New Books in Southeast Asian Studies

Enze Han, "The Ripple Effect: China's Complex Presence in Southeast Asia" (Oxford UP, 2024)

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many studies of China's relations with and influence on Southeast Asia tend to focus on how Beijing has used its power asymmetry to achieve regional i...

Kevin D. Pham, "The Architects of Dignity: Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization" (Oxford UP, 2024)

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In The Architects of Dignity: Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization (Oxford UP, 2024), Kevin D. Pham introduces Vietnamese political thought to deba...

Melissa Johnston, "Building Peace, Rebuilding Patriarchy: The Failure of Gender Interventions in Timor-Leste" (Oxford UP, 2023)

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the two decades since the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, peacebuilding interventions a...

Threats to Academic Freedom in Thailand

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What are the threats to academic freedom in Thailand? Why does the freedom of scholars and students matter for society at large and how are the attack...

Nathan McGovern, "Holy Things: The Genealogy of the Sacred in Thai Religion" (Oxford UP, 2024)

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Scholars of religion have mostly abandoned the concept of "syncretism" in which certain apparent deviations from "standard" practice are believed to b...

Mattias Fibiger, "Suharto's Cold War: Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and the World" (Oxford UP, 2023)

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Conventional accounts of the Cold War focus on competition between the United States and Soviet Union as key to shaping world events. In focusing on t...

Investing in Southeast Asia: Key insights for Australian Researchers

13 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Southeast Asia is of vital importance to Australia. As a nation, Australia’s prosperity, security and economic future are intimately connected to th...

Pankaj Jain, "Visual Anthropology of Indian Films: Religious Communities and Cultural Traditions in Bollywood and Beyond" (Routledge, 2024)

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Visual Anthropology of Indian Films: Religious Communities and Cultural Traditions in Bollywood and Beyond (Routledge, 2024) provides a unique insid...

Herald van der Linde, "Majapahit: Intrigue, Betrayal and War in Indonesia's Greatest Empire" (Monsoon Books, 2024)

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Majapahit was Indonesia, and Southeast Asia’s, largest empire. Centered on the island of Java, Majapahit commanded loyalty from vassals across the a...

Talking Thai Politics: Pornchai Witayalerdpan – What’s Up with the Thai Senate?

06 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How exactly were Thailand’s new slate of 200 Senators selected? What is it like to be an independent member of the Senate, when the chamber is now d...

Theara Thun, "Epistemology of the Past: Texts, History, and Intellectuals of Cambodia, 1855–1970" (U Hawaii Press, 2024)

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Cambodian history most people have heard of the great Khmer empire of Angkor, and the radical communist regime of the Khmer Rouge. But who has hear...

How Are Southeast Asia’s Toxic Alliances Undermining the Region’s Prospects for Democracy?

29 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why are dubious power-sharing deals on the rise across Southeast Asia? What effects do they have on the region’s prospects for democracy? And are th...

Alice Rudge, "Sensing Others: Voicing Batek Ethical Lives at the Edge of a Malaysian Rain Forest" (U Nebraska Press, 2024)

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How do we confront difference and change in a rapidly shifting environment? Many indigenous peoples are facing this question in their daily lives. Se...

Public Healthcare Under Decentralized Governance in Indonesia and the Philippines

24 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s episode focuses on the policy challenges and politics of public healthcare in Southeast Asia, a topic which has become increasingly visible ...

Talking Thai Politics: Why Thai Politics isn’t All About China

22 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How far does geopolitics relate to domestic political leanings? Are politically progressive Thais more likely to be pro-US, and more politically conse...

Adam Bobbette, "The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java" (Duke UP, 2023)

15 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java (Duke UP, 2023), Adam Bobbette tells the story of how modern theories of the earth emerged from...

"The Languages of Indonesian Politics" Revisited

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1966 Benedict Anderson published 'The Languages of Indonesian Politics', a seminal paper exploring the development of Indonesian as a new language ...

Talking Thai Politics: Tak Bai and Beyond, Thailand’s Southern Insurgency

08 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the twentieth anniversary of the dreadful Tak Bai massacre, what are the prospects for a resolution of the long-standing insurgency in ...

Unpacking Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia with Dan Slater

05 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s episode focuses on a major issue of enduring importance in Southeast Asia and in Southeast Asian Studies: authoritarianism. Even today, vari...

Talking Thai Politics: Prajak Kongkirati, Thailand: Contestation, Polarization and Democratic Regression (Cambridge 2024)

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why has Thailand’s politics been so contested and so intensely polarized in recent decades? How can we account for the persistent democratic regress...

