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I I A S N E W S L E T T E R # 4 7 S p r i n g 0 0 8
I I A S R E S E A R C H
Programmes
Asia Design
This programme will consist of a number of individual projects related
to graphic design - from classical graphics in art and communication to
the rapidly emerging fields of cyberculture (New Media, videogames, etc.)
and animanga (anime and manga) in East Asia - and architectural design
in Asian megacities. The projects address both the physical and social
aspects of design.
Institutes involved: IIAS, Modern East Asia Research Centre (MEARC),
Delft School of Design (DSD)
Sponsored by: IIAS and Asiascape
Coordinators: Prof. Chris Goto-Jones and Dr Manon Osseweijer
c.goto-jones@let.leidenuniv.nl
m.osseweijer@let.leidenuniv.nl
Catalogue of Sanksrit manuscripts
In 1929, two crates of 17th and 18th century Sanskrit manuscripts arrived
at the Kern Institute, University of Leiden. This Gonda/IIAS project is pre-
paring a scientific catalogue of the roughly 500 South Indian Sanskrit man-
uscripts written on palm leaves in ancient Indian scripts such as Grantha,
Telugu, Malayalam, Nagari and Nandinagari.
Coordinator: Saraju Rath
s.rath@let.leidenuniv.nl
Cross-border marriages in East and Southeast Asia
The past decade has seen a rapid increase in the intra-Asia flow of brides,
particularly between Southeast and East Asia. While in Europe interme-
diated marriages continue to be seen as a form of the commodification
of women, recent scholarship in intra-Asia cross-border marriages chal-
lenges this dominant view.
Coordinator: Melody Lu
m.lu@let.leidenuniv.nl
Energy programme in Central Asia - EPA
Established in September 2007, this programme addresses the domestic
and geopolitical aspects of energy security for China and the European
Union.
The geopolitical aspects involve analysing the effects of competition for
access to oil and gas resources and the security of energy supply among
the main global consumer countries of the EU and China. The domestic
aspects involve analysing domestic energy demand and supply, energy
efficiency policies, and the deployment of renewable energy resources.
Within this programme scholars from the Netherlands and China will visit
each other’s institutes and will jointly publish their research outcomes.
Institutes involved: Institute of West Asian and African Studies (IWAAS) of
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)
Sponsored by: KNAW China Exchange Programme and IIAS
Coordinator: Dr Mehdi Parvizi Amineh
m.p.amineh@uva.nl
Illegal but licit: transnational flows and permissive
polities in Asia - IBL
This research programme analyses forms of globalisation-from-below,
transnational practices considered acceptable (licit) by participants but
which are often illegal in a formal sense. It explores limitations of ‘seeing
like a state’, and instead privileges the perspectives of participants in these
illegal but licit transnational flows.
Sponsored by: NWO and ASiA
Coordinator: Willem van Schendel
h.w.vanschendel@uva.nl
Socio-genetic marginalisation in Asia - SMAP
The development and application of new biomedical and genetic technolo-
gies have important socio-political implications. This NOW/ASSR/IIAS
research programme aims to gain insight into the ways in which the use
of and monopoly over genetic information shape and influence popula-
tion policies, environmental ethics and biomedical and agricultural prac-
tices in various Asian religious and secular cultures and across national
boundaries.
Sponsored by: NWO, IIAS, ASSR
Coordinator: Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner
m.sleeboom-faulkner@sussex.ac.uk
NEW: Searching for sustainability in Eastern
Indonesian waters
The threat of biodiversity depletion calls for the establishment of Marine
Protected Areas (MPAs), especially in rich natural environments like
the marine space of eastern Indonesia. Most approaches to the estab-
lishment of MPAs, however, are science-based. Several interconnected
developments demand a constructive analysis of the societal impacts of a
predominantly technical and science oriented approach to the establish-
ment of MPAs around the world.This new programme focuses on MPAs
in eastern Indonesia (Wakatobi, Komodo, Derawan, Raja Ampat) and
will facilitate the exchange of Dutch,Indonesian, German and Austrlian
researchers. The aims of the programme are to (1) engage in a meth-
odological training workshop for the three Indonesian partners plus six
of their colleagues/staff members and (2) to collectively write a research
proposal (2009-2013) on the social-economic and governance conditions
of Marine Protected Area development.
