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CSEAS Seminar Programme, 2005

Unless otherwise indicated, seminars are held on:

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Thursday 24 November 2005

Manton Theatre SG01, Ground Floor, Menzies Building (11) South, Monash University Clayton campus

"In fear of radical Islam in Indonesia: A critical look at the evidence"

Dr Greg Fealy, The Australian National University
Abstract

In recent years, the Western media and some scholars have declared that Indonesia is beset by a rising tide of Islamic radicalism. They commonly refer not just to the issue of terrorism, but also to perceived Islamisation of society and culture. Often, a link is drawn between growing Islamic piety and radicalisation. I seek to challenge this view but critically assessing the available evidence, including election results, public opinion surveys and trends within radical Islamic groups.
About the speaker

Greg Fealy holds a joint appointment as research fellow and lecturer in Indonesian politics at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and the Faculty of Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra. His main research interests are Islam and post-independence Indonesian politics. He is currently studying Islamism in Indonesia as well as the impact of globalisation upon religio-political behaviour. He gained his PhD from Monash University in 1998 with a study of the history of Indonesia's largest Islamic party, recently published in Indonesian under the title Ijtihad Politik Ulama: Sejarah NU, 1952-1967 . He is the co-author of Joining the Caravan? The Middle East, Islamism and Indonesia (2005), and Radical Islam and Terrorism in Indonesia (2005). He is also co-editor of Nahdlatul Ulama, Traditionalism and Modernity in Indonesia (1995) and Local Power and Politics in Indonesia: Decentralisation and Democratisation (2003). He was the C.V. Starr Visiting Professor in Indonesian Politics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC, semester one, 2003. He has also worked as an Indonesia analyst at the Office of National Assessments and a consultant to AusAID , The Asia Foundation, USAID, the Lowy Institute and Oxford Analytica.

Thursday 17 November 2005 - To be confirmed.

Thursday 10 November 2005

Venue: Manton Room SG05, Ground Floor, Menzies Building (11) South, Monash University Clayton campus

"Space through the body in classical Southeast Asian temples"

Dr Alexandra Haendel, Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Asia Institute.

The temples of the classical civilisations of Southeast Asia have been the focus of scholarly attention for decades, and a large amount of data has been collected and published over the years. However, the question of the sites were used originally, how they were appropriated and re-appropriated over time have not been addressed sufficiently so far. This talk will focus on the question of how a phenomenological approach allows the interpretation of changes in architecture and layout, and what these changes tell us about the functionality of the sites. Examples drawn on will include temples from Cambodia, Laos, and Indonesia.

Thursday 3 November 2005

Venue: Manton Room SG03, Ground Floor, Menzies Building (11) South, Monash University Clayton campus

Dr. Patrick Ziegenhain
Research Fellow, Arnold Bergstraesser Institute and
Lecturer in political science at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany.

The role of the Indonesian Parliament during the democratisation process between 1997 and 2005.

Abstract

In his presentation, Dr Patrick Ziegenhain will analyse the performance of the Indonesian parliament in the era of reformasi since 1997. This period saw tremendous changes in the role of the Indonesian parliament in the political system. Once labeled a powerless rubber stamp, the parliament developed into a comprehensive and more representative body able to fulfill its functions more adequately.

Parliament has both advanced and hindered democratization in Indonesia. After the 1999 election, it became one of Indonesia's most powerful political actors, a (sometimes sputtering) motor for reform and centre for power struggles.

Many personal and structural deficits hinder the daily work of the DPR and hamper the fulfillment of its parliamentary functions. Consequently, these weaknesses cannot be regarded as minor details, but as serious impediments to further democratization. Besides a thorough literature review, Dr Ziegenhain interviewed more than a dozen DPR members on the contribution of the national parliament to the ongoing democratisation process.

