JSSEAS & NIHU-MAPS Joint Conference
Southeast Asia as Critical Crossroads: Dialogues with Anthony Reid
Date: July 22-23, 2023
Venue: 125 Memorial Hall, Floor 7, Building 8, Hakusan Campus, Toyo University
Language: English
Anthony Reid has been a pioneering scholar who has led Southeast Asian Studies for many decades. Since the late 1980s, Reid has been producing groundbreaking studies by introducing the method of “total history” from the Annales school. His vivid descriptions of livelihoods, economy, labor, religion, ritual, diet, women’s activities, and material culture presented in his Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce (1988, 1993) have irrevocably changed our understanding of Southeast Asia. After the Age of Commerce, he continued to explore new themes including Chinese in Southeast Asia, stateless people, natural disasters, among others, and advanced new projects on a wide range of topics. His contributions, influences, and impacts have been extensive and profound in not only Southeast Asian Studies but also a number of adjacent disciplines.
His latest monograph, A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads, is a monumental, single-authored work, covering the region’s entire history from the ancient to the present. Through this book, Reid redefines Southeast Asia as a region of diversity, emphasizing three aspects: natural environment, gender balance, and stateless society.
This two-day symposium, Southeast Asia as Critical Crossroads: Dialogues with Anthony Reid, will examine the achievements of Southeast Asian Studies and explore its future possibilities.
On the first day, the symposium consists of two sessions. We will first discuss A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads from multiple perspectives. Five reviews will be followed by a reply by the author. In the second session, panelists will assess Reid’s contributions to Southeast Asian Studies from different angles including stateless people, nationalism, gender, economic history, and environmental history. This session will conclude with Reid’s presentation on his current project: Seventy Years of Southeast Asian Studies: An Autobiography in 10 countries.
On the second day, the third session of this symposium will discuss the entanglement of people, nature, and commodities. The set of field-based empirical studies will consider how frontier societies formed through commerce have been maintained (or not) in Southeast Asia.
This symposium presents a rare opportunity to engage in critical dialogues with the great historian of Southeast Asia.
* The symposium is jointly organized by JSSEAS: Japan Society for Southeast Asian Studies and NIHU-MAPS: Project “Maritime Asian and Pacific Studies,” National Institutes for the Humanities with support from JSPS KAKENHI #18H03599, #20H04429, and Asian Cultures Research Institute, Toyo University.
PROGRAM
Day 1: July 22(Sat)
10:00-12:20
Session 1. Reading A History of Southeast Asia: Critical Crossroads
Chair: Waka Aoyama (Tokyo University)
10:00-10:10 Opening Remarks: Masao Imamura and Kazufumi Nagatsu
10:10-10:30 “Southeast Asian Genius: How the Region Manages Its Diversity?” Noriyuki Osada (Institute of Developing Economies)
10:30-10:50 “Southeast Asia as Method?” Akiko Iijima (Toyo Bunko)
10:50-11:10 “Towards Mainstreaming Southeast Asia: from the Viewpoints of History Education and Scholarship Review” Shiro Momoki (Osaka University, Vietnam-Japan University)
11:10-11:25 Break
11:25-11:45 “Southeast Asia in Global History: Trade, Economic Growth and the Environment” Kaoru Sugihara (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature)
11:45-12:05 “Social Structures and Historical Conjunctures: A Comparative View from China” Mio Kishimoto (Ochanomizu University, Toyo Bunko)
12:05-12:20 Reply from Anthony Reid (Australian National University)
13:30-16:50
Session 2. Anthony Reid and Southeast Asian Studies
Chair: Noriyuki Osada
13:30-13:35 Opening remarks: Noriyuki Osada
13:35-13:50 “Stateless Peoplesin the Age of Nationalism” Masao Imamura (Yamagata University)
13:50-14:05 “Women in Southeast Asia from High Modernity Onwards” Yoko Hayami (Kyoto University)
14:05-14:20 “Environmental ‘Turns’ in Historiography: Impact on Southeast Asian Studies” Farizah Zakaria (National University of Singapore)
14:20-14:35 “Economic History and the Chinese Century” Atsushi Ota (Keio University)
14:35-15:00 Discussion
15:00-15:20 Break
Chair: Junko Koizumi (Kyoto University)
15:20-16:05 “Southeast Asian Studies in US, Australia and Japan: A Partly Autobiographical Comparison” Anthony Reid
16:05-16:25 Comments: Noboru Ishikawa (Kyoto University) & Michael Feener (Kyoto University)
16:25-16:50 Discussion
17:30-19:00 Reception @ Sky Hall, Toyo University
* Pre-registration and advance payment required.
DAY 2: July 23 (Sun)
10:00-14:30
Session 3. Commodity, People and Frontier: An Alternative Approach to Southeast Asian History in Japan
Chair: Waka Aoyama (Tokyo University)
10:00-10:20 Introduction – “Commodity, People and Nature on the Frontier: An Alternative Approach to Southeast Asian History in Japan” Kazufumi, Nagatsu (Toyo University)
10:20-10:40 “Austronesian Inter-island Networks and Marine Resources Use: Cases of Prehistoric Island Southeast Asia and Oceania” Rintaro Ono (National Museum of Ethnology)
10:40-11:00 “Trepang and Manilamen: Sea Cucumbers beyond Southeast Asian History” Jun Akamine (Hitotsubashi University)
11:00-11:20 “Mangroves in History: Gates of Parallel World in Vietnam” Shinji Suzuki (Kinki University)
11:20-11:30 Tea Break
11:30-11:50 “Gambir and its Frontiers in the Southeast Asian Archipelago” Kei Nishikawa (Ishinomaki-Senshu University)
11:50-12:10 “Complex Realities of Sweet Bananas: A Commodity for Thought on the Crossroad between the Philippines and Japan” Masako Ishii (Rikkyo University)
12:10-13:20 Lunch Break
* Participants are advised to bring their own lunch; there is no cafeteria or convenience store on campus open on Sunday.
13:20-13:30 Comments from Southeast Asian Studies in Japan: Noriyuki Osadai
13:30-13:40 Comments from Commodity and Nature Studies: Farizah Zakaria
13:40-14:00 Comments: Anthony Reid
14:00-14:20 Open Discussion
14:20-14:30 Closing Remarks: Atsushi Ota
————————————————————————————————————————-
本イベントは、東南アジア学会と海域アジア・オセアニア研究(MAPS)東洋大学拠点との共催です。
企画者:今村真央、太田淳、長田紀之、長津一史
お問い合わせ:今村真央(山形大学)
Organizing Committee: Masao Imamura, Atsushi Ota, Noriyuki Osada, Kazufumi Nagatsu
for inquiries please contact: Masao Imamura (Yamagata University) imamura[at]human.kj.yamagata-u.ac.jp