Anthropology: Recent Events and Visitors
June-August 2009
Prof Anke Niehof and Dr Roy Jordaan - Visiting Scholars in Anthropology in the School of Political and Social Inquiry
Anke Niehof holds the Chair of Sociology of Consumers and Households, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She is an anthropologist and demographer by training and obtained her PhD at Leiden University, published as "Women and Fertility in Madura, Indonesia", 1985. At Wageningen University she supervises a large research project on the role of women in food systems in sub-Saharan Africa and impacts of HIV and AIDS (the so-called AWLAE Project) in the framework of which 19 women scholars from 11 African countries are doing their PhD at Wageningen University. A book on the findings of the AWLAE Project is in preparation, to be published by Earthscan and edited by Anke Niehof together with Gabriel Rugalema and Stuart Gillespie. While at Monash, Prof Niehof will present a seminar on her work, "Women and Household Food and Nutrition Security - with particular reference to insular Southeast Asia".
Roy Jordaan is author of "Imagine Buddha in Prambanan: reconsidering the Buddhist background of the Loro Jonggrang temple complex", Leiden: Vakgroep Talen en Culturen van Zuidoost-Azie en Oceanie, Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, 1993; and the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies Working Paper, "Exploring the Role of the Sailendras in Early Eastern Javanese History", Monash Asia Institute Press, 2007. He is also editor of the volume "In Praise of Prambanan", Leiden: KITLV Press, 1996. His paper ‘The bridge of Rama in Southeast Asia; The causeay reliefs of Prambanan and Phimai re-examined’, was recently presented at the international workshop ‘The Old Javanese Ramayana: Text, History and Culture’, Jakarta, 26-28 May 2009. While at Monash, Roy Jordaan presented a seminar on "Candi Prambanan as a Holy Water Sanctuary".
August 2008 - Michael Herzfeld screens 'Monti Moments'
Michael Herzfeld, professor of anthropology at Harvard University, screened his ethnographic film "Monti Moments" at the Monash anthropology seminar series on 14 August, 2008. Herzfeld, the author of nine books and well over one hundred scholarly articles and book chapters, is a repeat visitor to Monash anthropology, having previously presented a seminar paper in 2007 based on his ongoing work in Italy. Besides his work in Italy, Herzfeld is renowned for his research in Greece and Thailand.