About the speaker

Dr Patrick Ziegenhain (born 1969) is a Research Fellow at the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute in Freiburg/ Germany, and lecturer in political science at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg and for the Academic Year in Freiburg, a one-year study abroad program offered by a consortium of US universities. His recent publications include (with Jürgen Rüland, Clemens Jürgenmeyer and Michael Nelson, "Parliaments and Political Change in Asia. A Comparative Study of India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand", Singapore: ISEAS, 2005, and "Deficits of the Indonesian Parliament and Their Impact on the Democratisation Process", in: Wessel, Ingrid (ed.):"Stuck in Transition? Indonesia after the Fall of Suharto", Berlin: Logos, 2005, pp. 27-38. Further information at:

http://www.arnold-bergstraesser.de/CV/ziegenhain.htm

Thursday 27 October 2005

"The Catholic church and land disputes: sobering thoughts from Flores in post-New Order Indonesia. "

Dr. John Prior, svd, Candraditya Research Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture, Ledalero, Maumere, Flores-NTT, Indonesia.

Abstract:

Since the fracturing of Soeharto's New Order in 1998, land disputes have become a major occasion of conflict in Flores and elsewhere. The three areas of dispute are between villages, between villagers and the government, and between indigenous communities and the church. This study takes up issues of adat (customary) and national (positive) law in a fragile ecology and globalising economy, and the ambivalent role being played by the Catholic church in Flores, as landowner on the one hand and as one of the few credible mediators and advocates of human and ecological rights on the other.

About the speaker

John Mansford Prior, UK -born, has lived in Flores, Indonesia since 1973. He has lectured at the Catholic Seminary in Ledalero. He has a PhD in inter-cultural theology from Birmingham University (1987) and joined the staff of the Candraditya Research Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture in the year 2000.

Thursday, 20 October 2005

"Species, race and 'murder' in colonial Indonesia: the orang pendek of Sumatra"

Dr Robert Cribb, Senior Fellow, Division Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS, Australian National University

Thursday 13 October 2005

Centre for Malaysian Studies, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Asia Institute
" Malaysia's Education Revolution ?"
Speaker: Ms Marlia Puteh, PhD candidate, Monash Asia Institute
Chair: Dr Wendy Smith, Director, Centre for Malaysian Studies
This paper discusses the introduction and the role of IT in private universities in Malaysia. Have the private universities been leading the educational revolution? Has the introduction of ICT enable the private universities to meet the goals of Vision 2020? This paper seeks to answer these questions by providing two detailed case study of ICT strategies in the private tertiary education in Malaysia.
Ms Puteh is a member of staff at the University of Technology Malaysia and a PhD candidate in the Monash Asia Institute. She has recently returned from six months of fieldwork in Malaysia.

Thursday 6 October 2005

"Counter terrorism in the Philippines: The new Consolidated Anti-Terrorism Bill of 2005 and its likely consequences"

Mr Charles Donnelly, PhD candidate, Monash Asia Institute, Monash University

Abstract

Since the bombings in Bali in 2002, Australian and US regional officials have routinely described the Philippines as the weakest link in the fight against Jema'ah Islamiyah and affiliated terror groups in Southeast Asia. The Philippines, unlike Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, has not yet enacted an anti-terrorism or internal security law in the post 9/11 environment. Senior US diplomats to the Philippines sparked controversy in April and May 2005 by describing the southern Philippine island of Mindanao as potentially the 'next Afghanistan' and a 'doormat for terrorists'. With one atrocity spurring another, observers of terrorism have come to the conclusion that Southeast Asia is a key battleground in the global 'War on Terror' thus establishing the deeply rooted insurgency in Mindanao as its frontline.

In this seminar, the fragile but vibrant Philippine democracy is described as being poised on the brink of enacting a potent, new counter terrorism Bill that boosts coercive executive power at the expense of judiciary review. Critics of the Bill have described it as 'draconian'. In terms of legislative clout it far exceeds the ASIO Amendment Act 2003 and the US Patriot Act. Philippine efforts to enact Anti-Terrorism legislation target the very heart of the international debate as to how the liberal democratic states are able to address the threat of terrorism without violating the constitutional order and reducing responses to barbarianism.

