SSEAC Newsletter
March 2024 edition
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Welcome to the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre’s quarterly newsletter.
Featuring some of our research projects, education initiatives, development programs, news and events, and grant opportunities related to Southeast Asia.
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|  | Fishermen untangling nets at a port in Java. Photo credit: Armin Hari/The Freedom Fund
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Labour rights in Indonesia’s seafood sector
In 2022–23, SSEAC was commissioned by the Freedom Fund and Humanity United to guide a hotspot program that supports a small group of unions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working to organise, claim rights, improve working conditions and access remedies for commercial fishers and seafood processing workers in Indonesia.
The study involved key informant interviews with government officials, employers and employer associations, unions, Indonesian and international NGO labour activists as well as partner consultations and site visits. Fishers with local and international experience and seafood processing workers were also interviewed.
The findings have been released in a new report by Professor Michele Ford (University of Sydney), Mr Benni Yusriza Hasbiyalloh (Universitas Paramadina) and Dr Wayne Palmer (University of Bielefeld). The report, ‘Labour rights in Indonesia’s seafood sector’, outlines the challenges faced by seafood sector workers and the organisations that represent and support them, and identifies promising approaches for worker mobilisation in comparable sectors. Congratulations to Professor Ford and the team on this excellent study. You can read the report here.
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SSEAC welcomes Professor Greg Fox, who will be starting as its Interim Director on 1 April 2024. Professor Fox is a respiratory physician and clinical researcher committed to using research to improve health care among disadvantaged populations. He has led research in Vietnam for more than 15 years, working closely with local partners to combat tuberculosis, antimicrobial resistance and chronic lung disease. He currently leads the Sydney Vietnam Academic Network, a multidisciplinary group of academics supporting collaborative research and education between the University of Sydney and Vietnam. We look forward to Professor Fox joining the team next month!
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New Bachelor of Science in Agroecology at National University of Battambang co-designed with University of Sydney
The BSc in Agroecology is the only academic program of its kind in Cambodia and was designed to meet the country’s labour market needs by garnering stakeholder feedback in the early stages of curriculum design and development.
The program prepares graduates to become agroecologists, with comprehensive and contemporary knowledge of sustainable food systems, critical for future-focused employment in private enterprise, government institutions and NGOs. These organisations have important roles to play in moving Cambodian agriculture from mono-cropping to agrobiodiversity practices and so improve both the yields of staple crops and the environmental health of the country.
Well-designed curricula are critical for the agriculture sector in Cambodia as they elevate the country’s ability to compete in regional agricultural markets.
Congratulations to all involved on this significant collaboration.
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SJTG Best Paper awards
This prestigious award, which has been running since 2013, recognises the best paper by a graduate student (where the lead author is a graduate student) and the best overall paper. The paper, which was described as a close runner-up, examines the broad contours of capital and capitalist development in the Indonesian fisheries sector and how it is transforming the nature of production. It was developed during the inaugural SSEAC Residency Worksop 2021–2022.
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Humanitarian Pitch award
Congratulations to PhD Civil Engineering student Arvin Hadlos, winner of the 2023 Humanitarian Pitch award. The Pitch is an annual prize that recognises higher degree by research students conducting research that can be applied by governments, institutions, NGOs and communities to address pressing issues facing underserved or marginalised communities. Arvin has been researching housing reconstruction strategies in the Philippines, analysing the trade-offs in building resilient dwellings against wind and seismic impacts. As part of the award, he travelled to Hawaii in January to attend the Pacific Telecommunications Conference, which provided insights on innovations within the industry to tackle disaster interventions and development issues, such as the use of submarine cables as potential tsunami warning detectors. It was also an opportunity for him to network with PhDs and academics in the field.
You can watch his winning pitch here.
