 Webinar | Social media, politics, and schismatic algorithms in Indonesia
Join Associate Professor Merlyna Lim (Carleton University) and Ms Irene Poetranto (Citizen Lab/University of Toronto) to explore the complex and contradictory relationships between social media and politics.
All over the world, including Indonesia, social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and devices such as smartphones have increasingly played an instrumental role in facilitating and mobilizing collective actions and activism. The same technologies have also simultaneously been utilised by states and public authorities for their own benefits, including to control public opinions and repress dissents. Moving away from assessing the presumed (un)democratic potentials of social media, Merlyna Lim explores complex and contradictory relationships between social media and politics and offers an in-depth understanding of how state and society relations, power, and politics are contested and exercised on, with, and through social media. Drawing on empirical snapshots from the country, Merlyna specifically analyzes how social media platforms, and their algorithms, were utilised and appropriated by activists and ordinary people on grassroots level, both in the pursuit of counter-hegemonic project as well as in support of the status quo.
When: Thursday 28 October 2021, 7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm CET / 9pm WIB
Where: Online via Zoom
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TS4 Webinar | Undermining Democracy: The Election Commission of Thailand in the 2019 Election
Join Dr Petra Desatova (University of Copenhagen) and Assistant Professor Saowanee Alexander (Ubon Ratchathani University) to discuss the role of the election commission of Thailand in the 2019 election.
This talk examines the Election Commission of Thailand (ECT), Thailand’s formally independent electoral management body (EMB), and the role it played in the 2019 election. Dr Desatova and Assistant Professor Alexander argue that in non-democratic regimes with high levels of political polarisation and entrenched elites, such as contemporary Thailand, formal EMB independence may become part of the problem why elections fail. It creates opportunities for long-term EMB capture by actors who wield power outside of formal politics and are unaccountable to public interest. In case of the ECT, this has led to the decreasing electoral standards culminating in the highly contentious 2019 election where the ECT’s administrative efficiency and effectiveness of voting came secondary to pleasing the entrenched old Thai elite. Its conduct has reduced Thailand’s prospects for a peaceful transition to democratic rule as those who oppose the country’s old elite have increasingly limited opportunities to challenge it through formal means.
When: Thursday 11 November 2021, 8am CET / 2pm ICT / 6pm AET
Where: Online via Zoom
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PhilS4 Webinar | YouTube and Philippine Politics
Join Professor Cheryll Soriano (De La Salle University, Manila) for an insight into the role that YouTube plays in shaping the Filipino publics' political consciousness.
In the analysis of social media's role in politics, YouTube has been overshadowed by the likes of Facebook or Twitter, perhaps due to the social imaginary of the platform as a space for broadcasting lifestyles and 'how to' videos. Yet, YouTube is increasingly a site for politics, and political actors are exploring ways to embed political messages into the platform's social and entertainment culture. Reported as the most used social network in a nation that has also consistently topped social media use globally, YouTube's role in shaping political consciousness in the Philippines necessitates a critical examination, especially amid expansive digitalization, divisive politics, and a looming national election.
This talk will examine YouTube as a socio-technical broker giving rise to new forms of political intermediation, curating political engagement and reformulating the political in this contemporary scene. Situating YouTube in 'hybrid media systems', Professor Soriano will characterize the mutually affirming relationship of platform mechanisms and locally-rooted cultures of use that drive alternative political influence networks capable of building and magnifying political narratives and agendas.
When: Thursday 18 November 2021, 10am CET / 5pm PHT / 8pm AET
Where: Online via Zoom
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IS4 Webinar | Social Movements and Coastal Reclamation in Indonesia
We warmly invite you to join Dr Ryan Tans (Northern Arizona University), in conversation with A/Prof Rita Padawangi (Singapore University of Social Sciences) to discuss anti-reclamation movements in Indonesia.
Coastal reclamation, the process of creating land by infilling coastal waters or wetlands, offers a possible bulwark against rising sea-levels associated with climate change. Yet, reclamation also demands wrenching distributional trade-offs that often favor developers and property owners over poor fishing communities. As a result, battles over reclamation have erupted in dozens of Indonesian cities in recent years. In this paper, Dr Tans proposes a theory to explain variation in the effectiveness of anti-reclamation movements. He argues that geographically and economically diverse coalitions are well-suited to mobilize mass demonstrations and coordinate voters to oppose reclamation, while local and class-based coalitions resort to litigation due to their relative weakness. Based on primary source documents, local news archives, and fieldwork in Makassar and Bali, his findings suggest that reclamation projects succeed when elite coalitions of politicians, developers, and local businesses bulldoze class-based opposition. Under such conditions, reclamation is likely to accelerate a process of “climate gentrification” in which climate change adaptations benefit the rich and deepen the vulnerability of the poor.
When: Thursday 2 December 2021, 4pm PT / 7pm ET
Friday 3 December 2021, 7am WIB / 11am AET
Where: Online via Zoom
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