About Michele Ford

Professor Michele Ford is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses labor and other social movements in Southeast Asia. Michele is the author of From Migrant to Worker: Global Unions and Temporary Labor Migration in Asia (Cornell ILR Press 2019) and Workers and Intellectuals: NGOs, Trade Unions and the Indonesian Labour Movement (NUS/Hawaii/KITLV 2009), and co-author of Labor and Politics in Indonesia (Cambridge 2020). She is also the editor of Social Activism in Southeast Asia (Routledge 2013) and the co-editor of several volumes including Activists in Transition: Progressive Politics in Democratic Indonesia (Cornell SEAP 2019) and Beyond Oligarchy: Wealth, Power, and Contemporary Indonesian Politics (Cornell SEAP 2014). In addition to her research work, Michele is the President of RC44 (Labor Movements) of the International Sociological Association. She has also engaged in extensive consultancy work for the international labor movement and the Australian government. She currently sits on the Advisory Boards of the Indonesia Project (Australian National University), the Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore) and the Global Asia Research Center (National Taiwan University).

Professor Michele Ford is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Michele's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Michele:

Charlotte Setijadi, "Memories of Unbelonging: Ethnic Chinese Identity Politics in Post-Suharto Indonesia" (U Hawaii Press, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Memories of Unbelonging

Charlotte Setijadi
Hosted by Michele Ford

The ethnic Chinese have had a long and problematic history in Indonesia, commonly stereotyped as a market-dominant minority with dubious political loy…

Thomas Baudinette, "Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

January 16, 2024

Boys Love Media in Thailand

Thomas Baudinette
Hosted by Michele Ford

Thomas Baudinette's Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023) explores the contou…

Eve Warburton, "Resource Nationalism in Indonesia: Booms, Big Business, and the State" (Cornell UP, 2023)

November 15, 2023

Resource Nationalism in Indonesia

Eve Warburton
Hosted by Michele Ford

In Resource Nationalism in Indonesia: Booms, Big Business, and the State (Cornell UP, 2023), Eve Warburton traces nationalist policy trajectories in I…

Kathrin Eitel, "Recycling Infrastructures in Cambodia: Circularity, Waste, and Urban Life in Phnom Penh" (Routledge, 2022)

September 21, 2023

Recycling Infrastructures in Cambodia

Kathrin Eitel
Hosted by Michele Ford
Listen:

Kathrin Eitel's book Recycling Infrastructures in Cambodia: Circularity, Waste, and Urban Life in Phnom Penh (Routledge, 2022) examines the recycling …

Jenna Grant, "Fixing the Image: Ultrasound and the Visuality of Care in Phnom Penh" (U Washington Press, 2022)

July 15, 2023

Fixing the Image

Jenna Grant
Hosted by Michele Ford

Jenna Grant is a cultural anthropologist from the University of Washington and author of Fixing the Image: Ultrasound and the Visuality of Care in Phn…

Tamas Wells, "Narrating Democracy in Myanmar: The Struggle Between Activists, Democratic Leaders and Aid Workers" (Amsterdam UP, 2021)

May 15, 2023

Narrating Democracy in Myanmar

Tamas Wells
Hosted by Michele Ford

Tamas Wells' book Narrating Democracy in Myanmar: The Struggle Between Activists, Democratic Leaders and Aid Workers (Amsterdam UP, 2021) analyses wha…

Sango Mahanty, "Unsettled Frontiers: Market Formation in the Cambodia-Vietnam Borderlands" (Cornell UP, 2022)

March 15, 2023

Unsettled Frontiers

Sango Mahanty
Hosted by Michele Ford

Like other global frontiers, the Cambodia-Vietnam borderlands are a hotspot for migration, land claims, and markets for newly introduced commodities. …

Benjamin Hegarty, "The Made-Up State: Technology, Trans Femininity, and Citizenship in Indonesia" (Cornell UP, 2022)

January 15, 2023

The Made-Up State

Benjamin Hegarty
Hosted by Michele Ford

In The Made-Up State: Technology, Trans Femininity, and Citizenship in Indonesia (Cornell UP, 2022), Benjamin Hegarty contends that warias, one of Ind…

Natali Pearson, "Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck" (U Hawaii Press, 2022)

November 15, 2022

Belitung

Natali Pearson
Hosted by Michele Ford

In 1998, the Belitung, a ninth-century western Indian Ocean–style vessel, was discovered in Indonesian waters. Onboard was a full cargo load, likely i…

