SSEAC Newsletter
December 2020 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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The SSEAC Hothouse Trifecta: Triple DECRA Success
Congratulations to Dr Rosemary Grey (Sydney Law School), Dr Josh Stenberg (School of Languages and Cultures), and Dr Sophie Webber (School of Geosciences), who have each been awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) in the latest round. All three awardees participated in SSEAC's ARC Fellowship Hothouse in 2019-2020, an intensive mentoring program designed to support the development of high-quality applications to the ARC's DECRA and Future Fellow schemes. Dr Rosemary Grey will be completing a project on "Reproductive crimes in international law: Lessons from Cambodia". This project aims to critically examine the international community’s response to forced pregnancy and other crimes that violate reproductive rights, through a case study of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia. If you'd like to find out more about Dr Grey's research, listen to her SSEAC Stories podcast on bringing justice for victims of wartime sexual violence in Cambodia.
Dr Sophie Webber will be completing a project on "Building Urban Resilience: Adaptation Economies in the Asia-Pacific". This project investigates the social, economic and environmental impacts of large scale sand and water extraction to build protective infrastructure in vulnerable cities. If you'd like to find out more about Dr Webber's research, listen to her SSEAC Stories podcast on urban governance in Southeast Asia.
Both Dr Grey and Dr Stenberg were also part of successful ARC Discovery Project grants in 2020.
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ARC Linkage Project grant: Combating gender-based violence in Cambodia
Congratulations to SSEAC Director Professor Michele Ford and SSEAC Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr Kristy Ward who have been awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant for a project that aims to address gender-based violence (GBV) in the workplace in Cambodia's construction sector. The project is a partnership with Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA, the Building and Wood Workers' International, and the Solidarity Center.
Their project aims to produce the first systematic assessment of gender-based violence in Cambodia’s construction sector, which employs an unusually high percentage of women. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, the project will investigate the causes and manifestations of workplace GBV and analyse local and international labour movement actors’ efforts to combat it, with a focus on how Cambodia’s cultural, political and economic context influences local actors’ uptake of international norms. In addition to academic benefits, this analysis will assist partner organisations to strengthen their programs and better equip local unions to tackle workplace GBV.
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ARC Linkage Project grant: Opening Australia's multilingual archive
Congratulations to Professor Adrian Vickers and Dr Josh Stenberg who are part of a research team that has been awarded a prestigious Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant for a project that aims to mobilise Australia’s considerable and under-utilised non-English language resources in order to rethink our migrant and settler history. It asks what difference language makes in the ways people engage with, and ultimately think of themselves as ‘Australian’ or not. For the first time, a rich multilingual archive will be used to examine Australia’s history from non-English perspectives.
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Australia-Indonesia Institute grant success: Paving the way for social inclusion in Indonesia
Congratulations to Dr Thushara Dibley who has been awarded a competitive Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII) grant for her project on social inclusion in Indonesia. The Sydney Southeast Asia Centre is excited about extending its work with Indonesian disability activists through this new leadership program. SSEAC has trained nearly 60 disability activists in leadership, organisational development, project management and policy advocacy since 2016. Participants from these Australia Awards Indonesia-funded courses have consistently requested training in research methods relevant to policy advocacy. The need for these skills has been reaffirmed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which people with disability were overlooked in many government policies. This new project will meet that need by providing an online research methods course for alumni of SSEAC courses.
The course will focus on key concepts from critical disability studies, basic research design, identifying secondary data sources, collecting primary data, simple data analysis methods and writing up results. By involving Plumtree, an Australian disability service provider with a long history of using research for advocacy, this program will build sustainable links between Indonesian disability activists and their Australian partners.
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Australia-Indonesia Institute grant success: Protecting underwater cultural heritage in Indonesia
Congratulations to Dr Natali Pearson who has been awarded a competitive Australia-Indonesia Institute (AII) grant for her project "Collaborative Approaches to Capacity Building in Indonesian Maritime Archaeology". The Sydney Southeast Asia Centre is delighted to launch this new leadership course focused on capacity building in Indonesian maritime archaeology.This project will develop and promote capacity to manage underwater cultural heritage in Indonesia through the design and delivery of an online training module to tertiary Indonesian heritage and archaeology students. It builds on a project funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Maritime Capacity Building Initiative to facilitate and support the development of a comprehensive management plan for an Australian naval shipwreck, HMAS Perth (I), in Indonesian waters.
