Memorial Lectures
This lecture series is presented by the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies and Faculty of Arts at Monash University honouring the memory of the late
Herb Feith - teacher, scholar, activist and humanitarian.
2011 2010 2007 2006 2005 2004 2002
The seventh annual Herb Feith Lecture
2 August, 6.30 pm - 8 pm, H1.16, Ground Floor, Building H, Monash University (Caulfield Campus)
‘The Life of Herb Feith: A Personal Reflection from Timor-Leste’
HE. Kirsty Sword Gusmão, Chairwoman of the Alola Foundation and Goodwill Ambassador for Education, Timor-Leste
Kirsty Sword Gusmão grew up in Melbourne and Bendigo and attended Melbourne University where she completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), majoring
in Indonesian and Italian, and a Diploma of Education.
In 1991, after working as an Administrative Secretary with the Overseas Service Bureau (Australian Volunteers International), she joined the Refugee
Studies Program at Oxford University as Assistant to the Development Coordinator. During 1991, she travelled to East Timor as the
Researcher/Interpreter the Yorkshire Television documentary film (In Cold Blood: The massacre of East Timor) on political and social developments in
the territory.
She lived and worked as a teacher and human rights campaigner in Jakarta, Indonesia from 1992-1996, during these years her work for the East Timorese
independence cause intensified and brought her into contact with the independence leader, Xanana Gusmão, who was serving a 20-year sentence in a
Jakarta jail and whom she married in July, 2000.
She has lived in East Timor since October 1999 and is the founder and chairwoman of the Alola Foundation which she established in 2001 to address the
needs of East Timorese women and their families. Information about the work of the Alola Foundation can be found on the website.
Kirsty was appointed by the President Dr. Jose Ramos Horta as Goodwill Ambassador for Education in October 2007. This appointment was in recognition of
Kirsty's tireless efforts to date and to formalize future endeavours in addressing the educational priorities of Timor-Leste.
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The sixth annual Herb Feith Lecture
27 October
‘Indonesia at 65: The alchemy of nation building and the formation of modern Indonesia’
Anthony Reid, Emeritus Professor, Australian National University
Professor Anthony Reid is a Professor (emeritus) at the ANU where he was Professor of History from 1970 to 1999. More recently he was the founding
director of the Asia Research Institute (ARI) and the National University of Singapore (2002-2007) and then Professor of Southeast Asian History at NUS
(2007-2009). Before that he was Professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of Malaya (1965-1970), Yale (1973-4) and the Australian National
University (1970-1999) and then the founding director of the Southeast Asia Center at UCLA (1999-2002). He was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize
in 2002 and was appointed as a Corresponding Fellow at the British Academy in 2008.
Professor Reid is the author of numerous scholarly papers and has edited or co-edited about thirty books, mostly addressing particular themes in
Southeast Asian or Indonesian history. His books include The Indonesian National Revolution (1974); The Blood of the People: Revolution and the End of
Traditional Rule in Northern Sumatra (1979); Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, c.1450-1680 (2 vols. 1988-93); An Indonesian Frontier: Acehnese and
other histories of Sumatra (2004); Imperial Alchemy: Nationalism and political identity in Southeast Asia (2010), and the forthcoming To Nation by
Revolution: Indonesia in the 20th Century.
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The fifth annual Herb Feith Lecture
22 November
Jamie Mackie, Emeritus Professor, The Australian National University & John Legge AO, Emeritus Professor, Monash University
‘Observing Indonesia - then and now’
Emeritus Professor John Legge AO was Foundation Professor of History and Dean of Arts, 1978-1986, at Monash University and Emeritus Professor Jamie
Mackie was Foundation Professor in the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National
University. Both first worked in Indonesia in the 1950s, not long after Herb Feith. In the 1960s and 1970s, all three worked at Monash University,
establishing its Centre of Southeast Asian Studies in 1964.
In this lecture, Professors Legge and Mackie reflect on Indonesia, as they have observed its politics, history, society and relations with Australia
over more than fifty years. Prof John Legge's books include Sukarno: a political biography (3rd ed., 2003), Indonesia (3rd ed., 1980)
and Democracy in Indonesia, 1950s and 1990s (joint ed., 1994). Jamie Mackie has just completed a Lowy Institute paper with the title Australia
and Indonesia, Current problems: future prospects - one of the few sustained analyses of the relationship between our two countries yet published. In
his talk, he will summarise and enlarge upon various aspects of this study, which analyses the reasons behind the turbulence in bilateral relations
over the last decade and whether it is likely to continue. Prof Mackie's previous publications are Bandung 1955: Non-Alignment and Afro-Asian
Solidarity (2005), Konfrontasi: the Indonesia-Malaysia dispute, 1963-1966 (1974), The Chinese in Indonesia (ed., 1975), Indonesia: the making of a nation (joint ed., 1980).
