New Books in Southeast Asian Studies

The Future of Global Trade: A Discussion with Shannon K. O'Neil

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Critics of globalisation come in many forms from environmentalists to trade unionists and many others in between. In the midst of all the controversy ...

Dan Slater and Joseph Wong, "From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia" (Princeton UP, 2022)

17 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why some of Asia’s authoritarian regimes have democratized as they have grown richer—and why others haven’t Over the past century, Asia has been...

Elaine Pearson, "Chasing Wrongs and Rights: My Experience Defending Human Rights Around the World" (Simon & Schuster, 2022)

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Chasing Wrongs and Rights: My Experience Defending Human Rights Around the World (Simon & Schuster, 2022) by Elaine Pearson, the Asia Director at Hum...

Philippe Peycam, "Cultural Renewal in Cambodia: Academic Activism in the Neoliberal Era" (Brill and ISEAS, 2020)

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How far did post-UNTAC Cambodia exemplified an expanded Habermasian public sphere? What happened when a range of aid agencies, private donors, activis...

Sarah Milne, "Corporate Nature: An Insider's Ethnography of Global Conservation" (U Arizona Press, 2022)

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2012, Cambodia’s most prominent environmental activist was brutally murdered in a high-profile conservation area in the Cardamom Mountains. Tragi...

Safe and Sound? On the Intersection of Child Protection and Child and Youth Residential Care in the Philippines

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the Philippines, unknown numbers of children are in institutional care. Commonly known as residential care or orphanages, these institutions have b...

Transforming Journalism in Vietnam: An Exploration of Two Swedish Media Aid Projects

02 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What is the journalism culture in Vietnam? What role does Sweden play in the transformation of Vietnamese journalism? How has Swedish media aid fulfil...

Lan Anh Hoang, "Vietnamese Migrants in Russia: Mobility in Times of Uncertainty" (Amsterdam UP, 2020)

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Vietnam and Russia share a common socialist history dating back to the Cold War. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and Vietnam’s đ...

Alexander Laban Hinton, "Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal" (Cornell UP, 2022)

25 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Cornell UP, 2022) tells the story of Alexander Laban Hinton's encounter with an accus...

Public Participation and Contested Hydropower Development in the Mekong River Basin

24 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Regional demand for renewable hydropower from the Mekong River and its tributaries in Laos is on the rise. In June 2022, Laos exported one hundred meg...

Eric Tagliocozzo, "In Asian Waters: Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokohama" (Princeton UP, 2022)

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the nineteenth century, one group of American merchants reported an odd request from the Vietnamese emperor. An envoy asked if the traders could he...

Natali Pearson, "Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

15 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1998, the Belitung, a ninth-century western Indian Ocean–style vessel, was discovered in Indonesian waters. Onboard was a full cargo load, likel...

Earvin Charles B. Cabalquinto, "(Im)mobile Homes: Family Life at a Distance in the Age of Mobile Media" (Oxford UP, 2022)

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do transnational Filipino families remain connected through mobile media technologies? In (Im)mobile Homes: Family Life at a Distance in the Age ...

U.S. Determinization of Genocide in Myanmar: Part Two, What’s Next?

11 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In March 2022 the U.S. government announced its determination that genocide was committed by the Myanmar military against Rohingya communities in Myan...

Sustainable Peatland Management and Transboundary Haze in Southeast Asia

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Indonesian citizens, and those of neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, have long suffered recurring haze pollution caused by peatland fires in Indo...

Michael Herzfeld, "Subversive Archaism: Troubling Traditionalists and the Politics of National Heritage" (Duke UP, 2022)

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Subversive Archaism: Troubling Traditionalists and the Politics of National Heritage (Duke UP, 2022), Michael Herzfeld explores how individuals ...

Civil Society, Capitalism, and Political Regimes in Southeast Asia

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Working on Southeast Asia, one thing we tend to hear a lot of is the notion that civil society is shrinking, and that authoritarianism is on the rise....

Michael Francis Laffan, "Under Empire: Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945" (Columbia UP, 2022)

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Francis Laffan’s Under Empire: Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945 (Columbia University Press, 2022) tr...

Ethics, Utopia and Materiality: Glimpses of Everyday Creativity and Hope in Indonesian Papua

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Asmat are an indigenous people of Indonesian Papua and are renowned for their artistic carving flair and complex life-cycle rituals. They also hav...

U.S. Determinization of Genocide in Myanmar: Part One, Roots

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In March of 2022 the U.S. government announced its determination that genocide was committed by the Myanmar military against Rohingya communities in M...