The purpose of this seminar is to describe the political context in which the Consolidated Anti-Terrorism Bill has arisen, outline the substantive and contentious aspects of the document, and assess the likely impact on the situation in Mindanao and elsewhere in the Philippines.

Thursday 22 September 2005

Thaksin's war? Alternative understandings of the conflict in Southern Thailand

Professor Duncan McCargo, University of Leeds

Abstract
In this presentation, Duncan McCargo will argue that the violent conflict in the South of Thailand that has claimed over 700 lives since January 2004 is best understood as the result of domestic political issues, rather than a manifestation of Islamic militancy or 'terrorism'. The upsurge in violence is closely linked to misguided policies adopted by the Thaksin Shinawatra government, reflecting the prime minister's determination to make inept personal interventions in a wide range of sensitive issues.

Thursday 15 September 2005

"Reconfiguring religion, power and the moral order in Cambodia"

Emeritus Prof David Chandler, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Asia Institute

Joint Centre for Malaysian Studies and Centre of Southeast Asian Studies Seminar

Thursday 8 September 2005

" The Malay Comedy Films of P. Ramlee 1957 to 1972 - Comedy in a Newly Emerging Islamic Nation "
Rohani Hashim, PhD candidate in Visual Culture, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.

Monash PhD candidate, Rohani Hashim, who is a lecturer in Film and Broadcasting at the Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang, will give a paper providing an introduction to the main subject of her thesis, P. Ramlee, the most important writer, director and star of the Malay language films produced by the Shaw Brothers Studios in Singapore for Malay audiences in the 1950s and 1960s. P. Ramlee, born in Penang in 1929, was multi talented - early in his career he was a singer and composer of songs, but after becoming a major star in Shaw brothers films, he turned to writing and directing as well.

His films are regarded as the most important made in the period immediately preceding and following independence in Malaysia. Filmed in black and white, these films are still regularly screened on television in both Malaysia and Singapore today. Rohani Hashim's paper will commence by outlining the career of P. Ramlee. This will be followed by an examination of the versatility of his approach to comedy in a number of his best films - which deal variously with young village people newly migrating into the cities and with Malay tradition, sometimes even based on Malay folk tales. The second half of the paper will examine in detail aspects of one of his best films, Madu Tiga ('The Three Co-Wives',1963), a comedy about polygamy - focusing particularly on how comedy is deployed in the context of Islamic patriarchy, and on Islamic laws regarding marriage and the way they were implemented in Malaysia at the time.

About the Speaker

Rohani Hashim is a PhD candidate in Film and Television Studies/Visual Culture, School of English, Communications and Performance Studies, Monash University, under the supervision of Mr David Hanan. Her PhD research is on "Malay Comedy in a Late Colonial and Post Colonial Context: The Comedy Films of P. Ramlee, 1957 - 1972". Rohani Hashim obtained her Master of Fine Art (M.F.A.) in Film in 1994 from Ohio University, USA. She is now a Lecturer in Film and Broadcasting, in the School of Communication, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang. She has made dramas for television, which were aired on Malaysian televisions and she has directed short films.

Rohani Hashim has previously published numerous articles on Malay film and theatre in the magazine Dewan Budaya published by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur. Her most recent published chapters in books are "Teknik Asas Perfileman," and "Filem Dokumentari " in Sinema dan Penontonan di Malaysia edited by Ramli Mohamed ('Cinema and Viewing in Malaysia', Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2003) and "Lat's The Kampung Boy:Rural Malays in Tradition and Transition" in Asian Futures, Asian Traditions edited by Edwina Palmer (Global Oriental, 2005).