Andrea Benvenuti, "Nehru's Bandung: Non-Alignment and Regional Order in Indian Cold War Strategy" (Oxford UP, 2024)

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1955, the leaders of 29 Asian and African countries flock to the small city of Bandung, Indonesia, for the first-ever Afro-Asian conference. India ...

Michael G. Vann, "The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam" (Oxford UP, 2018)

23 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A funny thing happened to historian Michael Vann* on the way to his PhD thesis. While he was doing his research on French colonialism and the urbanist...

Anto Mohsin, "Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development" (U Wisconsin Press, 2023)

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Electrifying Indonesia: Technology and Social Justice in National Development (U Wisconsin Press, 2023) tells the story of the entanglement of politi...

Corey Ross, "Liquid Empire: Water and Power in the Colonial World" (Princeton UP, 2024)

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of powerful European states controlled more than a third of the land surface of the planet. These...

Jacques Bertrand, "Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar" (Cornell UP, 2022)

15 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar (Southeast Asia Program Publications/Cornell UP, 2022) asks why the ...

Talking Thai Politics: Kunthika Nutcharut, Defending Disruptors

11 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is it like to be a human rights lawyer in Thailand? How does the new generation of 2020s political activists differ from those of previous eras? ...

James Villanueva, "Awaiting MacArthur's Return: World War II Guerrilla Resistance against the Japanese in the Philippines" (UP of Kansas, 2022)

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the course of World War II, guerrillas from across the Philippines opposed Imperial Japan's occupation of the archipelago. Although the guerrilla...

Juan José Rivas Moreno, "The Capital Market of Manila and the Pacific Trade, 1668-1838" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Economic history has always emphasized the importance of long-distance trade in the emergence of modern financial markets, yet almost nothing is known...

Bananapocalypse: Plantation Southeast Asia and Its Many Afterlives

06 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode focuses on a cluster of issues of longstanding significance in Southeast Asia and in Southeast Asian Studies – plantation agriculture, ...

Prabowo Subianto and the Decline of Indonesian Democracy

02 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s episode focuses on Indonesia, the presidential election held in February 2024, and the impending inauguration of the winner of that election...

Charles Keith, "Subjects and Sojourners: A History of Indochinese in France" (U California Press, 2024)

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When we think of the history of French colonialism in Indochina, we tend to think of the French in Indochina. Yet during the colonial period about 200...

James A. Anderson, "The Dong World and Imperial China's Southwest Silk Road: Trade, Security, and State Formation" (U Washington Press, 2024)

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the eighth to thirteenth centuries along China’s rugged southern periphery, trade in tribute articles and an interregional horse market thrived...

Mark Tamthai: Remembering Chaiwat Satha-Anand

27 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why was the late Ajarn Chaiwat Satha-Anand so passionate about bringing peace to Thailand’s deep south? How did he try to speak nonviolence to Thai ...

Max Hirsh and Till Mostowlansky, "Infrastructure and the Remaking of Asia" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the twenty-first century, infrastructure has undergone a seismic shift from West to East. Once concentrated in Europe and North America, global inf...

Soraj Hongladarom et al., "Philosophies of Appropriated Religions: Perspectives from Southeast Asia" (Springer, 2024)

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The open-access edited volume Philosophies of Appropriated Religions: Perspectives from Southeast Asia (Springer, 2023) collects philosophical appro...

Beng Huat Chua, "Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore's Public Housing" (NUS Press, 2024)

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The achievement of Singapore’s national public housing program is impressive by any standard. Within a year of its first election victory in 1959, t...

Meg Rithmire, "Precarious Ties: Business and the State in Authoritarian Asia" (Oxford UP, 2023)

14 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Developing Asia has been the site of some of the last century's fastest growing economies as well as some of the world's most durable authoritarian re...

Talking Thai Politics: Pannika Wanich, Progressive Activist

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this inaugural episode of Talking Thai Politics, Pannika Wanich of the Progressive Movement talks about generational contestation in Thailand, a...

Lesbian Poetry in the Philippines

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Lesbian poetry as a form of socio-political praxis in the Philippine context. This episode’s guest argues that lesbian writing – by lesbians and a...

Sharon M. Quinsaat, "Insurgent Communities: How Protests Create a Filipino Diaspora" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When people migrate and settle in other countries, do they automatically form a diaspora? In Insurgent Communities: How Protests Create a Filipino Di...

Faizah Zakaria, "The Camphor Tree and the Elephant: Religion and Ecological Change in Maritime Southeast Asia" (U Washington Press, 2023)

04 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Recurring tropes about fragmented communities living on frontier forestlands living in Southeast Asia are that they are either guardians of flora and ...