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Congratulations to our many SSEAC academic members who successfully applied for academic promotion in 2023, including SSEAC’s Dr Natali Pearson and 2022–23 Postdoctoral Researcher
Dr Melandri Vlok. The list includes:
- Dr Susan Banki, School of Social and Political Sciences
- Professor Joy Becker, School of Life and Environmental Sciences
- Dr Jose-Miguel Bello Villarino, Sydney Law School
- Dr Victoria Brookes, Sydney School of Veterinary Science
- Dr Rebecca Cross, School of Geosciences
- Associate Professor Melody Ding, Sydney School of Public Health
- Associate Professor Ernest Ekpo, Sydney School of Health Sciences
- Dr Rosalyn Gloag, School of Life and Environmental Sciences
- Professor Mark Halaki, Sydney School of Health Sciences
- Professor Elizabeth Hill, School of Social and Political Sciences
- Associate Professor Anne Honey, Sydney School of Health Sciences
- Professor Jacqueline Bloomfield, Sydney Nursing School
- Dr Thilini Jayasinghe, Sydney School of Dentistry
- Dr Fengwang Li, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Dr Cathy Little, Sydney School of Education and Social Work
- Professor Ryan Naylor, Sydney School of Health Sciences
- Professor Helena Nguyen, Sydney Business School
- Dr Tu Nguyen, Sydney Medical School
- Professor Ruth Phillips, Sydney Nursing School
- Professor Anna Rangan, School of Life and Environmental Sciences
- Dr Abdul Razeed, Sydney Business School
- Dr Andres Rodriguez, School of Humanities
- Associate Professor Aim Sinpeng, School of Social and Political Sciences
- Associate Professor Josh Stenberg, School of Languages and Cultures
- Dr Justin Sullivan, School of Health Sciences
- Dr Jacqueline Thomas, School of Civil Engineering
- Associate Professor Russell Toth, School of Economics
- Dr David Tunnicliffe, Sydney School of Public Health
- Dr Carola Venturini, Sydney School of Veterinary Science
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 | Indonesian farmer walking through her village. Photo: Petr Matous
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High stakes of peer-to-peer social networks among smallholder farmers in Indonesia
Small decisions of millions of farmers around the world, such as which fertiliser and cultivation practices they choose, have large implications for agricultural productivity, farmers’ livelihoods and environmental footprint of food production.
A new study led by Associate Professor Petr Matous (School of Project Management) investigates fertiliser acceptance in 30 remote agrarian villages on Sulawesi encompassing 2,774 smallholder cocoa farmers and their 3,122 social ties. It finds that when only a few farmers hold a disproportionate level of influence (often due to their roles as “model farmers” in official sustainability programs) most other farmers tend to adopt similar practices, which in this case was not to use fertilisers. The study argues for caution when implementing programs that may skew community structures and leave behind a more centralised social fabric by elevating a small number of well-established farmers who might not effectively support intended aims.
Read ‘Hub-and-spoke social networks among Indonesian cocoa farmers homogenise farming practices’ in English or Indonesian translation here.
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 | In 2023 Associate Professor Beardsley led a SSEAC field school to Cambodia on combatting antimicrobial resistance
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| Tackling antimicrobial resistance in ASEAN
Over 2022 and 2023, Associate Professor Justin Beardsley (Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute), Leanne Howie and Dr Harish Tiwari held a series of workshops exploring the One Health research and networking capacity in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in the context of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The Australia-ASEAN Council-funded project aims to unite researchers and laboratories in those countries, leveraging the One Health approach to build a foundation from which to comprehensively address AMR.
As well as the workshops, a survey identified challenges and opportunities facing AMR researchers in the region. The survey revealed antimicrobial stewardship as a neglected area, particularly in the environmental sector. It also found an insufficient emphasis on social sciences in AMR research and identified several key barriers to regional One Health AMR research. You can read the full survey results and policy recommendations in their report, ‘Networking One Health laboratories in ASEAN to tackle antimicrobial resistance’.
The report is also available in Vietnamese, Khmer and Lao translation here.
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Recent highlights
—workshops, webinars, events & more
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SSEAC 2023 Yearbook
Last month we published our 2023 Yearbook, highlighting SSEAC’s flagship events, conferences, members’ research, education initiatives, social science seminar series, and engagement with partners in Southeast Asia and globally.
From Politics in Action and the 6th Conference on Human Rights, to fostering high-impact research and the next generation of research excellence, we’re immensely proud of the work we do, much of which could not be achieved without our engaged community of SSEAC members.
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“A wonderful experience. I can be more focused and productive in writing. Also, it is a pleasure to meet other PhD fellows in Australia, sharing and giving suggestions as well as supporting each other.”
– SSEAC 2024 writing retreat participant
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Postgraduate writing retreat
In February, Dr Natali Pearson facilitated SSEAC’s first writing retreat for 2024, day one of which coincided with Valentine’s Day, the Indonesian election and the start of the university’s Welcome Week! Despite these distractions, our 30 postgraduate students, including Postgraduate Representative Emily Nabong, were ready to write. Held on campus over three days, the retreat was open to PhD candidates at Australian tertiary institutions working on Southeast Asia. The retreat included goal setting, structured writing time, work-in-progress groups and debriefing sessions, as well as a campus tour for interstate participants.