David Reeve, "To Remain Myself: The History of Onghokham" (ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series / NUS Press, 2022)

September 15, 2022

To Remain Myself

David Reeve
Hosted by Michele Ford

To Remain Myself: The History of Onghokham (ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series / NUS Press, 2022) is a particularly vivid biography of a remarkab…

Elisabeth Kramer, "The Candidate's Dilemma: Anticorruptionism and Money Politics in Indonesian Election Campaigns" (Cornell UP, 2022)

July 15, 2022

The Candidate's Dilemma

Elisabeth Kramer
Hosted by Michele Ford

In The Candidate's Dilemma: Anticorruptionism and Money Politics in Indonesian Election Campaigns (Cornell UP, 2022), Elisabeth Kramer tells the story…

Holly High, "Projectland: Life in a Lao Socialist Model Village" (U Hawaii Press, 2021)

May 16, 2022

Projectland

Holly High
Hosted by Michele Ford

In Projectland: Life in a Lao Socialist Model Village (U Hawaii Press, 2021), anthropologist Holly High combines an engaging first-person narrative of…

Jane M. Ferguson, "Repossessing Shanland: Myanmar, Thailand, and a Nation-State Deferred" (U Wisconsin Press, 2021)

March 15, 2022

Repossessing Shanland

Jane M. Ferguson
Hosted by Michele Ford

Around five million people across Southeast Asia identify as Shan. Though the Shan people were promised an independent state in the 1947 Union of Burm…

N. J. Enfield, "The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

January 14, 2022

The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia

N. J. Enfield
Hosted by Michele Ford

Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the most fascinating and complex cultural and linguistic areas in the world. This book provides a rich and comprehen…

Anjalee Cohen, "Youth Culture and Identity in Northern Thailand: Fitting in and Sticking Out" (Routledge, 2020)

November 1, 2021

Youth Culture and Identity in Northern Thailand

Anjalee Cohen
Hosted by Michele Ford

Youth Culture and Identity in Northern Thailand (Routledge, 2020) examines how young people in urban Chiang Mai construct an identity at the intersect…

Tanya Jakimow, "Susceptibility in Development: Micropolitics of Local Development in India and Indonesia" (Oxford UP, 2020)

September 1, 2021

Susceptibility in Development

Tanya Jakimow
Hosted by Michele Ford

Tanya Jakimow's book Susceptibility in Development: Micropolitics of Local Development in India and Indonesia (Oxford UP, 2020) offers a novel approac…

Nicole Curato, "Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedies to Deliberative Action" (Oxford UP, 2019)

July 1, 2021

Democracy in a Time of Misery

Nicole Curato
Hosted by Michele Ford

Nicole Curato's Democracy in a Time of Misery: From Spectacular Tragedies to Deliberative Action (Oxford UP, 2019) investigates how democratic politic…

E. Aspinall and W. Berenschot, "Democracy for Sale: Elections, Clientelism, and the State in Indonesia" (Cornell UP, 2019)

May 3, 2021

Democracy for Sale

Edward Aspinall and Ward Berenschot
Hosted by Michele Ford

In post-Suharto Indonesian politics the exchange of patronage for political support is commonplace. Clientelism saturates the political system through…

Lynette J. Chua, "The Politics of Love in Myanmar: LGBT Mobilization and Human Rights as a Way of Life" (Stanford UP, 2018)

February 15, 2021

The Politics of Love in Myanmar

Lynette J. Chua
Hosted by Michele Ford

The Politics of Love in Myanmar: LGBT Mobilization and Human Rights as a Way of Life (Stanford UP, 2018) offers an intimate ethnographic account of a …

B. J. Tria Kerkvliet, "Speaking Out in Vietnam: Public Political Criticism in a Communist Party-Ruled Nation" (Cornell UP, 2019)

December 31, 2020

Speaking Out in Vietnam

Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet
Hosted by Michele Ford

Since 1990 public political criticism has evolved into a prominent feature of Vietnam's political landscape. Over the last three decades, such critici…

Fighting for Social Justice: The Politics of Aid and Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace – Dr. Kristy Ward

October 8, 2020

Fighting for Social Justice

Kristy Ward
Hosted by Michele Ford

Around the world, social justice movements have exposed the pervasive extent of gender-based violence in the workplace. While women’s empowerment has …