Greeting from the Director
In this month, we are having an international seminar, Rethinking Race/Racism from Asian Experiences on 24 May. It is a special event of Trans-Asia as method seminar series. The seminar aims to reconsider and expand the studies of race and racism by examining them in the Japanese and Malaysian contexts. A public forum Mon@sia will discus the education of Asian literacy in Australian schools, which is rather an imperative issue for all of us. Please find all the details of these events and the regular seminar series of CSEAS and JSC in the May bulletin and on the MAI webpage.
Many thanks for your continuous support for MAI activities.
From Prof Koichi Iwabuchi
The next MAI Bulletin is scheduled for Monday 3st June 2013. If you have news on any events or other announcements that you would like us to include, please forward it to MAI-Enquiries@monash.edu by Thursday 30th, May 2013.
ABOUT THE MONASH ASIA INSTITUTE
The Monash Asia Institute ( MAI ) is a multi-disciplinary research centre representing the Asian research expertise in all ten faculties on all Monash campuses located in Australia and abroad. Founded in 1988 as the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies, it was reconstituted as the MAI in 1992 to bring together a wide range of Asia-related activities in the University and develop collaborative links with like-minded institutions in Australia, Asia, the USA and Europe. Now located in the Arts Faculty, MAI continuously endeavors to facilitate innovative research on Asian regions and promote cross-disciplinary and trans-Asian intellectual dialogue within and outside Monash.
MAI Conferences and Seminar series
In addition to regular seminar series organized by Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Japanese Studies Centre, National Centre for South Asian Studies, and Centre for Malaysian Studies, MAI provides international conferences and seminar series:
Mon@sia is a public forum that aims to critically engage with “Asian Literacy in the Asian Century” by rethinking fundamental questions around why and how we study about “Asia”. Involving undergraduate students and general publics, the forum aims to facilitate discussion of how we go beyond the compartmentalization of the studies of “Asia” as something happening “over there” and how we enhance the sense of shared-ness, together-ness and connected-ness in global perspectives and reimagine “Asia” and “Australia” in terms of mutual implication (not to mention the experiences of Asian Australians). We would very much welcome any proposals (session coordination, possible speakers, topics and formats) for Mon@sia.
Trans-Asia as method is an academic seminar series that aims to facilitate trans-Asian and cross-disciplinary dialogue by comparatively and collaboratively examining how globally shared issues are similarly, differently and/or interconnectedly articulated in various local contexts of Asian regions. Scholars working in Australian contexts and scholars working on Asian Australian experiences are also constitutive of trans-Asian dialogue. Such discussion will lead to developing new conceptualization and theorization from Asian experiences and de-Westernizing the production of knowledge.
International seminar/conference in 2013
* Rethinking Race/Racism from Asian Experiences (24 May)
* Multiculturalism and Asia (21-22 Nov)
For the details of those seminars and conferences and MAI occasional seminars, please see Calendar and Event page.
Latest News
Call for papers — Multiculturalism and “Asia” International workshop Monash Asia Institute in conjunction with the School of Political & Social Inquiry Monash University 21-22 Nov 2013 Monash Asia Institute together with the School of Political and Social Inquiry will host an international workshop of ‘Multiculturalism and “Asia”’ at Monash University, Caulfield campus in Melbourne on 21 and 22 ... Read more
Date: 24 May 2013 (Friday) Venue: Building A, Ground floor, Clayfield/Dining Rooms (A1.34), Monash University Caulfield Campus (For information on travelling, parking and map, please visit www.monash.edu.au/campuses/caulfield/) Organized by Monash Asia Institute, Monash University Co-organized by Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (S) “A Japan-based Global Study of Racial Representations”) Registration required. RSVP (no later ... Read more- MAI Bulletin MAY 2013 In this month, we are having an international seminar, Rethinking Race/Racism from Asian Experiences on 24 May. It is a special event of Trans-Asia as method seminar series. The seminar aims to reconsider and expand the studies of race and racism by examining them in the Japanese and Malaysian contexts. A public ... Read more
More News
MAI Bulletin Apr 2013 The hectic first month of Semester 1 has ended with a relieving Easter break. I hope you had (or are still having) a nice break. Even with a busy schedule of March, a good number of people (researchers, postgraduate students and undergraduate students) participated in MAI’s new public forum Mon@sia and seminar ... Read more
(See Monash Memo http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/cultural-typhoon-kicks-off) Cultural Typhoon Melbourne is a group of Melbourne-based scholars, students and activists, initiated by Koichi Iwabuchi, interested in exploring media and cultural studies in Asian contexts. In solidarity with the Association for Cultural Typhoon based in Japan, Cultural Typhoon Melbourne will hold monthly seminars intended to create a space for the free ... Read more
MAI Bulletin March 2013 Summer season is finally ending. March is always exciting and refreshing as a new academic year starts in Australia. MAI’s event line-up further adds quite a stimulating flavour to this month. In addition to the seminars organized by CSEAS (7th and 21st) and JSC (13th), we will start a new public forum, ... Read more
MAI Bulletin December 2012 With the last MAI Bulletin for 2012 I would like to take this opportunity to wish the MAI Community, MAI Bulletin subscribers and their loved ones a safe and pleasant Christmas / New Year period. As outgoing Director of MAI, I also wish to express my deep gratitude to Professor Rae Frances ... Read more