We will be holding more writing retreats throughout the year. Sign up as a SSEAC member so you don’t miss out on this excellent program!
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Defining Thai nationalism
On 5 December 2023, Thailand’s National Day, SSEAC’s Thailand Country Coordinator, Associate Professor Aim Sinpeng, co-hosted and chaired an event with the Australian Alliance for Thai Democracy (AATD) on ‘Defining Thai nationalism and its direction’. The event brought together scholars and thought leaders to explore the multifaceted aspects of Thai nationalism and chart its course for the future. The distinguished panel included Associate Professor Pavin Chachavalpongpun, Senior Lecturer at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University; Associate Professor Patrick Jory, Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland; Kanyanatt Kalfagiannis, co-founder of the AATD; and Fuadi Pitsuwan, Visiting Fellow, School of Public Policy, Chiang Mai University. The event included an extended Q&A session with an engaged audience in which no question was off limits, leading many to remark what an extraordinary event it had been.Read a write-up of the event here.
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PhilS4: Building relations: Citizenship regimes in post-disaster communities in the Philippines
In our first PhilS4 webinar for 2024, Dr Jean Encinas-Franco (University of the Philippines) examines citizen participation of fisherfolk in Manila Bay who are facing increasing levels of tidal flooding while struggling to rebuild their homes after a super typhoon. The discussion explores how four regimes of citizenship (localism, response, palakasan or self-interest, and geomorphological regimes) operating in post-disaster housing reconstruction influence modes of participation rooted in kinship. The findings underscore how kinship practices (viewed as dynamic and political acts) within household-level housing reconstruction both enable and frustrate the rebuilding of homes and lives during and after disasters.
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Crisis infrastructuring in Malaysia
The Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) visa program was introduced in 2002 and by the 2010s had become one the world’s most popular retirement and lifestyle migration programs. In recent years it has experienced a series of disruptions that dovetailed the COVID-19 pandemic and Malaysia’s regime change and political crisis from 2018 to 2022. Drawing on interviews with aspiring migrants, current migrants and members of the MM2H migration infrastructure program, Dr Sin Yee Koh (Universiti Brunei Darussalam) examines how various stakeholder groups respond to, defend, challenge and contest the program’s impending infrastructural breakdown and transformation. She explores the ways the (perceived) crisis shapes the kind of repair work undertaken by different stakeholders and what this tells us about migration infrastructures in crisis.
This fascinating webinar was co-hosted with the Malaysia and Singapore Society of Australia.
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What's coming up?
—events and opportunities
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Politics in Action 2024
Drawing on expertise from around the region, our annual Politics in Action forum will feature timely analysis of political, social and economic developments in six Southeast Asian countries. This year, our six focus countries are Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam. Country experts will give an update on recent political developments in their focus country, followed by a Q&A. This flagship event is for scholars, students and the broader community interested in the current political, social and economic climate in Southeast Asia.When: Thursday 9 May 2024, 12:00–4:30 pm (AEST)
Where: In person at Education Lecture Theatre 351, Education Building, University of Sydney Camperdown campus and livestreamed on SSEAC’s Facebook page
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Disability, Technology and Digital Inclusion in Southeast Asia conference
This conference features a series of presentations that consider the intersections of disability, technology and digital inclusion in and across Southeast Asia. It draws attention to an emergent and understudied research area, one that has significant impact on disabled populations given the widespread embrace of the digital today. The conference is co-hosted by SSEAC and the Centre for Disability Research and Policy at the University of Sydney, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, and Asian Communication Research Centre, Nanyang Technological University. The agenda and full list of speakers is available here.When: Friday 8 March 2024, 11:00 am–6:00 pm (AEDT)
Where: Online
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 | Woman resting under an oil palm tree. Photo credit: Izlan Somai (Shutterstock)
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2024 Iain McCalman Lecture
As climate change intensifies and resource extraction erodes complex ecosystems, many people are experiencing profound grief over the loss of species, landscapes and their cultural connections.
Environmental anthropologist Dr Sophie Chao presents the 2024 Iain McCalman Lecture, which will explore the Indigenous Marind People’s practice of ‘multispecies mourning’ in West Papua, and how commemorating lives lost and forging multispecies solidarities can be an act of resistance to the ongoing ecological upheaval.