Enquiries: Dr Wendy Smith (Wendy.Smith@BusEco.monash.edu.au ), Centre for Malaysian Studies.

Thursday 1 September 2005, 11.00 am

"Young Muslims: religion, education, and gender transformation in contemporary Java "
Associate Professor Nancy Smith-Hefner

About the speaker

Nancy Smith-Hefner is Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Boston University. Her current research is on Muslim youth, education and socialization in the context of modern social change in Indonesia and the Islamic resurgence from the late 1970s. This research project examines the changing nature of family, marriage, sexuality, and gender ideals among Muslim youth in the central Javanese royal seat and university town of Yogyakarta. She is particularly interested in the contrast between modernist Muslim youth, loosely linked to the modernist organization Muhammadiyah and neo-traditionalist youth culturally linked to Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest traditionalist Muslim organization in the world.

Nancy Smith-Hefner has numerous articles in press from her current research on "Young Muslims", supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. She has previously published articles drawing on her doctoral dissertation 'Language and Social Identity: Speaking Javanese in Tengger' (University of Michigan, 1983). She has also published the book "Khmer American: Identity and Moral Education in a Diasporic Community" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).

RSVP (essential) to monash.asia.institute@adm. monash.edu.au with "Young Muslims Seminar" in subject heading of your message.

Bookings will be automatically accepted without confirmation.

Public Lecture

Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University

Thursday 1 September 2005, 4.00 pm

Manton Room SG01, Ground Floor, Menzies Building (11) South, Monash University Clayton campus

"Civil Democratic Islam: prospects and policies for a plural Muslim world"

Public Lecture by Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and Associate Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, Boston University.

About the speaker

Robert W. Hefner is Professor of Anthropology, Associate Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University, where he directs the program on Islam and civil society.

Hefner has conducted research on religion and politics in Southeast Asia for the past twenty-eight years and has carried out comparative research on Muslim culture and politics since the late-1980s.

Hefner is the invited editor for the sixth volume of the forthcoming New Cambridge History of Islam, Muslims and Modernity: Society and Culture since 1800. He has published more than a dozen books, as well as several major policy reports. His most recent published works are Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia (Princeton 2000) and, as editor, Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization (Princeton 2005). Other recent books include, as editor, The Politics of Multiculturalism: Pluralism and Citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia (Hawaii 2001), Democratic Civility: The History and Cross-Cultural Possibility of a Modern Political Ideal (Transaction 1998),Market Cultures: Society and Morality in the New Asian Capitalisms(Westview 1998), and, with Patricia Horvatich, Islam in an Era of Nation-States: Politics and Religious Renewal in Muslim Southeast Asia(Hawaii 1998). His early books included, Hindu Javanese: Tengger Tradition and Islam (Princeton 1985) and The Political Economy of Mountain Java (California 1991). Four of his books have been translated into Indonesian.

For more information about Prof Robert Hefner, see: http://www.bu.edu/anthrop/faculty/hefner/

RSVP (essential) to monash.asia.institute@adm. monash.edu.au with "Civil Democratic Islam Seminar" in subject heading of your message.

Bookings will be automatically accepted without confirmation.

Thursday 25 August 2005

"'Sex, power and nation' - revisited"

Ms Julia Suryakusuma, Independent scholar, author of 'Sex, power and nation', speaker at Melbourne Writers' Festival

Thursday 18 August 2005

"The Malaysian automotive industry: perspective from the local suppliers"

Kadzrina Abdul Kadir, PhD candidate in Management, Faculty BusEco, Monash University. Joint CSEAS/ CMS seminar, Chair: Dr Wendy Smith, Centre for Malaysian Studies.

Thursday 11 August 2005

"The state of education in Indonesia"

Dr Joan Hardjono, English Department, Faculty of Arts at Padjadjaran State University, Bandung, Indonesia.