2012 marks a half-century of the study of Indonesian at Monash, and we have decided to celebrate. It was in 1962 that Cyril Skinner was appointed as senior lecturer in the newly-formed Department of Malay and Indonesian Studies. Since then, thousands of graduates have left Monash with at least some knowledge of Indonesian and Malay, ... Read more
MAI Bulletin November 2012 As teaching draws to a close for 2012, and scholars seek to progress their writing leading into the summer season, a major upcoming event is the 50 Years of Indonesian and Malay Studies at Monash event. This is open to the public, and will take place at Clayton campus on 23 November ... Read more
MAI Bulletin October 2012 This month’s MAI Bulletin features another great range of upcoming events, including the final Herb Feith Foundation seminar for 2012 and the Cambodia Roundtable, as well as recent seminars by Professor Yuhua Ji and two new Monash Asia publications. Monash and the MAI Community extends a warm welcome to Professor Koichi Iwabuchi, who ... Read more
Professor Yuhua Ji Department of English Language and Literature, Xiamen University, China Current Trends in China in the Context of Globalization and Intercultural Communication Tuesday 25th September 2012, 4.00pm – 5.30pm Monash Asia Institute Seminar Room, H5.95 Level 5, Building H, Monash University Caulfield Campus This presentation will start with an effort to define culture as “human intentional action and ... Read more
MAI Bulletin September 2012 Among the numerous exciting items in this month’s MAI Bulletin, please note the Intensely Soul performance and workshop to take place on 29 & 30 September. Monash University’s Faculty of Arts and the Monash Asia Institute are supporting the Victorian leg of this national tour. We also wish to convey that a ... Read more
Monash Asia Seminars – Special CSEAS Seminar Prof Adnan Buyung Nasution Prof Nasution is one of Indonesia’s leading rights lawyers. Buyung was personally responsible for drafting the Joint Decree on Ahmadiyah and has been heavily involved in Ahmadi-related issues. He has also been outspoken in defence of minority ‘deviant sects’ and very critical of MUI (i.e. the ... Read more
Dr Max M Richter (ISBN: 978-90-6718-390-1, July 2012, 222 pp, paperback) Publisher: KITLV Press ‘Musical Worlds in Yogyakarta’ is an ethnographic account of a vibrant Indonesian city during the turbulent early post-Soeharto years. The book examines musical performance in public contexts ranging from the street and neighbourhood through to commercial venues and state environments such as ... Read more
New deadline for abstract and proposal submission is Friday 21st September 2012. Given that the organisers have received many inquiries and expression of interest, they have decided to extend the abstract and proposal submission to Friday 21st September 2012. Furthermore, abstracts and proposals submitted beyond the deadline can still be considered provided that there still space ... Read more
MAI Bulletin August 2012 Professor Koichi Iwabuchi has been appointed as a Chair in Media and Cultural Studies in the Monash Faculty of Arts, and will also take on the role as Director of the Monash Asia Institute. He is due to arrive at Monash in late September. We look forward to welcoming Professor Iwabuchi to ... Read more
MAI Bulletin July 2012 The July 2012 MAI Bulletin comes out a week before the 19th Biennial ASAA Conference (University of Western Sydney, 11–13 July 2012), and contains a fantastic range of seminars and book launches, calls for papers, and other Asia-research related activities. We are continuing work on the new MAI website, and are helping ... Read more
‘A History of State & Religion in India’ by Ian Copland, Ian Mabbett*, Asim Roy, Kate Brittlebank and Adam Bowles (ISBN: 9780-4155-8066-3, April 2012, 352pp, Hardcover) Published by Routledge Studies in South Asian History Offering the first long-duration analysis of the relationship between the state and religion in South Asia, this book looks at the nature and origins of ... Read more
Book Margaret J Kartomi (ISBN: 9780-2520-3671-2, University of Illinois Press 2012, 472pp, Hardcover) Despite being the sixth largest island in the world and home to an estimated 44 million Indonesians, Sumatra’s musical arts and cultures have not been the subject of a book-length study until now. Documenting and explaining the ethnographic, cultural, and historical contexts of Sumatra’s performing ... Read more
Bangladesh Disaster Management Field Study (Unit code: APG4017/5017) If you are interested in natural hazards, their consequences and the responses that help recovery and preparedness for future hazards, this unit is for you. The Master of International Crisis Management will be running this exciting field study to Bangladesh as a summer unit starting in January 2013. The unit is ... Read more
Singapore Correspondent. Political Dispatches from Singapore (1958-1962) by Leon Comber* (ISBN: 9789 8143 6120 0, March 2012, 197 pp, Paperback) Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International Asia “Singapore Correspondent” covers five years of Singapore’s colourful political past – a period of living turbulently and sometimes dangerously. It is a collection of eye-witness dispatches, sent from Singapore to London, spanning a time ... Read more
In Search of Temples. The Temples of the Singapore Chinese By Leon Comber* and Xu Liying (ISBN 9789 8108 8844 2, 2012, 100 pp, Paperback, in Chinese) Publisher: Taoist College, Singapore A comparative description of a selection of contemporary Chinese temples in Singapore and the same temples as they existed half a century ago, some of which date back to ... Read more
MAI Bulletin June 2012 For the June 2012 MAI Bulletin we include book publications and film screenings, an exhibition, concert, upcoming conference and a recent radio broadcast. We present another diverse range of seminar speakers and themes, and three Southeast Asia events all on 20 June. Additionally, MAI website has just moved to the new Arts ... Read more