Christopher Goscha, "The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam" (Princeton UP, 2022)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Vietnamese victory over the French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, which ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina, is one of t...

Beyond Meat? Dietary Shifts and Meat Contestations in China, India and Vietnam

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What explains the uneven meatification of diets in three of Asia’s core ‘emerging economies’? How and why is meat consumption changing today, an...

Johanna O. Zulueta, "Okinawan Women's Stories of Migration: From War Brides to Issei" (Routledge, 2022)

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The phenomenon of “war brides” from Japan moving to the West has been quite widely discussed, but this book tells the stories of women whose lives...

Social Media and Political Participation in the Philippines

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We are all familiar with the spread of disinformation on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. But just when we thought we’...

Peter J. Kalliney, "The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature" (Princeton UP, 2022)

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How did superpower competition and the cold war affect writers in the decolonizing world? In The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Litera...

Tanya Jakimow, "Susceptibility in Development: Micropolitics of Local Development in India and Indonesia" (Oxford UP, 2020)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tanya Jakimow's book Susceptibility in Development: Micropolitics of Local Development in India and Indonesia (Oxford UP, 2020) offers a novel appro...

Transcendence and Sustainability: Asian Visions with Global Promise

16 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Can spiritually and religiously inspired environmental movements in Asia help reach the global goal of environmental sustainability? This question lie...

David Reeve, "To Remain Myself: The History of Onghokham" (ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series / NUS Press, 2022)

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To Remain Myself: The History of Onghokham (ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series / NUS Press, 2022) is a particularly vivid biography of a remark...

Material Matters: Reflections on the History of Settlement Development Across Mainland Southeast Asia

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Despite decades of research into the historic settlements of Mainland Southeast Asia, our understanding of the region’s long-term settlement history...

Pamela N. Corey, "The City in Time: Contemporary Art and Urban Form in Vietnam and Cambodia" (U Washington Press, 2021)

13 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The City in Time: Contemporary Art and Urban Form in Vietnam and Cambodia (U Washington Press, 2021), Pamela N. Corey provides new ways of unde...

Jini Kim Watson, "Cold War Reckonings: Authoritarianism and the Genres of Decolonization" (Fordham UP, 2021)

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How did the Cold War shape culture and political power in decolonizing countries and give rise to authoritarian regimes in the so-called free world? ...

Ken MacLean, "Crimes in Archival Form: Human Rights, Fact Production, and Myanmar" (U California Press, 2022)

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Though human rights monitors talk of fact-finding missions and reports, human rights facts are, like all social phenomena, not in fact found but made ...

Vietnam and China: Strange Bedfellows in the Era of Strategic Competition

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the Asia-Pacific becomes the central stage of the US-China rivalry, Vietnam has emerged as one of the key countries to watch. While Vietnam has pos...

Bert Becker, "France and Germany in the South China Sea, c. 1840-1930: Maritime Competition and Imperial Power" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

France and Germany in the South China Sea, c. 1840-1930 Maritime Competition and Imperial Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) explores imperial power ...

Edging Towards New Politics? Reflections on Malaysia’s Democracy after GE14

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After decades of authoritarian rule by the Barisan Nasional coalition, a new alliance, Pakatan Harapan, was voted in in 2018, marking Malaysia’s ...

Angela Ki Che Leung et al., "Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia" (U Hawaii Press, 2019)

16 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The twelve chapters of Moral Foods: The Construction of Nutrition and Health in Modern Asia (U Hawai’i Press, 2020) are divided into three section...

Baogang He et al., "Deliberative Democracy in Asia" (Routledge, 2022)

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Southeast Asia is a region often associated with authoritarian resilience and democratic decline. In this podcast, Professor Baogang He examines the v...

Anoma Van Der Veere et al., "Public Health in Asia During the Covid-19 Pandemic" (Amsterdam UP, 2022)

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every nation in Asia has dealt with COVID-19 differently and with varying levels of success in the absence of clear and effective leadership from the ...

East Timorese Politics: A New Dawn or Return to Business as Usual?

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the newest nation in Southeast Asia, Timor-Leste has been independent for just over 20 years. Timor-Leste is regularly ranked the most democratic n...

Nicholas Ferns, "Australia in the Age of International Development, 1945–1975: Colonial and Foreign Aid Policy in Papua New Guinea and Southeast Asia" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)

05 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the voluminous literature on the history of modernisation theory and its associated concept of development since the end of World War II, much of t...

Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit, "A History of Thailand" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This year sees the publication of the fourth edition of the book, A History of Thailand (Cambridge UP, 2022), by Chris Baker and Pasuk Phongpaichit....

Indonesia’s Response to the War in Ukraine

29 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With the upcoming G20 summit this November, all eyes should be on Indonesia – the fourth largest country in the world and current holder of G20 pres...

Duy Lap Nguyen, "The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South Vietnam" (Manchester UP, 2019)

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Duy Lap Nguyen's book The Unimagined Community: Imperialism and Culture in South Vietnam (Manchester UP, 2019) proposes a reexamination of the Vietn...

Ethan Mark, "Japan’s Occupation of Java in the Second World War: A Transnational History" (Bloomsbury, 2018)

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Japan's Occupation of Java in the Second World War: A Transnational History (Bloomsbury, 2018) by Ethan Mark draws upon written and oral Japanese, In...

Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On 9 May 2018, an ideologically diverse opposition alliance called Pakatan Harapan (PH) defeated the long-ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition which...

Publishing in Asian Studies Journals

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How can we get our articles in Asian studies published? What criteria should we use in selecting what journals to target? On what basis do journal edi...

Elisabeth Kramer, "The Candidate's Dilemma: Anticorruptionism and Money Politics in Indonesian Election Campaigns" (Cornell UP, 2022)

15 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Candidate's Dilemma: Anticorruptionism and Money Politics in Indonesian Election Campaigns (Cornell UP, 2022), Elisabeth Kramer tells the sto...

Kevin Ruane and Matthew Jones, "Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis" (Bloomsbury, 2019)

12 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the spring of 1954, after eight years of bitter fighting, the war in Vietnam between the French and the communist-led Vietminh came to a head. With...

Reshaping the Politics of Science: Bioscience Governance in Indonesia

08 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The last few years have brought to the fore the brilliant work of scientists as they worked to find a vaccine for Covid-19. But have you ever stopped ...

Supalak Ganjanakhundee, "A Soldier King: Monarchy and Military in the Thailand of Rama X" (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2022)

04 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What is the relationship between the military and the monarchy in Thailand? How has that relationship changed since King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) assum...

Tehmton S. Mistry, "The 24th Mile: An Indian Doctor's Heroism in War-torn Burma" (HarperCollins, 2021)

21 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The story of India and Indians in World War II has been overshadowed by other historical events of the 1940s, a busy decade that included such histori...

Paul Van Der Velde, "Life Under the Palms: The Sublime World of the Anti-Colonialist Jacob Haafner" (NUS Press, 2020)

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacob Gotfried Haafner (1754–1809) was one of the most popular European travel writers of the early nineteenth century, writing in the Romantic mode...

Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière and Peter A Jackson, "Spirit Possession in Buddhist Southeast Asia: Worlds Ever More Enchanted" (NIAS Press, 2022)

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What is the relationship between Spirit Possession Rituals and Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia? How has modernity transformed Spirit Possession cu...

Sokphea Young, "Strategies of Authoritarian Survival and Dissensus in Southeast Asia: Weak Men versus Strongmen" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The durability of strongmen leaders in Southeast Asia has puzzled many scholars and observers of the region. In the book Strategies of Authoritarian ...

Stan BH Tan-Tangbau et al., "Jazz in Socialist Hà Nội: Improvisations Between Worlds" (Routledge, 2022)

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jazz in Socialist Hà Nội: Improvisations between Worlds (Routledge, 2022) examines the germination and growth of jazz under communist rule—perc...

Popular Demand for Strongman Rule? Reflections on the 2022 Philippine Election

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What enabled the 2022 electoral victory of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of a dictator that the historic People Power Revolution ousted 36 years ago? ...

Rosalind Galt, "Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization" (Columbia UP, 2021)

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization (Columbia University Press, 2021), film scholar Rosalind Galt offers a cinematic e...

Erin Murphy, "Burmese Haze: US Policy and Myanmar's Opening--And Closing" (Association for Asian Studies, 2022)

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Myanmar—or Burma, if that’s the name you prefer—is one of a small set of countries: nations that, despite natural bounty and a vibrant populatio...

Jonathan Saha, "Colonizing Animals: Interspecies Empire in Myanmar" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Colonial Myanmar was teeming with animals, both wild and domesticated. Yet few histories have devoted close attention to the importance of animals to ...