Thursday 4 August 2005, 11.00 am

"Aspects of the 2004 Indonesian Elections"

Dr Lance Castles, Hon Research Associate, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Asia Institute

Abstract

In my opinion, the elections in 2004 were a major step forward toward a functioning democracy. Nevertheless it was subjected to a barrage of criticism by the "chattering classes" who dominate the press and television commentary. I will try to explain this thinking and refute it. Yet at the same time the one serious objection to the election, the ballot-paper malfunction, has disappeared from all public comments. Why? And, does it matter? If time permits, I will summarise, with evidence, the reasons for SBY's superiority over the three other main candidates.

Thursday 28 July 2005, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm

"The Indonesian migrations to Madagascar: making sense of the interdisciplinary evidence ".
Speaker: Associate Professor Karl Alexander Adelaar
Reader, Indonesian Studies, Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies,
University of Melbourne.
Sander Adelaar studied Indonesian languages and cultures and Austronesian linguistics at Leiden University, where he also lectured. He was a research fellow in Linguistics at the Australian National University and a Humboldt Fellow at Goethe University (Frankfurt) before coming to the University of Melbourne. His research includes comparative and descriptive linguistics with emphasis on varieties of Malay and the languages of Borneo (where he has conducted extensive field research), Madagascar and Taiwan. He is also interested in the oral and written literary traditions of Indonesia.
His research interests include:

Thursday 21 July 2005, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm

" Revival of Benuaq Weaving in East Kalimantan ".
Ms Liz Oley, PhD candidate in Anthropology
School of Political and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Monash University.

Liz recently presented this paper as an invited speaker at an international symposium on 'Bast Fiber Weaving and Cultural Preservation' at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. The paper reports on research that Liz carried out for the thesis she completed for a Diploma in Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne. While Asia is renowned for its lustrous silks and fine cottons, weavers in many Asian cultures also made hand woven cloth from a variety of bast or leaf fibers (including hemp, ramie, abaca, piña, and many others). Most of these little-known weaving traditions, often on the verge of extinction, have now become the subjects of revival efforts of one kind or another. Liz's research considers Benuaq bast fiber weaving in this context, along with related issues of identity and cultural preservation.

13 - 15 July 2005

Old Myths and New Approaches
Advances in the Interpretation of Ancient Religious Sites in Southeast Asia Conference
hosted by the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies and Monash Asia Institute

This path-breaking two day conference will focus on the ancient religious sites of Southeast Asia, and their integration into and interaction with the surrounding cities and landscapes. These extraordinary sites have received considerable attention from the colonial period onward, and a substantial body of documentation has been accumulated over time. While this information has helped advance the understanding of issues ranging from water management to construction techniques, the question of how it affects our understanding of the links of the temples with their surroundings has received far less attention. The temples were socially lived sites, interconnected inseparably with the rhythms of everyday life of the surrounding community. The conference draws on the latest work by over twenty international experts, who will approach the sites from a range of perspectives and disciplines, and illuminate their incorporation into the lived environment - physically, socially, and metaphysically.

For full details, see: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/cseas/sacredsites/index.html

Thursday 2 June 2005

Calling all Southeast Asianists!
Supervisors: Please forward to YOUR graduate students interested in Southeast Asia.

The Centre of Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) of the Monash Asia Institute (MAI ) invites graduate students working on Southeast Asia, interested members of the public and academic staff to an Open meeting and free networking lunch 11am-1.00pm on THURSDAY, 2nd June 2005 in Manton Room foyer & SG01, Menzies Building (11), Monash University Clayton campus

Come along to

To join our email list go to http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/mailform.html

Thursday 26 May 2005

"Art: Witness of its time - Perception and self-perception of contemporary Southeast Asian Art"

Speaker: Ms Marine Ky, a printmaker and textile installation artist, now teaches art students in Monash's Tapestry Studio, Department of Fine Arts, Caulfield, where she was in 2004 an Artist/Designer in Residence at the Faculty of Art and Design.