While local communities and stakeholders from across different levels of government have been involved in discussions on how to protect and preserve this and other significant shipwrecks in Indonesia, opportunities to engage with the next generation of practitioners and scholars have evaporated due to COVID-related travel restrictions. This project will draw upon the example of HMAS Perth (I), which students can apply to other significant maritime archaeology and shared maritime heritage sites in the Indonesian archipelago.
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Gates Foundation grant success: Reducing poverty through digital finance schemes in Myanmar
Congratulations to Dr Russell Toth who is co-academic lead of a project on interoperable digital finance schemes in Myanmar managed by Innovations for Poverty Action. The project has been awarded $3,463,200 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project will first focus on Myanmar and Tanzania, and will likely expand in scope to include additional deployments. The project seeks to monitor the implementation and evaluate the impacts of interoperable digital finance schemes in emerging markets. Such systems have the potential to improve consumer welfare and economic efficiency by removing payments barriers between clients of different financial service providers, and increasing competition between digital financial service providers. The project will leverage primary and secondary data to evaluate impacts at the consumer and market system level, and closely engage with policymakers and private and public sector organisations to influence the optimal design and regulation of such systems.
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Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation 2020: Thomas Maschmeyer
Congratulations to Professor Thomas Maschmeyer who won the Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation 2020 in recognition of his work translating fundamental research into two pioneering commercial technologies. Over the past two decades, Professor Maschmeyer has invented a new, efficient way to convert renewable and plastic-waste inputs into their constituent chemical materials for reuse and reimagined zinc-bromide chemistry to develop a completely new solar-energy battery technology. Both these inventions are poised to transform how we address two of humanity’s most pressing challenges – the need for more efficient commercial waste recycling and boosting the performance of renewable energy storage. Professor Maschmeyer’s invention is set to be adapted in East Timor to help Asia’s newest country transform to a plastics-neutral economy.
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World's Most Influential Scientist in the Cross-Field Category: Manfred Lenzen
Congratulations to Professor Manfred Lenzen who has been listed among the world's most influential researchers in his field, according to the Clarivate Analytics 2020 Highly Cited Researchers List, along with 19 other University of Sydney academics. His research was ranked in the top one percent of most referenced papers in his field. Professor Lenzen has also been named among the most highly cited academics between 1996 – 2018 according to a study published in PLOS Biology. Manfred Lenzen is Professor of Sustainability Research at Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA) in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. He has a PhD in Nuclear Physics and 15 years of experience in renewable energy technologies. He has undertaken extensive experimental research on passive solar architecture. He is an international leader in economic Input-Output Analysis and Life-Cycle Assessment, is Associate Editor for the Journal of Industrial Ecology, and is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Economic Systems Research. He has contributed major methodological advances as well as numerous applications, in particular on embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
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World's Most Influential Scientist in Agricultural Sciences and Australia's Leading Researcher for Soil Sciences: Budiman Minasny
Congratulations to Professor Budiman Minasny who has been listed among the world's most influential researchers in agricultural sciences, according to the Clarivate Analytics 2020 Highly Cited Researchers List, along with 19 other University of Sydney academics. His research was ranked in the top one percent of most referenced papers in his field. Professor Minasny has also been named Australia's leading researcher for Soil Sciences in The Australian's 2020 Research special report, and has been named among the most highly cited academics for agriculture between 1996 – 2018 according to a study published in PLOS Biology. Professor Minasny teaches soil-landscape modelling at the University of Sydney. He is the theme leader of Soil, Carbon, and Water at Sydney Institute of Agriculture. He is a soil scientist, previously awarded the QEII and the Future Fellowships from the Australian Research Council. He was recognised as a Highly Cited Researcher in 2019 by the Web of Science. He is passionate about the role of soil in managing climate change, food, water, energy security, and maintaining biodiversity and has conducted extensive research in Indonesia.
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Most Highly Cited Academic for Communications: Nick Enfield
Congratulations to Professor Nick Enflield who has been named among the most highly cited academics for communications between 1996 – 2018 according to a study published in PLOS Biology. Analysing research from 1996 to 2018, the ranking measures the long-term impact of currently active scientists: in total the work of almost 7 million scientists worldwide was analysed.