The Race for the Governor: Talking Bangkok Elections with Saksith Saiyasombut

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Chadchart Sittipunt win the Bangkok governor race? What does his win tell us about broader political trends in Thailand? And how did it feel c...

Boys Love and Japanese Queer Popular Culture across Southeast Asia

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers across East and Southeast Asia have found themselves turning to Thai soap operas known as “B...

Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, "Archipelago of Resettlement: Vietnamese Refugee Settlers and Decolonization Across Guam and Israel-Palestine" (U California Press, 2022)

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“Nước Việt Nam: a home, a cradle, a point of departure” (Gandhi, 1). The Vietnamese word nước embraces the duality of land and water wi...

Holly High, "Projectland: Life in a Lao Socialist Model Village" (U Hawaii Press, 2021)

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Projectland: Life in a Lao Socialist Model Village (U Hawaii Press, 2021), anthropologist Holly High combines an engaging first-person narrative ...

Geopolitics in the Mekong Region: The Role of Chinese Energy Politics in Laos and Cambodia

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Energy, and who controls it, has emerged as a major issue in Southeast Asia in recent years. Nowhere is this issue more evident than in the Mekong reg...

Abby Seiff, "Troubling the Water: A Dying Lake and a Vanishing World in Cambodia" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tonlé Sap is one of Southeast Asia’s, if not one of the world’s, natural wonders. Between the dry and wet seasons, the lake expands almost six ti...

J. Lorenzo Perillo, "Choreographing in Color: Filipinos, Hip-Hop, and the Cultural Politics of Euphemism" (Oxford UP, 2020)

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Investigating the development of Filipino popular dance and performance since the late 20th century, Choreographing in Color: Filipinos, Hip-Hop, and...

Peter A. Jackson and Benjamin Baumann, "Deities and Divas: Queer Ritual Specialists in Myanmar, Thailand and Beyond" (NIAS Press, 2021)

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How does queer life fit into Buddhism and ritual? What role do gay men and trans women play in the practice of spirit mediumship and how do queer spir...

Puangthong Pawakapan, "Infiltrating Society: The Thai Military’s Internal Security Affairs" (ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2021)

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why is the Thai military so deeply embedded in socio-economic development projects, longer after the end of the Cold War? How come serving generals c...

Lukas Ley, "Building on Borrowed Time: Rising Seas and Failing Infrastructure in Semarang" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ice caps are melting, seas are rising, and densely populated cities worldwide are threatened by floodwaters, especially in Southeast Asia. Building o...

The Politics of Ethnic Integration in Thailand

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Following the 2014 coup in Thailand, in which the Thai military overthrew the caretaker government after 6 months of political crisis, major media out...

Scott Stonington, "The Spirit Ambulance: Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand" (U California Press, 2020)

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Spirit Ambulance: Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand (University of California Press, 2020) is a journey into decision-making at the end...

What Remains: Textiles from Tuol Sleng

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What can textiles tell us about histories of genocide and the lived experiences of prisoners? In this episode, Dr. Magali-An Berthon discusses the tre...

Harry Verhoeven and Anatol Lieven, "Beyond Liberal Order: States, Societies and Markets in the Global Indian Ocean" (Oxford UP, 2022)

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We often neglect the Indian Ocean when we talk about our macro-level models of geopolitics, global economics or grand strategy—often in favor of the...

Merging the Local with the Global: A Conversation with a Malaysian Youth Climate Advocate

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the past few years, youth-led groups such as the Fridays for Future school strike movement have changed the face of climate activism globally. In t...

East Timor Elections: José Ramos-Horta in Conversation with Amber Woortman

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jose Ramos-Horta topped the first round of polling in the 2022 East Timor presidential elections, securing 46.56 per cent of the popular vote on 19 Ma...

Kris Ruijgrok, "Internet Use and Protest in Malaysia and Other Authoritarian Regimes" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Internet-enabled mobilization begins long before there is a call for protest. In the book Internet Use and Protest in Malaysia and other Authoritaria...

Gregg Huff, "World War II in Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To say that World War II and Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is an impressive achie...

Greater Angkor and Global Urbanism

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cambodia is home to Angkor, one of the most important archaeological sites of Southeast Asia. Greater Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, was a l...

Urban Climate Change and Adaptation: Messages from the IPCC Report for Southeast Asia

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“An atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” is how UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the IP...

Melissa M. Lee, "Crippling Leviathan: How Foreign Subversion Weakens the State" (Cornell UP, 2020)

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Policymakers worry that "ungoverned spaces" pose dangers to security and development. Why do such spaces exist beyond the authority of the state? Earl...