About the seminar

This presentation was prepared for an international symposium and panel discussion, organised by the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Berlin on 25th October 2004, in conjunction with a group exhibition by nearly 50 artists from South East Asia, entitled "Identity versus Globalisation? Positions of Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia".

Ms Ky's presentation deals with art studio-based research in its relation to personal experiences of displacement and also as a returnee to Cambodia after some 30 years of absence. She considers her sources of inspiration in the context of family history, recent Cambodian history and the revival of arts and crafts in Cambodia.

The presentation also looks at Ms Ky's latest international community art projects in which she has been trying to reach out to the international audience to bring an awareness of political and social issues not only of Cambodians, but of other South East Asian refugees and minorities.

About the speaker

After living in Macao and France with her family during the 1970s and 1980s, Ms Ky migrated to Australia in 1992. She learnt the art of printmaking while working at the Australian Print Workshop in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, and later completed a Masters degree in printmaking at the Tasmanian School of Art. In 2000, she moved to her homeland Cambodia to undertake research and to experience and rediscover the country. She is now preparing for an art/communication project that will be presented at the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan, and that will be conducted for three months from September to November 2005.

This inter-disciplinary peace project is 'nourished' by current research and field work done by Southeast Asia based experts in the Humanities, such as anthropologists, political scientists and other social-scientists. From an art practioner's perspective, this cross-disciplinary research project looks at how art therapy, meditation, workshops with children and collaboration with many could bring an inner and outer peace and address the current issues of 'nation-state' boundaries and massive displaced populations.

Thursday 19 May 2005

The Centre of Southeast Asian Studies (MAI) and the Indonesian Studies program (School LCL ) are delighted to announce a visit by Prof Ben Arps, Professor of Javanese Linguistics and Literature, Leiden University; Visiting Fellow, Humanities Research Centre, The ANU (May-July, 2005).

Prof Ben Arps will present a seminar on research for a book to be titled 'Audio discourse and its allure: making sense of media sounds in Indonesia' Seminar topic: "Radio stations and music shows as meeting-places in Java"

Prof Arps will then launch our colleague Rabin Hardjadibrata's 900-page "Sundanese English dictionary", compiled by R.R. Hardjadibrata; based on Soendanees-Nederlands woordenboek by F.S. Eringa. Jakarta: Published for Yayasan Kebudayaan Rancage by PT. Dunia Pustaka Jaya; Bandung: Distributed by Kiblat Buku Utama.

About the seminar

In this paper Prof Arps will talk about the creation of a space and locality in DJ talk and phone-in on the radio, based on material from fieldwork in Banyuwangi, Cirebon and Cilacap in East and Central Java.

About the speaker

Ben Arps has been Professor (Chair) of Javanese Linguistics and Literary Studies at Leiden University since 1993. He has lectured in Indonesian and Javanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1988-1993) and been a Fellow-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences (2001-2002). He is currently a Visiting Fellow at The Australian National University, in the Faculty of Asian Studies (February-April 2005) and in the Humanities Research Centre (May-July 2005).

Arps's research and teaching are about discourse and language, conceived largely from an anthropological-linguistic point of view. On the theoretical side he is especially interested in mediation, performance, thematics and thematization, and control over language. His descriptive interests are in the changing positions of the so-called regional languages and cultures under Indonesian governance, the peculiarities of Javanese colloquial speech, and literature, drama (not least puppetry), religious thought, and ritual in their socio-historical contexts.

Since 1979 Arps has conducted a total of four years of fieldwork in different parts of the Javanese-speaking area, principally in Surakarta and Yogyakarta in central Java and Banyuwangi on the eastern tip of the island. In 2002 he started research in Cilacap on the south coast.