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Australia's Leading Researcher for Veterinary Science: Navneet Dhand
Associate Professor Dhand aims to use epidemiological and statistical tools to improve public health and to solve intricate problems confronting animal industries. He is currently leading a team of 40 world-class epidemiologists involved in a multi-agency program designed to limit the spread of animal disease that could affect human health and livelihoods. The project will operate in eleven countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
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Book Release | Environmental Recourse at the Multilateral Development Banks
Congratulations to Professor Susan Park on the release of her new book, Environmental Recourse at the Multilateral Development Banks, part of the Cambridge University Press "Elements in Earth System Governance" series. If you'd like to know more about Professor Park's work, listen to our SSEAC Stories podcast where she discussed global governance and Multilateral Development Banks, with a specific focus on accountability mechanisms in the Asian Development Bank.
Further information about the book is available here.
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Book Release | From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation: Digital Media in Southeast Asia
Congratulations to Dr Aim Sinpeng (The University of Sydney) and Dr Ross Tapsell (Australian National University) who have recently published a new book with ISEAS Publishing, which examines the changing information societies of the Southeast Asian region, and the role of disinformation and social media campaigning on the democratic process.
Further information about the book is available here.
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Improving sanitation in Timor-Leste
Dr Jacqueline Thomas from the School of Civil Engineering is collaborating with Timor-Leste Government ministries (Ministry of Health and Ministry of Public Works), international non-government organisations (NGOs) (UNICEF and WaterAid) and local NGOs to research how poor sanitation leads to contamination of the natural environment and results in decreased health levels.
With funding awarded by SSEAC in 2019, the analysis will be used by the stakeholders to help inform policy decisions and determine the most appropriate sanitation technologies for Timor-Leste communities in both rural and urban areas.
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Combating fake news and disinformation on the internet
Dr Aim Sinpeng (Department of Government and International Relations) is investigating the spread of fake news and disinformation on online platforms. She recently released a report through the Stanford Internet Observatory at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies of the first ever analysis of state-backed disinformation networks originating from the Royal Thai Military.
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#WhatsHappeningInThailand: Youths in Revolt in Thailand
On 24 November, SSEAC organised a live panel discussion about the current protests in Thailand, looking at the events from a diverse range of perspectives, including historical legacy, military-monarchy relations, youth culture, protest language, generational divide and grievances against the Prayuth regime. The webinar livestream has already been received over 12,000 views on Facebook.
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Social Media, Grassroots Activism and Disinformation in Southeast Asia
On 30 November, SSEAC organised a live webinar about the role of social media in Southeast Asian politics. In this public webinar, Dr Aim Sinpeng (The University of Sydney) and Dr Ross Tapsell (Australian National University) discussed their new book, From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation: Social Media in Southeast Asia (ISEAS Publishing, 2020), with Dr Amelia Johns (University of Technology Sydney). The panel debated many controversial issues, from the potential of social media as a “liberation technology” in both democratising and authoritarian states, to its manipulation by governments in attempts to control political narratives, and its impact on the spread of disinformation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar attracted significant interest, with over 300 people watching on Zoom and many more watching the livestream on Facebook.
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 | Social Media, Grassroots Activism & Disinformation in Southeast Asia Analysed by Dr Aim Sinpeng and Dr Ross Tapsell
Social media has become a crucial avenue for political discourse in Southeast Asia, given its potential as a “liberation technology” in both democratising and authoritarian states. Yet the growing decline in internet freedom and increasingly repressive and manipulative use of social media tools by governments means that social media is now an essential platform for control. “Disinformation” and “fake news” production is growing rapidly, and national governments are creating laws which attempt to address this trend, but often only exacerbate the situation of state control.
Dr Aim Sinpeng and Dr Ross Tapsell discuss their new book, From Grassroots Activism to Disinformation: Social Media in Southeast Asia (ISEAS Publishing, 2020), with Dr Thushara Dibley, and explore some of the more recent controversies surrounding social media use in Southeast Asia.
| |  | Projectland: Stories of Life in a Lao Socialist Village with Associate Professor Holly High
In her latest book, Projectland: Life in a Lao Socialist Model Village, due out in May 2021, Associate Professor Holly High argues that socialism remains an important consideration in understanding “the politics of culture and the culture of politics” in Laos. She contends that understanding socialism in Laos requires moving past the ideological condemnations and emotion-laden judgements that marked the Cold War era, as well as paying attention to everyday experience.
