Last November, I visited Pontianak, the capital of the Indonesian province of Kalimantan Barat. This city is inextricably linked with Max Alkadrie (1913-1978), better known as Sultan Hamid II of Pontianak ...
Small states rarely make world headlines, but dramatic political developments in Malta and Suriname over the past few days promptly catapulted these countries into the international limelight...
In Papoea zijn de afgelopen twee maanden mensen overal de straat op gegaan, de grootste publieke demonstratie van Papoea’s sinds jaren. Tientallen Papoea’s vonden daarbij de dood, honderden werden ...
Indonesia is a vast archipelago of 17,508 islands. With more than 265 million inhabitants, about 57% of whom inhabit the volcanic island of Java, it is also the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country. ...
Area Studies is shooting itself in the foot with its singular focus on dissertations. To be clear: during my PhD trajectory I had two wonderful supervisors, whose kindness, erudition and inquisitiveness were ...
I love election day in Indonesia. Particularly the moment the votes are counted. This is the moment when Indonesia’s democracy is at its most likable. Yes, I can worry about the role of money in the elections, the dominance of economic elites...
Blog by Ward Berenschot on newmandala.org. Indonesia’s home affairs minister, Tjahjo Kumolo, made quite some headlines last month when he suggested that Indonesia’s civil servants could “socialise” ...
Who is Panji, and what exactly is a Panji tale? Recently, on 21 September 2018, a special symposium was organised by the Leiden University Library and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) ...
Recently an Indonesian colleague asked me to write a reflection on my fieldwork experiences studying politics in India and Indonesia, for an Indonesian book on ethnographic fieldwork. Here is the English version. Doing research in the field can be tough....
Big conferences are crucial when it comes to meeting the celebrities in your field, and perhaps even striking up short conversations with them. And yet the cultural dynamics of these sites of gathering ...