===================================== MONASH ASIA INSTITUTE BULLETIN 4/2003 4 April 2003 ===================================== In this bulletin 1. CSEAS Seminars 2. MAI Postgraduate Seminar Series 3. Tenth Annual SEA Women Workshop 4. Conference: Institutional Challenges for the Global China 5. Visitors and Fellows at the Monash Asia Institute 6. Melbourne Indonesia Consortium Conference 7. Asia Society: Meet the Author 8. Conference: Sectarian violence in Eastern Indonesia 9. Indian and Indonesian textiles conference and exhibition 10. 9th International Conference on Sri Lankan Studies ICSLS 11. International conference: East-West Identities 12. Website of the month -------------------------------------- Item 1. CSEAS Seminars Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Asia Institute The seminars are held on Thursdays, 11.00 am - 12.30 pm Manton Room SG02, Menzies Building (11), Monash University Clayton campus Seminar Program for this month: ------- 10 April 2003 “Feminism and a Muslim women’s organization in Indonesia: the dynamics of the development of gender discourse in Nasyiatul Aisyiyah 1965-2005.” Speaker: Siti Syamsiyatun, PhD candidate in Politics, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash. ------- 17 April 2003 “Angkor in the 10th century: the Khmer temples of East Mebon and Pre Rup and their significance” Speaker: Alexandra Haendel is a PhD candidate in History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a research fellow at the Centre for Khmer Studies, Siem Reap, Cambodia. ------- 24 April 2003 Mid-semester break: No seminar ------- 1 May 2003 “Imagining Chineseness in recent Indonesian film and literature” Speaker: Paul Tickell, Lecturer in Indonesian, School of Language, Literature and Communication, University of New South Wales at The Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra ACT. ------- For full details of the CSEAS Seminar programme, see: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/cseas/cseasseminar03.html -------------------------------------- Item 2. MAI Postgraduate Seminar Series Wednesday 16 April 2003 11 am TO 1.00 pm S822 (MAI seminar room), Menzies Building (11), Monash University Clayton campus. Rizal Damanik has just returned from fieldwork in Indonesia and will report on his findings. His doctorate is about Indigenous foods and diets in Indonesia and how these might improve the lactation of women. Given the controversy about Nestle and other substitutes for breast milk, this promises to be a major thesis on an important topic. This MAI postgraduate seminar series is aimed at postgraduates researching on a topic related to Asia. Postgraduates will have an opportunity to discuss, exchange ideas and methodologies for their study. The MAI encourages, in particular, cross-disciplinary and cross-faculty research projects. The seminar topics will be advised as soon as they are confirmed. Please note the future seminar dates: May 23, June 20, July 18, August 22, September 19, October 24, November 21, December 19. Enquiries: Juliet Yee (Monash.asia.institute@adm.monash.edu.au) -------------------------------------- Item 3. Tenth Annual SEA Women Workshop Thursday 10 July 2003 Monash University Clayton campus Tenth Annual workshop on Southeast Asian Women Sponsored by the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash Asia Institute The aim of the Workshop is to bring together researchers and others interested in the study of matters relating to Southeast Asian women, in any field, such as politics, geography, literature, the arts, history or health. CALL FOR PAPERS Please send brief offers of papers to: Dr Susan Blackburn, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, Victoria, 3800. Email: sue.blackburn@arts.monash.edu.au Telephone (03) 9905 2384 The deadline for offers is 20 June 2003. -------------------------------------- Other Monash events ====================================== Item 4. Conference "Institutional Challenges For The Global China" 13-14 November 2003, Melbourne, Australia This conference brings together academics and policy-makers across all the business related disciplines with a view of taking a broad approach to studying China's economic reforms. There are streams covering accounting, economics, finance and management issues in China's reforms and papers are invited in all these areas. Contributed papers will include, but not be limited to the following topics: Accounting standards in Chinese enterprises Challenges facing the non-state sector State-owned enterprise restructuring China and the WTO Corporate governance in China's enterprises Reform of China's banking sector Capital market development Regional development Foreign direct investment Labour market and social security reform Human resource management issues Keynote speakers include prominent academics, government figures and policy-makers from China, the United States and the United Kingdom. Conference Website: http://www.monash.edu.au/casestudies/conference/ Further Information: tim.thornton@buseco.monash.edu.au -------------------------------------- Item 5: Visitors and Fellows at the Monash Asia Institute The Monash Asia Institute currently has the following visitors and fellows involved in its research programs: Zulfikar Mohamad Shariff (Singapore), Hon Research Fellow, Monash Asia Institute is working on 'Accountability and Transparency in the Business World of Singapore'. We are grateful to the University of Chicago for providing sponsorship for this visit and research project to the end of 2003. Ms Mansi Dattani (Mumbai), from the Bombay Business School is spending 6 weeks at the Monash Asia Institute to study Australian multinationals and their activities in Asia. We are grateful to the following sponsors of the research program: the Hyderabad Sind National Collegiate Board (Mumbai) and Ansell. ---------------------------------- Item 6. Melbourne Indonesia Consortium Conference 11 - 12 July 2003 "The Dynamics of Political Islam in Indonesia" The conference