Nu-Anh Tran, "Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In popular understandings of the modern history of Vietnam we are familiar with Ho Chi Minh’s anti-imperialism, but we know much less about the anti...

China, Buddhism and the Belt and Road Initiative in Mainland Southeast Asia

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Launched in 2013 by Chinese President XI Jinping, China’s Belt and Road initiative has manifested throughout Southeast Asia in the form of multibill...

Jeremy Friedman, "Ripe for Revolution: Building Socialism in the Third World" (Harvard UP, 2022)

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the first decades after World War II, many newly independent Asian and African countries and established Latin American states pursued a socialist ...

Understanding East Timor's 2022 Presidential Elections

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

East Timor is choosing a president. What is the significance of the 2022 presidential elections in Timor Leste? Has Asia’s youngest and newest count...

Understanding the Drivers of Vaccine Acceptance in Southeast Asia

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Vaccines have controlled or even eradicated some of the world’s most serious diseases. Throughout the last century and up until recently with the CO...

Jane M. Ferguson, "Repossessing Shanland: Myanmar, Thailand, and a Nation-State Deferred" (U Wisconsin Press, 2021)

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Around five million people across Southeast Asia identify as Shan. Though the Shan people were promised an independent state in the 1947 Union of Burm...

Excluded from Society and Rights: The Experiences of Refugees on the Thai-Myanmar Border

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Southeastern Myanmar (Burma). The Myanmar military has carried out arial attacks on villages: targeting schools, libraries, and villagers’ agricultu...

Thai Totalitarians? Why the Love of Authoritarian Symbols?

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Restart Thailand, a 2020 student-led pro-democracy movement, sport a red Communist-style logo with a hammer and sickle? Why did a Thai BNK48 s...

Architecture, Climatic Privilege, and Migrant Labour in Singapore

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Migration and architecture have emerged as a new topic of research at a global level. Migrant worker dormitories in Singapore, for example, are sites ...

Adele Webb, "Chasing Freedom: The Philippines Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence" (Sussex Academic Press, 2022)

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In conversation with Duncan McCargo about her new book Chasing Freedom: The Philippines Long Journey to Democratic Ambivalence (Sussex Academic Pres...

Michelle Gordon, "Extreme Violence and the ‘British Way’: Colonial Warfare in Perak, Sierra Leone and Sudan" (Bloomsbury, 2020)

25 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Analysing three cases of British colonial violence that occurred in the latter half of the 19th century, this book argues that all three share commona...

Claudio Sopranzetti and Sara Fabbri, "King of Bangkok" (U Toronto Press, 2021)

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bangkok, as Thailand’s largest and most economically-important cities, attracts migrants from all over the country. Drawn to its economic opportunit...

For the Love of Translation: A Discussion of King Vajiravudh’s Translations of Western Literature in Early 20th-Century Siam

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

King Vajiravudh ruled over Siam from 1910 to 1925. He is widely known to Thais as a nationalist king who proposed an essential ‘Thainess’ through ...

Craig J. Reynolds, "Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand: The Cosmos of a Southern Policeman" (ANU Press, 2019)

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of New Books in Southeast Asian Studies we travel with Craig J. Reynolds to the mid-south of Thailand in the first half of the twe...

The Politics of Protest in Myanmar, with Van Tran

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why has Myanmar experienced so many massive street protests recent years? How can we go about studying these sorts of mass demonstrations? What kinds ...

Where the Wild Things Are: Reimagining the More-Than-Human City

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Amidst accelerating environmental change and intense urbanisation, there is growing enthusiasm for building sustainable and ‘natural’ cities. Yet,...

Sebastian Strangio, "Cambodia: From Pol Pot to Hun Sen and Beyond" (Yale UP, 2020)

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For many people Cambodia’s modern history is overshadowed by the devastation and horror of the Khmer Rouge era between 1975 and 1979. Yet arguably t...

Motorbike Madness in Vietnam, with Hue-Tam Jamme

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ever tried to cross the road in Hanoi? There’s no point in waiting for a gap. Close your eyes and start walking: the traffic will magically weave ar...

Speaking Bones: Unearthing Ancient Stories of Illness and Disease

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue to chronic bacterial infections such as yaws, Southeast Asia is home to a wide range of tropic...

N. J. Enfield, "The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the most fascinating and complex cultural and linguistic areas in the world. This book provides a rich and comprehen...