Area Studies in a Multipolar World: Monsoon Asia and the Indian Ocean Crossroads

Roundtable Convenor(s)

• DH

  David Henley

  Leiden University, Netherlands

Roundtable Chair(s)

• LP

  Lina Puryanti

  Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia

Roundtable Participant(s)

• IW

  Irfan Wahyudi

  Universitas Airlangga, Indonesia
• 

  Marieke Bloembergen

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

  Andrea Acri

  École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris Sciences et Lettres, France
• YC

  Ying-kit Chan

  ICAS Book Prize 2023 - Secretary Chinese Language Edition
  National University of Singapore, Singapore
• RP

  Ronald C. Po

  London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
• TH

  Tom Hoogervorst

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

  Mahmood Kooria

  University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• AP

  Ayos Purwoaji

  Yayasan Biennale Jawa Timur, Indonesia
• SR

  Satriagama Rakantaseta

  Rumah Budaya Malik Ibrahim Sidoarjo, Indonesia

Roundtable Abstract:

Despite widespread criticism of Area Studies as a colonial and Cold War construct reflecting Eurocentric interests, intellectual projects and academic institutions framed in terms of areas of the globe, rather than in terms of specific disciplines, continue to thrive at universities in the Global South, perhaps even more than in in the Global North. Southeast Asian Studies programmes and centres, for instance, have flourished in Southeast Asia under the impetus of political and economic developments since ASEAN expanded in the 1990s to encompass the whole of what Area Studies scholarship had previously identified as the Southeast Asian region. But scholars in the global South are also exploring other regional frames of reference that are less directly inspired by contemporary geopolitics. One of these is the maritime southern rim of Asia, from the Red Sea to the South China Sea: a zone of strong historical interconnectivity sometimes known as Monsoon Asia, the Indian Ocean World, or, in the terminology of Airlangga University's newest Area Studies research centre, the Indian Ocean Crossroads. Our panel brings together researchers from different countries and backgrounds explore the significance, usefulness, and identity of this region of diverse yet cognate cultures, both as a unit of historical analysis and for the study of the contemporary world, and discuss the pros and limits of Ocean-centred, transregional approaches for historical and social sciences.

Roundtable sponsored by: 1. Airlangga Institute of Indian Ocean Crossroads
2. Leiden University