Constance L. Kirker and Mary Newman, "Mango: A Global History" (Reaktion Books, 2024)

31 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mango: A Global History (Reaktion, 2024) by Constance L. Kirker & Dr Mary Newman is a beautifully illustrated book that takes us on a tour through th...

Francisca Yuenki Lai, "Maid to Queer: Asian Labor Migration and Female Same-Sex Desires" (Hong Kong UP, 2021)

25 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Maid to Queer: Asian Labor Migration and Female Same-Sex Desires (Hong Kong UP, 2021) is the first book about Asian female migrant workers who devel...

Justine Chambers, "Pursuing Morality: Buddhism and Everyday Ethics in Southeastern Myanmar" (NUS Press, 2024)

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the right way to live? This is an old question in Western moral philosophy, but in recent years anthropologists have turned their attention to...

How – and How Much – has Malaysian Politics Changed Since 2018, and Why?

10 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, host LSE Southeast Asia Centre Director John Sidel speaks with Meredith Weiss, Professor of Political Science at SUNY Albany and a le...

Lio Mangubat, "Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves: Lost Tales from the Philippine Colonial Period, 1565-1946" (Faction Press, 2024)

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Baseball’s introduction to the Philippines. The slot machine trade between Manila and Shanghai. A musical based extremely loosely on the life of the...

Politics in Action 2024: Myanmar Update

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Politics in Action is an annual forum in which invited experts provided an analysis of the current political situation in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, M...

Roger Crowley, "Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World" (Yale UP, 2024)

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The spice islands: Specks of land in the Indonesian archipelago that were the exclusive home of cloves, commodities once worth their weight in gold. T...

On Sino-Vietnamese Border Relations

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, host SEAC Director John Sidel talks with Dr Qingfei Yin, SEAC Associate and Assistant Professor of International History at LSE. Dr Q...

Kristie Flannery, "Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)

28 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) offers a new interpretation of Spanish colonial rule in t...

Politics in Action 2024: Malaysia Update

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Politics in Action is an annual forum in which invited experts provided an analysis of the current political situation in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, M...

Viren Murthy, "Pan-Asianism and the Legacy of the Chinese Revolution" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Recent proposals to revive the ancient Silk Road for the contemporary era and ongoing Western interest in China’s growth and development have led to...

Politics in Action 2024: Singapore Update

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Politics in Action is an annual forum in which invited experts provided an analysis of the current political situation in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, M...

Eric Thompson, "The Story of Southeast Asia" (NUS Press, 2024)

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Does Southeast Asia “exist”? It’s a real question: Southeast Asia is a geographic region encompassing many different cultures, religions, politi...

Timothy Barnard, "Singaporean Creatures: Histories of Humans and Other Animals in the Garden City" (NUS Press, 2024)

06 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Singaporean Creatures: Histories of Humans and Other Animals in the Garden City (NUS Press, 2024), historian Tim Barnard and his colleagues offe...

Politics in Action 2024: Laos Update

05 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Politics in Action is an annual forum in which invited experts provided an analysis of the current political situation in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, M...

Erin Lin, "When the Bombs Stopped: The Legacy of War in Rural Cambodia" (Princeton UP, 2024)

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the course of the Vietnam War, the United States dropped 500,000 tons of bombs over Cambodia—more than the combined weight of every man, woman,...

Politics in Action 2024: Vietnam Update

28 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Politics in Action is an annual forum in which invited experts provided an analysis of the current political situation in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, M...

Politics in Action 2024: Indonesia Update

20 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Politics in Action is an annual forum in which invited experts provided an analysis of the current political situation in Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, M...

Clare Hammond, "On the Shadow Tracks: A Journey Through Occupied Myanmar" (Allen Lane, 2024)

20 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2016, journalist Clare Hammond embarked on a project to study the railways of Myanmar–a transportation network that sprawls the country, rarely u...

Joanna Siekiera, "21st Century as the Pacific Century: Culture and Security of Oceania States in Great Power Competition" (Warsaw UP, 2023)

18 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With the ever-greater shift of the balance of global power towards the Pacific region, what does this have implications for the geopolitics of the reg...

Meredith Weiss et al., "Mobilizing for Elections: Patronage and Political Machines in Southeast Asia" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

15 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Politicians in Southeast Asia, as in many other regions, win elections by distributing cash, goods, jobs, projects, and other benefits to supporters, ...