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The fourth annual Herb Feith Lecture
30 November
‘Contemplating Violence in Indonesia’
Dr Ruth McVey, Emeritus Reader in Southeast Asian Politics at the University of London
Ruth McVey received her PhD in Government at Cornell University and subsequently held positions at Yale University, the Center for International
Studies at MIT, Cornell University and the School of Oriental & African Studies at the University of London.
Her early work concentrated on the history of the Indonesian Communist movement and the general relationship between ideology and social change in
Indonesia. Later she studied social and ideological transformation in rural southern Thailand and the rise of the Southeast Asian business-political
elite.
Among her principal publications are “The Rise of Indonesian Communism” (1965), “Southeast Asian Transitions” (1978), “Southeast Asian Capitalists”
(1992) and “Money and Power in Provincial Thailand” (2000). In October 2005 Professor McVey was awarded the Asian Pacific Forum, Awaji Conference
Japan, 4th Iue Asia Pacific Culture Prize.
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The third annual Herb Feith Lecture
4 August
‘Can Indonesia hold? Unity & diversity revisited’
Dr Joan Hardjono, Human Geographer, Universitas Parahyangan, Bandung
Australian by birth, Joan first went to Indonesia as a Volunteer Graduate and taught in Semarang during 1957-58. She married and stayed on in
Indonesia, teaching in the English Department of the Faculty of Arts at Padjadjaran State University in Bandung from 1960. She took a doctorate in
human geography from the University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia. A prominent scholar in her field, Dr Joan Hardjono has written
extensively on environmental issues, transmigration, poverty and rural conditions in Indonesia. She has also worked as a social assessment consultant,
undertaking studies for various international institutions.
She is a member of the Board of Governors of the SMERU Research Institute, Jakarta, and a member of the International Advisory Board of the Bulletin of
Indonesian Economic Studies. She edited Indonesia:
Resources, Ecology, and Environment (1991) and co-edited Labour: Sharing in the Benefits of Growth? (1993) and Development in Eastern Indonesia
(1996). More recently, she co-authored People, Poverty and Livelihoods: Links for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Indonesia (2002).
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The second annual Herb Feith Lecture
28 June
‘Divisive Modernity: Thoughts on Southeast Asian History’
Wang Gungwu, Professor and Director, East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore
Professor Wang (PhD History, University of London) is a specialist in Chinese Overseas, Chinese History, Nationalism & Migrations in the Asian
region. He was Chairman of the Institute of East Asian Political Economy (1996-1997) before it was reconstituted as The East Asian Institute and is
also Faculty Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore (NUS). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong
Kong from 1986 to 1995, and is an Emeritus Professor and former Director of the Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies, Australian National
University. He was a close friend and colleague of Herb Feith.
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The inaugural Herb Feith Lecture
7 November
Dan Lev, Emeritus Professor Department of Political Science at The University of Washington
Dan Lev’s lecture was revised and published as an article in Asian Studies Review, vol 29, no. 4, pp. 345-356, Dec 2005. His presentation was
entitled Misunderstanding the politics of Indonesia, but for the subsequent publication he used his preferred title ‘Conceptual fiiters and
obfuscation in the study of Indonesian politics’
Daniel S Lev (PhD, Cornell University) sadly died in July 2006.
He was a specialist in the comparative politics, legal systems and human rights of Southeast Asia. His book Islamic Courts in Indonesia (University of
California Press, 1972) is published in English and Indonesian. Among his other publications are The Transition to Guided Democracy, 1966; Hukum dan
Politik di Indonesia [Law and Politics in Indonesia], 1990, a collection of his essays in Indonesian translation; Legal Evolution and Political
Authority in Indonesia, 2000, a collection of pieces on law; and articles and essays on Indonesian and Malaysian politics, legal institutions and human
rights. Professor Lev was a longstanding colleague and close friend of Herb Feith.
Read about Dan Lev's and Herb Feith's friendship Professor Dan Lev (PDF Format)
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