In this episode, Associate Professor Holly High talks to Dr Natali Pearson about her decades-long anthropological fieldwork in rural parts of Laos, recounting little-known stories of life in a remote village in Sekong Province. She explores the role of the State in shaping local aspirations, worldviews and beliefs, as well as discusses notions of gender and how socialist values of equality, unity and independence have influenced the lives of women in one of Laos' model villages.
Warning: This episode contains discussions of gender-based violence which may be distressing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
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 | Improving Food Security in Laos and Cambodia: A Farmer’s Perspective with Associate Professor Russell Bush
Southeast Asia's demand for protein in the form of animal meat is increasing by more than 4% every year. This has important consequences for regional food security and household incomes and wellbeing. Laos and Cambodia are ideally placed in the region to meet the demand. However, current livestock production and health practices pose a constraint and are preventing this opportunity from being realised. In addition, farmers in both countries contend with high costs of production, variable returns and changing government policy, which is similar to the situation experienced by Australian farmers.
Associate Professor Russell Bush talks to Dr Natali Pearson about his work towards improving livestock health and food security in Laos and Cambodia, and describes how better livestock management can have a transformative impact on livelihoods.
| |  | Southeast Asian Performance, Ethnic Identity and China’s Soft Power: A Discussion with Dr Josh Stenberg
From glove puppets of Chinese origin and Hakka religious processions, to wartime political theatre and contemporary choirs and dance groups, the diverse performance practices of ethnic Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia highlight the complexity of minority self-representation and sense of identity of a community that is often considered solely in socioeconomic terms. Each performance form is placed in its social and historical context, highlighting how Sino-Southeast Asian groups and individuals have represented themselves locally and nationally to the region's majority populations as well as to state power.
Dr Josh Stenberg talks to Dr Natali Pearson about Sino-Southeast Asian self-representation in performance arts, and challenges essentialist readings of ethnicity or minority. In showing the fluidity and adaptability of Sino-Southeast Asian identities as expressed in performance and public display, Dr Stenberg enriches our understanding of Southeast Asian cultures and art forms, Southeast Asian Chinese identities, and transnational cultural exchanges.
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 | Lost Temples of the Jungle: A History of Mrauk-U with Dr Bob Hudson
Deep in the jungles of Myanmar lie the remains of an ancient kingdom, the 15th century royal city of Mrauk-U. The Buddhist temple complex of Mrauk-U was brought back to the spotlight in 2017, when former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan led a mission to Rakhine State and urged Myanmar to nominate Mrauk-U for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The proposal sought not only to protect the city’s many archaeological sites from ruin, but also aspired to nurture a communal sense of pride in the local population’s heritage. Yet in recent years, efforts to uncover Mrauk-U’s mysteries have been threatened by conflict between the Myanmar military and a secessionist group, the Arakan Army.
Dr Bob Hudson speaks to Dr Thushara Dibley about the remote archaeological site of Mrauk-U, its turbulent history, and how attempts to have it recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site are contributing to peacebuilding efforts in a region torn by civil conflict.
| |  | Myanmar’s Disciplined Democracy and the 2020 Elections: A Discussion with Dr Roger Lee Huang
Myanmar is scheduled to hold general elections in November 2020. While the country has experienced political liberalisation since 2011, the latest Freedom House Report ranked Myanmar as “not free.”
Dr Roger Lee Huang talks with Dr Natali Pearson about Myanmar's ongoing regime transition, arguing that the country’s "disciplined democracy" contains features of democratic politics, but at its core remains authoritarian.
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 | Fighting for Social Justice: The Politics of Aid and Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace - Dr Kristy Ward
\Around the world, social justice movements have exposed the pervasive extent of gender-based violence in the workplace. While women’s empowerment has long been a tenet of development aid, in practice, aid projects often impact social relations in complex ways and catalyse social violence by grouping and categorising people for aid distribution. Women are overwhelmingly affected by this process and often become the victims of work-related violence. In Cambodia, these dynamics are particularly acute, as gendered norms continue to prevail in many industries and exclude women from labour unions.
Dr Kristy Ward chats with Professor Michele Ford about her research into conflict dynamics and the politics of representation, delving into the disruptive impact of development aid, and the ways in which women in Cambodia and India have sought to negotiate agency and combat gender-based violence in the workplace.
| |  | The Street and the Ballot Box: How Indonesia's Labour Movement Rose from the Ashes - Professor Michele Ford
Indonesia’s labour movement emerged weak and disorganised after more than 30 years under authoritarian rule. Yet in the two decades since the country’s transition to democracy, it has emerged as a vibrant, even influential, political actor. While the movement’s rise to success has not been without its challenges, it achieved its goals by adopting a unique combination of political tactics.