Naosuke Mukoyama, "Fueling Sovereignty: Colonial Oil and the Creation of Unlikely States" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

European colonialism was often driven by the pursuit of natural resources, and the resulting colonisation and decolonization processes have had a prof...

Stephanie Joy Mawson, "Incomplete Conquests: The Limits of Spanish Empire in the Seventeenth-Century Philippines" (Cornell UP, 2023)

01 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"When the Spanish colonization of the Philippines began in 1565, early reports boasted of mass conversions to Christianity and ever-increasing numbers...

Building a More Inclusive Society: Disability and Work in Timor-Leste

25 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does an inclusive society look like? And what are the challenges and opportunities when the society in question, Timor-Leste, is one of the most ...

Mark Moyar, "Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968" (Encounter, 2023)

22 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968 (Encounter, 2023) is the long-awaited sequel to the immensely influential Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam...

Robert Lyman, "A War of Empires: Japan, India, Burma, and Britain: 1941–45" (Osprey, 2021)

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1941 and 1942 the British and Indian Armies were brutally defeated and Japan reigned supreme in its newly conquered territories throughout Asia. Bu...

Martin Dusinberre, "Mooring the Global Archive: A Japanese Ship and Its Migrant Histories" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

19 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Mooring the Global Archive: A Japanese Ship and Its Migrant Histories (Cambridge UP, 2023), Martin Dusinberre follows the Yamashiro-maru steamsh...

Marina Welker, "Kretek Capitalism: Making, Marketing, and Consuming Clove Cigarettes in Indonesia" (U California Press, 2024)

18 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Indonesia is the world's second largest cigarette market: two out of three men smoke, and clove-laced tobacco cigarettes called kretek make up 95 perc...

Tessa Winkelmann, "Dangerous Intercourse: Gender and Interracial Relations in the American Colonial Philippines, 1898–1946" (Cornell UP, 2023)

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Dangerous Intercourse: Gender and Interracial Relations in the American Colonial Philippines, 1898–1946 (Cornell University Press, 2023), Dr. T...

Sony Coráñez Bolton, "Crip Colony: Mestizaje, US Imperialism, and the Queer Politics of Disability in the Philippines" (Duke UP, 2023)

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Crip Colony: Mestizaje, US Imperialism, and the Queer Politics of Disability in the Philippines (Duke UP, 2023), Sony Coráñez Bolton examines t...

Women’s Experiences of Workplace Gender-based Violence and Harassment in Cambodia’s Construction Industry

20 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Cambodia, the government and civil society organisations have paid significant attention to Gender-based Violence and Harassment, within both the d...

Elliott Prasse-Freeman, "Rights Refused: Grassroots Activism and State Violence in Myanmar" (Stanford UP, 2023)

16 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over three years have passed since a military coup of February 2021 in Myanmar precipitated a popular uprising that has since transformed into a revol...

Jane M. Ferguson, "Silver Screens and Golden Dreams: A Social History of Burmese Cinema" (U Hawaii Press, 2024)

05 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Within the social sciences and the humanities, international research in Burma/Myanmar studies tends to lean toward political science and Buddhist stu...

Emily Conroy-Krutz, "Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations" (Cornell UP, 2024)

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations (Cornell University Press, 2024) illuminates the crucial place of re...

Financial Access and Socio-Economic Development in Indonesia

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Globally, 1.4 billion people are considered to be “financially excluded,” meaning they cannot safely access appropriate and affordable financial s...

Amber Worlds: The Global Amber Trade in the China-Myanmar Borderlands

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What role do China and other Asian countries play in the global amber trade? And, what can we learn about the big challenges of our time by studying a...

Charlotte Setijadi, "Memories of Unbelonging: Ethnic Chinese Identity Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia" (U Hawaii Press, 2023)

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The ethnic Chinese have had a long and problematic history in Indonesia, commonly stereotyped as a market-dominant minority with dubious political loy...

David E. Gilbert, "Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land: A Social Movement Ethnography" (U California Press, 2024)

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two decades ago, a group of Indonesian agricultural workers began occupying the agribusiness plantation near their homes. In the years since, members ...

Diego Javier Luis, "The First Asians in the Americas: A Transpacific History" (Harvard UP, 2024)

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1565 and 1815, the so-called Manila galleons enjoyed a near-complete monopoly on transpacific trade between Spain’s Asian and American colon...

Ryan Wolfson-Ford, "Forsaken Causes: Liberal Democracy and Anticommunism in Cold War Laos" (U Wisconsin Press, 2024)

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan Wolfson-Ford’s provocative new book, Forsaken Causes: Liberal Democracy and Anticommunism in Cold War Laos (U Wisconsin Press, 2024), is an i...