Sponsored by: KNAW, IIAS, Wageningen University, Australian Research
Council, Center for Tropical Marine Ecology Bremen (ZMT), Germany
Partner institutes: Wageningen University, Indonesian Institute of Scienc-
es (LIPI), Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), The Nature Conservancy,
Murdoch University (Perth, Australia), ZMT (Bremen, Germany)
Coordinators: Prof. Leontine Visser (WUR/IIAS) and
Dr Manon Osseweijer (IIAS)
m.osseweijer@let.leidenuniv.nl
Networks
Ageing in Asia and Europe
During the 21st century it is projected that there will be more than one
billion people aged 60 and over, with this figure climbing to nearly two bil-
lion by 2050, three-quarters of whom will live in the developing world. The
bulk of the ageing population will reside in Asia. Ageing in Asia is attrib-
utable to the marked decline in fertility shown over the last 40 years and
the steady increase in life-expectancy. In Western Europe, ageing popula-
tions developed at a slower pace and could initially be incorporated into
welfare policy provisions. Currently governments are seeking ways to trim
and reduce government financed social welfare and health-care, including
pensions systems, unleashing substantial public debate and insecurity.
Many Asian governments are facing comparable challenges and dilem-
mas, involving both the state and the family, but are confronted with a
much shorter time-span. This research programme, in short, sheds light
on how both Asian and European nations are reviewing the social contract
with their citizens.
Research network involved: Réseau de Recherche Internationale sur l’Age,
la Citoyenneté et l’Intégration Socio-économique (REIACTIS)
Sponsored by: IIAS
Coordinator: Prof. Carla Risseeuw
c.risseeuw@let.leidenuniv.nl
ABIA South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology
index
The Annual Bibliography of Indina Archaeology is an annotated biblio-
graphic database for publications covering South and Southeast Asian art
and archaeology. The project was launched by IIAS in 1997 and is currently
coordinated by the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology of the University
of Kelaniya, Colombo, Sri Lanka. The database is freely accessible at www.
abia.net. Extracts from the database are also available as bibliographies,
published in a series by Brill. The project receives scientific support from
UNESCO.
Coordinators: Ellen Raven and Gerda Theuns-de Boer
e.m.raven@let.leidenuniv.nl
www.abia.net
Islam in Indonesia: the dissemination of religious
authority in the 20th and early 21st centuries
Forms and transformations of religious authority among the Indonesian
Muslim community are the focus of this research programme. The term
authority relates to persons and books as well as various other forms of
written and non-written references. Special attention is paid to the produc-
tion, reproduction and dissemination of religious authority in the fields
of four sub-programmes: ulama (religious scholars) and fatwas; tarekat
(mystical orders); dakwah (propogation of the faith); and education.
Coordinator: Nico Kaptein
n.j.g.kaptein@let.leidenuniv.nl
IIAS Research
‘Trauma, Memory and Amnesia’
Given by Ong Keng Sen
Thursday 30 October, 15.30
Lutherse Kerk, Amsterdam
Ong Keng Sen (1963) is world renowned theatre maker and Director
of TheatreWorks, an international performance company based in
Singapore. TheatreWorks is known for its reinvention of traditional
performance through a juxtaposition of cultures. It is an organisation
dedicated to the development of contemporary arts in Singapore,
and a politics of interculturalism in Asia, thereby contributing to the
evolution of an Asian identity and aesthetics for the 21st Century.
In his lecture Ong Keng Sen will explain how theatre contributes to
coping with traumatic experiences. He will give examples of his work
with Cambodian dancers, and will address themes of 20th century
history which are painful or taboo, but which can find expression
through theatre (Vietnamese boatpeople; Rape of Nanjing, Chinese
in Indonesia).
Alongside the IIAS Annual Lecture, Ong Keng Sen will give a
masterclass for MA students in International Performance Studies
at the Department of Theater Studies at the University of Amsterdam
on Friday 31 October.
For information: s.bala@uva.nl.
The Annual Lectures of the International Institute for Asian Studies are
given by authorities in their field and address issues of contemporary
relevance for developments in Asia and the world. The lectures are open
to academics, journalists, politicians, artists, and anyone with an interest
in Asia. The 2008 lecture is co-organised with the Praemium Erasmianum
Foundation, Amsterdam, on the occasion of its 50
th
anniversary, featuring
the them of ‘the New Cosmopolitan’.
Previous IIAS Annual Lectures include:
Chris Patten (2001), Pransenjit Duara (2004), Rem Koolhaas (2005).
IIAS Annual lecture 2008
For details: www.iias.nl