As Indonesia erupts in violent protests over the passing of a controversial new jobs law, Professor Michele Ford reflects on the history of Indonesia’s labour movement, exploring how international support, the post-transition political opportunity structure, and unions’ tactical creativity combined to reinvigorate the labour movement, leading to substantial rises in the minimum wage and some policy success.
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 | Storms and Shipwrecks: The Story of the Tang Treasures - Dr Natali Pearson
In 1998, Indonesian fishermen diving for sea cucumbers discovered a shipwreck off Belitung Island in the Java Sea. The ship was a Middle Eastern vessel carrying around 70,000 Chinese ceramics, as well as luxurious objects of gold and silver. Bound for present-day Iran and Iraq, it is the earliest ship found in Southeast Asia thus far and provides proof of active maritime trade in the ninth century among China, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. In spite of its historical significance, the Tang Shipwreck's destiny has not been smooth sailing. After being salvaged from Indonesian waters, the ship and its cargo were purchased by Singapore, and soon, controversies emerged around its provenance.
In this episode, Dr Natali Pearson gets on the other side of the mic and chats with Professor Michele Ford about the Tang Shipwreck, how its underwater treasures were salvaged from looting in Indonesia, and the controversies it stirred in the world of maritime cultural heritage.
| |  | Fighting for Inclusion: Disability Activism in Indonesia - Dr Thushara Dibley
Traditionally and historically, disability has widely been seen and treated as a medical impediment. For decades, the Indonesian Government perpetuated this medical model of disability, which focuses on what a person cannot do and cannot be. But in recent years, activists have challenged this notion, emphasizing that 'disability' is the result of the interaction between people living with impairments and an environment filled with physical, attitudinal, communication and social barriers.
Dr Thushara Dibley chats with Dr Natali Pearson about disability activism in Indonesia, highlighting the success of local activists in changing Indonesian law and shifting attitudes in the broader population.
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 | Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand - Prof Duncan McCargo
In Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand, Professor Duncan McCargo investigates how Thailand's judges were tasked by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) in 2006 with helping to solve the country's intractable political problems - and what happened next.
In this podcast, Professor Duncan McCargo speaks to Dr Aim Sinpeng about the world of Thai judges: how they were recruited, trained, and promoted, and how they were socialised into a conservative world view that emphasized the proximity between the judiciary and the monarchy.
| |  | Wild Cities, Smart Cities: Building a Sustainable Future through Urban Governance - Dr Sophie Webber
According to the World Bank, nearly 70 percent of Indonesia's population are expected to live in cities by 2045. From traffic congestion to informal settlements, lack of clean water and waste management services, and widespread flooding, Indonesia's cities suffer significant human and economic costs, and are now highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Dr Sophie Webber speaks with Dr Natali Pearson about urban governance, and how urban resilience is being rolled out as a policy solution for cities such as Jakarta and Semarang in Indonesia, that are trying to adapt to the many shocks and stresses associated with urbanisation and climate change.
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 | Addressing Environmental and Social Harm through Global Governance - Prof Susan Park
As instruments of global governance, Multilateral Development Banks were created to lend developing states capital for economic growth and development that they could not access from private capital markets. Despite their positive aims, these international organisations have often come under fire and received harsh criticism for their lending practices on economic, political, environmental, and human rights grounds. In particular, the Banks have been the focus of attention for being unaccountable for their actions.
Professor Susan Park chats with Dr Natali Pearson about global governance and Multilateral Development Banks, with a specific focus on accountability mechanisms in the Asian Development Bank.
| |  | The Dilemmas of Post-War Reconstruction in the Sino-Burmese Borderlands - Dr Andres Rodriguez
The early post-war years (1945-1948) in Asia witnessed the dismantling of empire leading to a massive territorial reorganisation of the region under the framework of 'reconstruction’. Contested borders dating from the age of empire were soon to be settled, as new national borders were drawn along ethnic or religious lines in the region. Yet the settlement of borders posed important challenges for those communities who had long resided in the interstices of state power.
Dr Andres Rodriguez talks to Dr Natali Pearson about the ways in which both China and Burma sought to ‘decolonise’ the ethnically diverse borderland areas between Yunnan, Western Sichuan and Burma, and how their inhabitants presented their own interpretation of emancipation, equality and modernity for the region.
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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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