Steve Ferzacca, "Sonic City: Making Rock Music and Urban Life in Singapore" (NUS Press, 2021)

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The basement of a veteran shopping mall located in the central business district of Singapore affords opportunities to a group of amateur and semi-pro...

Airports, Buses, Internet Cables, and the Local and National Politics in the Philippines

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What can airports, busses, and submarine internet cables tell us about the local and national politics in the Philippines? And how do they position th...

Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu, "Experiments in Skin: Race and Beauty in the Shadows of Vietnam" (Duke UP, 2021)

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Through a creative focus on skin, in Experiments in Skin: Race and Beauty in the Shadows of Vietnam (Duke UP, 2021), Thuy Linh Nguyen Tu examines th...

Cheow Thia Chan, "Malaysian Crossings: Place and Language in the Worlding of Modern Chinese Literature" (Columbia UP, 2022)

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Malaysian Chinese (Mahua) literature is marginalized on several fronts. In the international literary space, which privileges the West, Malaysia is co...

Use of Bacteriophages as Natural Antimicrobials to Manage Bacterial Pathogens in Aquaculture in Vietnam and Australia

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing protein production industry globally, with Vietnam one of the top producers and exporters of seafood products. In V...

Petra Alderman, "Branding Authoritarian Nations: Political Legitimation and Strategic National Myths in Military-Ruled Thailand" (Routledge, 2023)

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does nation-branding mean to you? For many listeners, the term probably conjures up ideas of catchy slogans and international tourism or trade p...

Alka Vaid Menon, "Refashioning Race: How Global Cosmetic Surgery Crafts New Beauty Standards" (U California Press, 2023)

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cosmetic surgery was once associated with a one-size-fits-all approach, modifying patients to conform to a single standard of beauty. As this surgery ...

Genevieve Alva Clutario, "Beauty Regimes: A History of Power and Modern Empire in the Philippines, 1898-1941" (Duke UP, 2023)

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Beauty is often dismissed as superfluous and frivolous cultural consumption. In her book, Beauty Regimes: A History of Power and Modern Empire in the...

Bliss Cua Lim, "The Archival Afterlives of Philippine Cinema" (Duke UP, 2024)

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In The Archival Afterlives of Philippine Cinema (Duke University Press, 2024), Bliss Cua Lim draws on cultural policy, queer and feminist theory, ma...

Hannah Gould and Gwyn McClelland, "Aromas of Asia: Exchanges, Histories, Threats" (Penn State UP, 2023)

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A uniquely powerful marker of ethnic, gender, and class identities, scent can also overwhelm previously constructed boundaries and transform social-se...

Thomas Baudinette, "Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Baudinette's Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023) explores the cont...

Jeremy Yellen, "The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War" (Cornell UP, 2019)

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jeremy Yellen’s The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: When Total Empire Met Total War (Cornell University Press, 2019) is a challenging transn...

Reading the Stars: When Divination Meets Politics in Thailand

22 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What does astrology, palm-reading and fortune telling have to do with politics in Thailand, and how can we make sense of these divination practices an...

Vineeta Sinha. "Temple Tracks: Labour, Piety and Railway Construction in Asia" (Berghahn Books, 2023)

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The notions of labour, mobility and piety have a complex and intertwined relationship. Using ethnographic methods and a historical perspective, Vineet...

Kawi Culture: Exploring Indonesia’s Classical Civilisation

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever heard of Kawi? Much of what is considered “classical” in Indonesian history, such as the Borobudur temple complex or the kingdom of ...

Sally Frances Low, "Colonial Law Making: Cambodia Under the French" (NUS Press, 2023)

15 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1863 the French established a protectorate over the kingdom of Cambodia. The protectorate, along with Vietnam and Laos, later became part of the co...

Yan Slobodkin, "The Starving Empire: A History of Famine in France's Colonies" (Cornell UP, 2023)

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Starving Empire: A History of Famine in France's Colonies (Cornell University Press, 2023) by Dr. Yan Slobodkin traces the history of famine in t...

Nur Sobers-Khan et al., "Beyond Colonial Rupture: Print Culture and the Emergence of Muslim Modernity in Nineteenth-Century South Asia" (2023)

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Scholarly discussions on Islam in print have focused predominantly on the role of Urdu in the development of North Indian Muslim publics (Dubrow, 2018...

SSEAC Cambodia Field School: Anti-Microbial Resistance in Cambodia

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the last of our five special podcasts about from the recent SSEAC field schools to Southeast Asia, we will be hearing from students and staff from ...