When: Monday 11 March 2024, 6:00–7:30 pm (AEDT)
Where: University of Sydney – Great Hall, Science Road, Camperdown
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Circulations of Law: Translation and the work of language
In this seminar co-hosted with the School of Social and Political Sciences’ Discipline of Anthropology, Dr Iza Hussin (University of Cambridge) will consider how law moves, what happens when it arrives, and how it gains its onward momentum and direction. The much-travelled figure of Abu Bakar of Johore (1833–1896) provides the narrative and archival spine. He was responsible for the promulgation of Southeast Asia’s first constitution, and of one of the earliest iterations of a now-familiar formulation: “Islam shall be the religion of the state.” The talk will consider the dynamics that aided the transport, translation and domestication of these iterations of Islam in law. When: Wednesday 20 March 2024, 3:30–5:00 pm (AEDT)
Where: A02 Social Sciences Building, Room 441
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AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies
The submission deadline for the American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS)–Michigan State University (MSU) Asian Studies Center Conference on Indonesian Studies has been extended to 24 March. The 4th annual AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies will be held from 18 to 22 June 2024. This year’s theme, ‘Indonesia Ascendent?’, seeks to capture Indonesia’s experience of ascendance on the global stage that is drawing a lot of attention.
Submissions are invited from scholars across broad disciplinary perspectives in the study of Indonesia. The committee is especially interested in research that engages discourses on the trajectory of Indonesia, past and present, and broadly defined.
Submissions close Sunday 24 March.
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2024 LCNAU Eighth Biennial Colloquium
Submissions for abstracts and panel proposals are now open for the 2024 LCNAU Eighth Biennial Colloquium. Hosted by the University of Sydney’s School of Languages and Cultures, the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU) 2024 Colloquium will explore the theme ‘Trans/Formation: Research and education in languages and cultures’. LCNAU invites scholars, practitioners, early-career researchers and postgraduate students to submit abstract and panel proposals on a wide range of interest areas. Submissions close Sunday 31 March 2024, 11:45 pm (AEDT).
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NHMRC e-ASIA 2024 Joint Research Program
Health Research: Applications are invited for projects commencing in 2025 addressing the research topic of infectious diseases and immunology (including antimicrobial resistance) as identified in the e-ASIA JRP Health Research 13th call text.
Food and Health: Applications are invited for projects commencing in 2025 addressing the research topic of personalised nutrition as identified in the e-ASIA JRP Food and Health 13th call text. For the Health Research stream, NHMRC requires that collaborations must include a Principal Investigator from at least one member organisation from the following countries: Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore.
Minimum data due Wednesday 13 March 2024.
Applications close Wednesday 3 April 2024.
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Building Trust in Australian Agricultural Traceability and Credentials in Southeast Asia
The purpose of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s Building Trust in Australian Agricultural Traceability and Credentials in Southeast Asia Grant Round is to strengthen trust in Australia’s commercial agricultural traceability systems and robust credentials in our region by funding activities that increase supply chain transparency, build regional capability business-to-business and support development of sustainable, resilient and data enabled supply chains. Projects will foster mutually beneficial outcomes, shared learning, innovation, capacity building, and technical expert engagement in Australia and Southeast Asia markets (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam).Applications close Wednesday 27 March, 9:00 pm (AEDT).
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John Legge Prize
Applications for the John Legge Prize for the Best Thesis in Asian Studies in 2023 are now open. The prize recognises cutting-edge research performed by postgraduates across a broad field of research. In 2024, the John Legge Prize will be awarded to a thesis conferred by an Australian university in 2023. The thesis must deal wholly with a country or countries of Asia or with Australia’s relationship with Asia. The thesis must be in humanities or social sciences disciplines, broadly defined.Applications close Friday 5 April 2024.
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National Library Asia Study Grants
The Asia Study Grants program provides researchers and PhD students with the opportunity to research the National Library of Australia’s Asian language and Asia-related collections. These grants offer a four-week period of intensive research at a negotiated time during 2025, where scholars have privileged access to the Library’s materials, facilities and staff. Previous Asia Study Grant recipients include Professor Adrian Vickers, and Dr Andres Rodriguez who can be contacted to answer any questions about the grant.Applications for the 2025 Grants program open Monday 29 April 2024.