Thursday, 12 May 2005

'The Aceh Peace Talks: Issues and Prospects"
Dr Damien Kingsbury, Director, Masters in International and Community Development, Deakin University

About the speaker:

Dr Damien Kingsbury has just returned from Helsinki in his capacity as Political Adviser to the Acheh Sumatra National Liberation Front, more commonly known as the Free Acheh Movement. Damien is the author of "The Politics of Indonesia", 3rd edition, Oxford 2005, "South-East Asia: A Political Profile", 2nd edition, Oxford 2005, and editor of Violence in Between: Security Issues in Archipelagic Southeast Asia, Monash Asia Institute forthcoming.

Thursday, 5 May 2005

" O My Masters: Charting Acehnese Elite Political Dynamics by Examining the Changing Support for Seudati "
Mr Iwan Dzulvan Amir, PhD candidate, School of Music - Conservatorium, Monash University.

Thursday 28 April 2005

Extended seminar on "Aceh, Indonesia: Post Tsunami"

Speakers:
Prof Michael Leigh, Professor of Contemporary Asia, University of Melbourne.
Dr Ed Aspinall, Lecturer Dept. of History/Dept. of Chinese and Southeast Asian Studies, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry/School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Sydney.

The Tsunami wrought terrible havoc, causing severe human and physical destruction. It also opened the door to a deeply divided polity. Two speakers will discuss the impact of the tsunami, lines of cleavage and contestation, external and internal, and consider scenarios for Aceh.

About the speakers

Both speakers are established scholars of Acehnese history and politics as well as being directly involved in tsunami relief work and planning.

Michael Leigh has recently returned from Aceh, where he was involved in a needs analysis of the higher education sector in Aceh, and in formulating how Australian Universities could best assist the re-building of educational capacities in that devastated province. That was followed by a series of meetings/seminars at North American Universities that have a particular interest in the region. Recently he has been appointed Director of the Melbourne Institute of Asian Languages and Societies at the University of Melbourne. Previously he had been founding Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Head of the Department of Government, University of Sydney and Project Leader of the Social Science Development Program throughout Indonesian Universities and Islamic Institutes, based in Banda Aceh and Jakarta. His PhD is from Cornell University, and his publications are on political economy, resource politics and political change in Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore and Southeast Asia.

Edward Aspinall is a lecturer in Southeast Asian politics and history at the University of Sydney. He specialises in Indonesian politics, especially democratisation, social movements and nationalism. His book, "Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance and Regime Change in Indonesia" was recently published by Stanford University Press. In recent years, he has been especially interested in the secessionist conflict in Aceh and is currently writing a book manuscript on that topic. He visited Banda Aceh in January this year as a volunteer in the relief effort. Later in the year, he will take up a position as Fellow in the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.

Thursday 21 April 2005

Seminar jointly hosted by the Centre for Malaysian Studies and Centre of Southeast Asian Studies

"Thai and Islamic Cultures, State Duress, and Jihadic Counter-Violence in Southern Thailand (Patani) 1948-2005 "
Dr Dennis Walker, (email: donxa@hotmail.com )

This study focuses on cultural causes and stimuli in the development of Muslim discontent and separatism in the area of Southern Thailand historically termed Patani, consisting of the current provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and the linguistically more Thaiized Satun (Setul). Although successive Bangkok administrations strove from 1902 with increasing sophistication to Thaiize Malay Muslim populations, most Muslims here have continued to speak Malay. Our paper focuses on the development of the conflict and violence in this area between two competing high cultural elites:

My focus here is on communications in Malay and Arabic from an Islamically-educated counter-elite with links to the Middle East, which limits my coverage of a more popular Malay anti-Thai ethnicity among ordinary Muslim Southerners, and an examination of class and economic disparities which have alienated those masses from successive Thai governments. Clearly, however, the danger of de-culturization and de-Islamization posed by Thai educational policies stimulated the anger and armed insurgency of a range of Muslim Malays in Thailand from the later 1960s. Politicised forms of Islam articulated by elites who have been to Mecca or Baghdad have demonstrated their long-term capacity to rally resistance to the Thai state from broader poor groups whose Arabic is limited to a few religious rituals. Regarding the study of protest or Jihadic Islams, the case of Southern Thailand also exemplifies the pattern of micro-organization against an overwhelming military power, and the broader interaction of ethnicity with religion among non-Arab Muslim groups who lack sovereignty.