will have four panels, with three speakers in each, as follows: Friday 11 July 2003 1. Ideological Spectrum of Indonesian Islam Chair: Arief Budiman Merle Ricklefs: Historical analysis of political Islam. Ulil: Traditionalist Islam (NU) and Liberal Islam. Fatimah Husein: Modernist (Muhamadiyah), and Radical Islam 2. Change and Continuity in Political Islam This panel will discuss NU and Masyumi from the 1950s and the relevance of their contemporary descendent parties, as well as the origins of KISDI and DDII as political organizations. Chair: Harry Aveling Greg Fealy: On Masyumi (Partai Bulan Bintang, Partai Keadilan) Greg Barton: On NU (PKB) Saturday 12 July 2003 3. The Origin and Transformation of Violent Islamic Organizations Chair: Damien Kingsbury Lance Castles: The origins of violent Islam in Indonesia: from Dar'ul Islam? David Wright-Neville: On MMI, Jemaah Islamiyah, Laskar Jundullah, Laskar Jihad, and FPI. Nur Djuli: Islam, national identity and separatism in Aceh. Thamrin Tomagola: Islamic Forces in Maluku and Poso 4. The Future of Cultural and Political Islam in Indonesia Chair: Margaret Kartomi Sue Blackburn: The evolution of women in Indonesia Islam Amrih Widodo: The evolution of Islamic Culture Nurcholish Madjid: Cultural and Political Islam: Which One is More Effective in the Future? Enquiries: Prof Arief Budiman (ariefb@unimelb.edu.au), Chair of the Melbourne Indonesia Consortium (MIC) conference organising committee. -------------------------------------- Other items of interest ====================================== Item 7. Asia Society: Meet the Author The Asia Society AustralAsia Centre in association with Reader's Feast Bookstore present Dewi Anggraeni Thursday 10 April, 2003, 6.30 pm Reader's Feast Bookstore (corner of Swanston and Bourke Streets [below street level]) Dewi Anggraeni is the Indonesian-born Australian author of "Journeys Through Shadows", "The Root of all Evil", "Parallel Forces', "Stories of Indian Pacific", and a number of short stories and essays. She is the Australian correspondent for the Indonesian news magazine Tempo, and the daily English language newspaper, The Jakarta Post. Her short stories in both English and Indonesian and the Indonesian rewritings of each of her novels have been published in several Indonesian magazines. Dewi's blending of Indonesian perspectives and feelings into Australian literature has opened the door for her many readers to a very different understanding and appreciation of life. The sensuality and the restraint, the harmony between physical and spiritual in everyday life; these are the elements of Indonesian experience Dewi brings to her novels. Her latest novel, "Snake", explores the continuing significance of magic in South East Asia. It challenges us on our relationships with other peoples, other world views. Specifically it asks, in today's climate, how does a family of mixed Muslim and non-Muslim cousins and in-laws survive? In a broader scope it asks, how can literature respond to political situations like the war on terror and the stand-off with Iraq? What role should literature play, or should politics be the preserve of journalism? Do we trust our writers more than our journalists? And what of journalists like Dewi Anggraeni, who are also writers? Cost $6.00 (inc GST) - Privileged Readers & Asia Society Members $8.00 (inc GST) - Non Member All bookings to be made through Reader's Feast Bookstore Telephone: (03) 9662 4699 or E-mail: russ@readersfeast.com.au -------------------------------------- Item 8. Conference: Sectarian violence in Eastern Indonesia "Sectarian violence in Eastern Indonesia: Causes and consequences" May 16-18, 2003 University of Hawai`i Sponsored by: University of Hawai`i, Center for Southeast Asian Studies and East-West Center Keynote speaker: Bob Hefner, Boston University Featured speakers: Lorraine Aragon, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Gerry van Klinken, Editor of Inside Indonesia Richard Chauvel, Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne Jun Honna, Ritsumeikan University Ronald Lukens-Bull, University of Northern Florida James Collins, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Freek Colombijn, KITLV, Leiden Jaap Timmer, Australian National University The aim of this conference is to try to understand the nature of the communal violence experienced in parts of Eastern Indonesia in recent years, particularly in the provinces of Maluku, North Maluku, and Central Sulawesi. The hostilities erupted following apparently minor incidents in December 1998 in Poso and January 1999 in Ambon, in the context of national economic crisis that began in 1997, and which in turn triggered a series of political successions. In this context of uncertainty, deep-seated resentment at central and local government policies, and regional migration, was exploited by local militias, external ideological interests, and the military and the violence escalated to conditions of virtual civil war. Recently, the efforts of local organizations and national government initiatives have led to peace agreements signed in Malino, South Sulawesi, and the situation is tentatively stabilizing, although it is far from “returned to normal”, if indeed that is a possibility at all. While there is still some tension and acts of violence still occasionally occur, at this juncture it is appropriate to try to take stock of the situation. Thus, this conference brings together researchers who have worked in Eastern Indonesia, with scholars of nationalism, regionalism, military culture, and religion in Indonesia, and direct observers of the violence, to share information and insights that will help us to collectively make sense of its causes, the current situation, and the prospects for peace. The community addressed includes both international scholars and students, and if possible scholars and students resident in the region. For more information, and to register for the conference, please go to the conference website: http://www.hawaii.edu/cseas/conf/index.html -------------------------------------- Item 9. Indian and Indonesian textiles conference and exhibition 11 - 13 July 2003 National Gallery of Australia, Canberra "Sari to Sarong: 500 years of Indian and Indonesian textile exchange" An international conference on historical Indian and Indonesian textile intersections and exchanges will be held in conjunction with the opening of a major exhibition Sari to Sarong: 500 years of Indian and Indonesian textile exchange at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra from 11 - 13 July 2003. It will feature Australian and international speakers on a broad range of topics related to the historical trade in Indian textiles to Indonesia, their role in Indonesian cultures and the creative responses of Indonesian textile makers to Indian art, religion, statecraft and philosophy. The long history of Indian and Indonesian textile art and culture has been both overplayed and underestimated. However the diversity, ingenuity and endurance of Indonesian and Indian responses to market and cultural forces has become increasingly clear over the past decade. This conference provides a forum for new research and an opportunity to revisit older interpretations and assumptions. Conference papers will explore these cross-cultural exchanges in the field of art history, history, anthropology, textile techniques, conservation studies and applied science. A broad program of activities will provide many opportunities - structured, informal and social - to discuss the latest research and textile discoveries with art historians, curators, conservators, anthropologists and collectors. The exhibition Sari to Sarong: 500 years of Indian and Indonesian textile exchange will explore similar themes through the display of over 250 textiles drawn from the National Gallery’s renowned Asian textile collection. Rare Indian silk and cotton cloth traded to the Indonesian archipelago from as early as the 14th century will be displayed, alongside textiles from across the many societies and language groups of Indonesia, including Bali, Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Borneo and the remote communities of the eastern islands. The exhibition runs from 11 July – 6 October 2003. Conference fees will include an invitation to the opening of the exhibition on the evening of Thursday 10 July, daily lunches, refreshments and access to the exhibition. For more information, see: http://www.nga.gov.au -------------------------------------- Item 10. 9th International Conference on Sri Lankan Studies ICSLS Call for Papers "Sri Lanka at Crossroads: Continuity and Change" Sri Lanka has been going through major changes and upheavals during the last several decades. Some of these include an ongoing ethnic war (since 1972) which is now under ceasefire, two armed revolts in the South and major change in demography, social differentiation and the economy. Furthermore Sri Lanka is subject to gross changes in the socio-economic environment because of intensified globalization. These have repercussions in the socio-economic, political and cultural spheres. The 9th International Conference on Sri Lankan Studies ICSLS Conference will explore this broad juncture in Sri Lankan society. It will be held from 28th to 30th November 2003 at the University of Ruhuna, Matara. The conference aims to provide a forum for taking stock, rethinking and making plans in the light of past experience. Papers are requested from a wide variety of disciplinary perspectives (for example in Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, Political Science, Education, Demography, History, Language and Literature Studies) that will have either direct or indirect bearing on these changes. Proposals for specialized panels on particular topics will also be welcome. All accepted abstracts will be published. Deadline for submitting abstracts: 15 June 2003. Enquiries: Prof. Sarath Amarasinghe, Coordinator of the 9th ICSLS, Dept. of Sociology, University of Ruhuna, Matara, Sri Lanka e-mail: sarath@soci.ruh.ac.lk, sarathamarasinghe@hotmail.com -------------------------------------- Item 11. International conference: East-West Identities Call for papers 20 - 21 Nov 2003, Hong Kong "East-West Identities: Globalisation, Localisation and Hybridisation" Organised by David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies and Wing Lung Bank International Institute for Business Development, Hong Kong Baptist University The objective of the conference is to further one's comparative understanding of how evolving and hybridising identities - are articulated, expressed and shared through various media in Asia and in the West; to ascertain the extent of "internationalisation" of individual, group and national identities; to examine how foreign goods, ideas, and self-concepts are "localised" when they take root in soil far from their origins. The conference aspires to re-think a mix of old and new ideas in social theory: globalisation, identities, hybridity and hybridization, transnationalism, disapora, and overdetermination. Selected papers from the conference will be published in an edited volume. For more details, see: http://www.lewi.org.hk -------------------------------------- Item 12. Website of the month The Indonesia Council website is now operational. To find out more information about the upcoming Open Conference as well as the previous conference and the Indonesia Council's other activities, please visit http://indonesiacouncil.anu.edu.au --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Monash Asia Institute Newsletter incorporates news items from the six research centres of the Monash Asia Institute, partner organisations and other groups working to promote Asian Studies in Australia. For further information about the Monash Asia Institute and this newsletter: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/ or email monash.asia.institute@adm.monash.edu.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------