New Books in Southeast Asian Studies

Sumit K. Mandal, “Becoming Arab: Creole Histories and Modern Identity in the Malay World” (Cambridge UP, 2018)

Sumit K. Mandal
Becoming Arab
Creole Histories and Modern Identity in the Malay World
Cambridge University Press, 2018

New Books in History New Books in Islamic Studies New Books in Middle Eastern Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Religion & Faith New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network March 10, 2020 Nick Cheesman

In the wake of the so-called war on terror we’ve become accustomed to racialized portrayals of the Arab as an inflexible and threatening other to the mores and ways of the non-Arab world. Although these portrayals are new in their historical contingencies and sociological particulars, the manner in which Arabs... Read More

Jerome Whitington, “Anthropogenic Rivers: The Production of Uncertainty in Lao Hydropower” (Cornell UP, 2019)

Jerome Whitington
Anthropogenic Rivers
The Production of Uncertainty in Lao Hydropower
Cornell University Press, 2019

New Books in Anthropology New Books in Environmental Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Science & Technology New Books in Science, Technology, and Society New Books in Sociology New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network March 6, 2020 Faizah Zakaria

Jerome Whitington‘s Anthropogenic Rivers: The Production of Uncertainty in Lao Hydropower (Cornell University Press, 2019) examines the dynamics and discourses centered around the development of hydropower dams in the Mekong River Basin. Through deep and connected ethnographies, the book traces how such projects create ecologically uncertain environments and the surprising... Read More

Sher Banu Khan, “Sovereign Women in a Muslim Kingdom: The Sultanahs of Aceh, 1641-1699” (Cornell UP, 2018)

Sher Banu Khan
Sovereign Women in a Muslim Kingdom
The Sultanahs of Aceh, 1641-1699
Cornell University Press, 2018

New Books in Gender Studies New Books in History New Books in Islamic Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies February 28, 2020 Faizah Zakaria

In her book, Sovereign Women in a Muslim Kingdom: The Sultanahs of Aceh, 1641-1699 (Cornell University Press, 2018), Sher Banu Khan provides a rare and empirically rich view of queenship in early modern maritime Southeast Asia. Four women ruled the Muslim realm of Aceh in succession during the second half... Read More

Christopher J. Shepherd, “Haunted Houses and Ghostly Encounters: Ethnography and Animism in East Timor, 1860-1975” (NIAS Press, 2019)

Christopher J. Shepherd
Haunted Houses and Ghostly Encounters
Ethnography and Animism in East Timor, 1860-1975
NUS Press, 2019

New Books in Anthropology New Books in History New Books in Intellectual History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Religion New Books in Religion & Faith New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network February 18, 2020 Patrick Jory

Anyone who tries to understand the history, religion, and especially the “culture” of Southeast Asia, will soon encounter the phenomenon of animism, the belief that landscapes, natural objects, trees and plants, animals, and deceased ancestors, possess spirits that influence the human world. Yet “animism” is a Western analytical category, coined... Read More

Timothy Barnard
Imperial Creatures
Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942
NUS Press, 2019

New Books in British Studies New Books in Environmental Studies New Books in History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Science & Technology New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network February 7, 2020 Faizah Zakaria

In Imperial Creature: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819-1942 (National University of Singapore Press, 2019), Timothy Barnard explores the more-than-human entanglements between empires and the creatures they govern. What is the relationship between the subjugation of human communities and that of animals? How did various interactions with animals... Read More

Howard Jones, “My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness” (Oxford UP, 2017)

Howard Jones
My Lai
Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness
Oxford University Press, 2017

New Books in American Studies New Books in History New Books in Military History New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network February 7, 2020 Michael G. Vann

In his book My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness (Oxford UP, 2017), Dr. Howard Jones describes how on March 16th, 1968, several units of American soldiers descended upon a collection of small villages in Central Vietnam, now collectively known as My Lai. In the space of a... Read More

Ivan V. Small, “Currencies of Imagination: Channeling Money and Chasing Mobility in Vietnam” (Cornell UP, 2018)

Ivan V. Small
Currencies of Imagination
Channeling Money and Chasing Mobility in Vietnam
Cornell University Press, 2018

New Books in Anthropology New Books in Asian American Studies New Books in Peoples & Places New Books in Politics & Society New Books in Sociology New Books in Southeast Asian Studies New Books Network February 6, 2020 Reighan Gillam

Overseas Vietnamese are estimated to remit 15 billion dollars annually to family that remains in Vietnam. Ivan V. Small moves beyond the numbers to examine how remittances affect sociality and human relations in his book Currencies of Imagination: Channeling Money and Chasing Mobility in Vietnam (Cornell University Press, 2018). Although... Read More