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Southeast Asia Bioethics Network Grants
The Southeast Asia Bioethics Network is currently offering grants in four areas: Research Fellowship Grants; Professional Growth Fellowship Grants; Research Seed Grants; and Internship Grants. The grants are aimed at supporting students, scholars, researchers and professionals working in bioethics or bioethics-related disciplines in Southeast Asia. Applications close Tuesday 30 April 2024.
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Spectacles of Waste
Leading historian of medicine Professor Warwick Anderson’s new book Spectacles of Waste (Polity Books) reveals how human excrement has always complicated humanity’s attempts to become modern. From wastewater epidemiology and sewage snooping to fecal transplants and excremental art, he argues that our insistence on separating ourselves from our bodily waste has fundamentally shaped our philosophies, social theories, literature and art – even the emergence of high-tech science as we understand it today.Cleverly written, Professor Anderson’s expert analysis, including on the colon-ising of Filipinos under the US imperial regime, reveals how in recent years, humanity has doubled down on abstracting and datafying our most abject waste, and unconsciously underlined its biopolitical signature across our lives.
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The future of charities
In his book Redundant Charities: Escaping the Cycle of Dependence, social entrepreneur and University of Sydney alumni Weh Yeoh outlines a new approach to charity work, an approach that starts by recognising that a successful charity is one that makes itself redundant. Weh Yeoh has worked internationally and in Australia in the social impact space for close to two decades. In 2013 he started OIC, an initiative that established speech therapy as a profession in Cambodia four years later in 2017 he handed over leadership to a local Cambodian team. He has since co-founded Umbo, a social enterprise bridging the gap for rural Australians to access allied health services. Read more about Weh Yeoh’s story here and purchase his book here.
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Undermining Resistance
How do multinational mining corporations use participation to undermine resistance? Why and how do people affected by mining embrace or resist mining? Do the struggles of local communities, activists and NGOs matter on a global scale?
Pre-order your copy here.
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 | Bacterial pathogens and aquaculture
In Vietnam, one of the top producers and exporters of seafood products, aquaculture is seen as a means of protecting rural agricultural livelihoods threatened by climate change. Yet climate change also drives the emergence of marine bacterial pathogens that cause considerable losses to aquaculture production and result in the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance in settings where pathogen blooms are traditionally treated with antimicrobials. Dr Carola Venturini, an expert research microbiologist and lecturer at the Sydney School of Veterinary Sciences, joins Dr Natali Pearson to discuss novel ecological antimicrobial solutions for combatting these bacterial pathogens without fostering antimicrobial resistance. | |  | Kawi Culture: Exploring Indonesia’s classical civilisation
Much of what is considered “classical” in Indonesian history, such as the Borobudur temple complex, is a product of Kawi Culture. In fact, Indonesian society emerged from the ancient traditions of Kawi Culture, which stretch back over a thousand years. The symbols and ideas of Kawi Culture continue to define Indonesian identity, such as in Javanese wayang, Balinese temples, and even the national motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which is quoted from a Kawi poem. So what is Kawi, and why is it the classical civilisation no one has heard of? To answer these questions, Dr Natali Pearson is joined by Dr Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan, a historian who specialises in the premodern history of Indonesia. | |
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In the media
- Professor Simon Butt wrote on Indonesia’s constitution in The Conversation in the lead-up to the country’s February elections.
- Indonesia’s elections saw a number of our members quoted in national and highly syndicated international outlets including Professor Adrian Vickers here and here, and Professor Justin Hastings here and here.
- Associated Press quoted Professor Emeritus Philip Hirsch in a widely syndicated article on fears that a dam across the Mekong River in Laos could harm a World Heritage site. He is also quoted in The Diplomat in an article on fish populations in the Mekong.
- Dr Elisabeth Kramer wrote for The Conversation on the challenges of translating national laws into local laws in Indonesia based on her study of tobacco laws. Also translated into Bahasa Indonesia.
- Dr Lian Sinclair and Professor Neil Coe examine whether Australia could benefit from cooperation with Indonesia on critical minerals in The Strategist.
- The South China Morning Post quotes Professor Elizabth Hill in an article on the gender pay gap in Asia.
- ICYMI: article on Dr Rosalyn Gloag’s new study on invasive Asian honeybees done in collaboration with Bandung Institute of Technology (Indonesia). Also quoted in ABC Rural.
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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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