Indian Ocean Studies Embedded: Co-creating Ways Ahead

Roundtable Convenor(s)

• MK

  Mahmood Kooria

  University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• TH

  Tom Hoogervorst

  Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian & Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Netherlands

Roundtable Chair(s)

• PP

  Philippe Peycam

  International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Netherlands

Roundtable Participant(s)

• AP

  Adrian Perkasa

  International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Netherlands
• LP

  Lina Puryanti

  Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia
• IW

  Irfan Wahyudi

  Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia
• MS

  Mathew Senga

  University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• ES

  Eka Srimulyani

  Ar-Raniry State Islamic University, Indonesia
• MI

  Maulana Ibrahim

  Khairun University Ternate, Indonesia

Roundtable Abstract:

This roundtable brings together contributors from diverse institutions from across the globe with shared interests in the combined historical, geographical, environmental, religious, economic and cultural construct of the ‘Indian Ocean’. It builds on earlier conversations held in Zanzibar in 2018 with the aim of establishing an international collaborative platform of individuals, institutions and research centres from the Indian Ocean region and beyond. The present roundtable explores concrete ways to co-establish this inclusive platform to promote and advance the field and support each other pedagogically, intellectually and institutionally.

As the academic and public interest in the Indian Ocean is increasing and several institutions across the world are undertaking individual initiatives to study and research the region, the organisers of the proposed event seek primarily to ensure the effective participation of representatives from countries and regions located on the Indian Ocean coasts and waters along with their other international colleagues. The inclusive platform we envision could serve as an umbrella for centres and scholars with shared academic and intellectual interests to collaborate on multiple activities.

Indian Ocean Studies has now transformed from a field dominated primarily by historians to a more interdisciplinary space with natural scientists, anthropologists, literary critics, artists, community activists and even policy makers taking an active role in shaping research and policy applicable questions. The envisioned platform can bring together these diverse strata of interests into meaningful conversations and develop the idea of the Indian Ocean into an embedded laboratory for the future.

Such a new inter-disciplinary network would disrupt certain established paradigms and orthodoxies including the linguistic (English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Malay) and geographic (Western Indian Ocean, Eastern Indian Ocean, Island Indian Ocean) divisions within Indian Ocean Studies, focusing instead on ways to foster collaborative academic and civic initiatives. Critically, members would co-develop academic and public awareness on ways to think, work, and write within a transregional Indian Ocean framework. The major beneficiaries of the platform should be institutions from the region as well as graduate students, early-career scholars, but also cultural and civic actors equally involved in the promotion of Indian Ocean as a natural human and ecological continuum. The platform’s activities should also help them to identify and formulate sustainable research and civic projects related to the Indian Ocean on a medium and long term. The ensuing networks could help open up additional opportunities for collaborative work among regional organisations, institutes and universities.

Roundtable sponsored by: International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), the Netherlands
Airlangga Institute of Indian Ocean Crossroads (AIIOC), Surabaya, Indonesia
University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Institute for Social Sciences, Humanities and Oceanic Research (I-SHORE), India
International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (ICAIOS), Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Leiden Centre for Indian Ocean Studies (LCIOS), the Netherlands