The Australia-Netherlands Research Collaboration (ANRC)

26 - 28 May 2009
Workshop convened by Prof Arlo Griffiths from Leiden University, A/Prof Helen Creese from University of Queensland, and Dr Titik Pudjiastuti from Universitas Indonesia
The Old Javanese Rāmāyana. Text, History, Culture
to be held in Jakarta
contact: arlo.griffiths [at] let.leidenuniv.nl
Summary
The workshop focuses on the Old Javanese Rāmāyana, one of the earliest and most important pieces of poetical literature from the ancient Indonesian Archipelago (ca. 9th century AD).The event aims at bringing together a group of academics, senior researchers and PhD candidates involved in various fields relating to the culture of ancient Indonesia and India. The workshop, partially occasioned by an ongoing Dutch-Australian project of a critical edition and English translation of the complete text, will be marked by an innovative scholarly approach, informed by a pronounced multidisciplinarity. It will also aim at promoting to academics, governmental and public figures the importance of the study of ancient Javanese texts and culture.

25 & 26 June 2009
A special ANRC mid project workshop convened by Dr Robert Cribb from The Australian National University
Transmission of Academic Values in Asian Studies
to be held in Canberra
contact: Helen.McMartin[at]anu.edu.au
Summary
This workshop proposes to examine issues surrounding the transmission of scholarly values in Asian Studies. It will draw upon the views of scholars from a range of life-stages in order to seek a clearer picture of the values that scholars see as important to preserve and of the techniques for achieving transmission between the generations. A feature of the workshop will be attention to differences in values and practice between Australia and other countries.
Further information and the CALL FOR PAPERS is now available. The deadline for submission is 27 February 2009, but early submission would be appreciated.

July 2009
Workshop convened by Prof Oscar Salemink from VU University Amsterdam, Dr Philip Taylor from The Australian National University and Dr Chayan Vaddhanaphuti from Chiang Mai University
Human security and religious certainty in Southeast Asia
to be held in Chiang Mai
contact: ojhm.salemink [at] fsw.vu.nl
Summary
Throughout Southeast Asia one can discern an upsurge of public ritual and religious practice, linking this-worldly economic, political and existential concerns with transcendental beliefs. We can think of pilgrimages, mass-mediated events, transactional rituals, or devotional practices, that seek to either syncretistic or purifying bricolage. This workshop will seek to answer the question if, and how, the religious upsurge can be interpreted as compensation for the risks, uncertainties, opaqueness and unpredictability characterizing the neoliberalization of everyday life in Southeast Asian risk societies. In so doing, the workshop will link existential concerns with a notion of ‘human security from below’.

1 - 4 August 2009
Workshop convened by Assoc Prof Lenore Lyons from University of Wollongong, Dr Michele Ford from University of Sydney, Prof Willem van Schendel from University of Amsterdam and Dr Riwanto Tirtosudarmo from Research Center for Society and Culture, Indonesian Institute of Sciences
Labour Migration and Trafficking: Policy Making at the Border
to be held at Universitas Kebangsaan Malaysia
contact: Lenore_Lyons [at] uow.edu.au
Summary
The workshop aims to document and compare migrant labour in a range of border sites in Southeast Asia. It will do so in view of the rise of the global anti-trafficking narrative and its impact on policy-making concerned with transnational migrant labour. Through the presentation of ethnographic case studies, workshop participants will explore if, and how, the trafficking framework has influenced flows of migrants across borders; how policy-makers in sending and receiving countries attempt to regulate labour migration; and to what extent migration strategies and anti-trafficking policies have influenced the ability of migrant workers to exercise their labour rights. At a theoretical level, the workshop will develop a model for understanding the intersections between smuggling, trafficking and labour migration.

September 2009
Workshop convened by Prof Henk Schulte Nordholt from KITLV & University of Amsterdam and Dr Jennifer Lindsay from The Australian National University
Culture and the Nation: Arts in the shadow of Lekra 1950 – 1965
to be held in Jakarta
contact: schultenordholt [at] kitlv.nl
Summary
This research project examines Indonesia’s cultural history from 1950-65, when Indonesia’s political links with the world and its sense of nationhood were vigorously negotiated domestically on the cultural front. A workshop on Cultural Traffic Indonesia-Abroad 1950-1965 will examine the exchange of artists, writers and ideas between Indonesia and various countries, both within Southeast Asia and on a wider global scale, the development of cultural networks, and ways these networks interacted with and influenced cultural expression and discourse in Indonesia. The second workshop Culture and the Nation: Arts in the shadow of Lekra 1950 – 1965 will focus on activities within Indonesia, opening new areas of investigation into the politicization of culture and artistic experimentation of this period.