About the speaker

Dr Dennis Walker graduated from the University of Melbourne with First Class honours in English Language and Literature and Arabic in 1969. With help from Arab migrants, he achieved an active bilingual command of Arabic. In 1971 he gained an MA in Arabic from the University of Melbourne with a thesis on "al-Jahiz and the National Dispute in Classical Islam". He obtained a PhD from the Australian National University with a thesis entitled "Acculturated Muslim Egyptian Intellectuals and Supra-Egyptian Islamic and Pan-Arab Identities 1892-1952". This research traced connections between old classical and new neo-classical Arabic high literature and intellectual history, and the development of nationalist political parties and movements in Egypt. He taught Arabic at Melbourne University (1972-1977) and ANU (1977-1979) and Middle Eastern History at Melbourne University (1987 and 1988) and Deakin University.(1992). From 1992-1995 Dennis Walker was sub-editor of _al-Ma'rifah, the Arabic-language journal of Australian studies published by the Arab-Australian Welfare Association. Dennis Walker reads Arabic, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Malay-Indonesian, French and Farsi. He has published widely on nationalism and identity in the Middle East and in South East Asia.

Thursday 14 April 2005

"Reconstructing Angkor: Investigations into Applied 3D Simulation and Visualisation for Archaeological Research"
Mr Tom Chandler, Lecturer, Faculty of Information Technology, Monash University

Mr Tom Chandler will present a paper and visuals introducing his PhD project. Tom's PhD project draws upon previous research undertaken at RMIT into 3D visualisations of Angkor (in Cambodia). His current, early-stage research for the PhD aims to demonstrate the combined power of 3D visualisation and simulation to assist in addressing the key archaeological issues of Angkor's demise.

Thursday, 7 April 2005

"Changes of style and meaning in body percussion music and dance in colonial, post-colonial and post-tsunami Aceh"
Professor Margaret Kartomi, AM, FAHA, DR Phil, School of Music - Conservatorium, Monash University

Thursday 31 March 2005 - no seminar (Easter Break)

Thursday 24 March 2005

"Anti-Chinese violence in Indonesia in the late 1990s"
Dr Jemma Purdey, Writer-in-Residence, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Asia Institute.

Jemma Purdey received her PhD from the University of Melbourne for a thesis on 'Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia, 1996-1999'. Her research interests include human rights, violence and conflict resolution in Indonesia and the study of minorities. She has recently worked as a volunteer with education and women's rights NGOs in Mumbai. Her thesis will be published as part of the ASAA Southeast Asia series in 2005.

Thursday 17 March 2005

Dr Chusnul Mariyah, Department of Political Science, University of Indonesia, who has been on secondment in recent years to the Indonesian General Electoral Commission. Chusnul Mariyah is visiting Monash University as part of a delegation from the Indonesian General Electoral Commission, invited to accompany their Chairman, Professor Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin MA PhD, who will be the Recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award at the Graduation Ceremony here on 17th March 2005.

Thursday, 10 March 2005

Seminar and Book Launch

"Reading gender through performance in central Java"
Professor Barbara Hatley, Head of School, Asian Languages and Studies, University of Tasmania.

Book Launch

Immediately following her seminar, Professor Barbara Hatley will launch: DR Susan Blackburn's new book "Women and the State in Modern Indonesia ". Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Seminar organiser

Dr Penelope Graham
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Director, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University
Email: penny.graham@arts.monash.edu.au

ALL WELCOME

CSEAS seminars for 2006 will take place at the same time, same place - commencement date to be advised.

Monash Asia Institute

CSEAS

Activities