|
|||
|
IIAS News
Dr Peycam is a historian by training. He received his MA (DEA in French) from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne University in Paris. At the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, he wrote his PhD thesis: Intellectuals and Political Commitment in Vietnam: the Emergence of a Public Sphere in Colonial Saigon (1916-1928). From 1999 to 2009, Dr Peycam was the (founding) Executive Director of the Center of Khmer Studies in Siem Reap. This research centre supports the largest academic network on Khmer and Mainland Southeast Asian studies in the world. As Director, Dr Peycam gained extensive experience in institution building, management, designing and overseeing multidisciplinary programmes, raising funds from public and private sources as well as organising community-oriented initiatives and civil society support-programmes. Dr Peycam’s academic interests lie in modern Vietnam and Southeast Asia. His current research at the Institute for South-East Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore is a broader reflection on postcolonial and post-conflict situations that also includes other regions of Asia as well as Africa. This intellectual trajectory stems from an early interest in phenomena such as colonialism and modes of cultural resistance to it; the creative role of the City as a privileged environment for new forms of intercultural interaction; the importance of cultural representations from tangible and intangible heritage to institutional knowledge production; and the challenge of building and maintaining genuine cross-cultural, transnational bridges out of these contexts. Dr Peycam sees these intellectual interests as having implications for concrete policies in today’s postcolonial societies. Dr Philippe Peycam will combine his position of Director of IIAS with his academic work. The Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Development (Faculty of Law). Title PhD project: Application deadline: 1 Februari 2010 On Thursday 17 December 2009, Prof.dr. Henk Schulte Nordholt (Chairman of the IIAS Board) awarded Ms Marloes van Houten (University of Amsterdam) the first IIAS MA Thesis Prize in the field of Asian Studies written at a Dutch university. Marlous van Houten won the prize, which consists of an IIAS fellowship, for her thesis entitled "Nepal's Civil War and its Impact. Conflict impact, social capital and resilient institutions in the CPN-Maoist heartland communities of Nepal". Her thesis, which was supervised by Prof.dr. Gerd Junne (University of Amsterdam), is a successful combination of political science and anthropology. Marloes van Houten investigates the post conflict situation in a relatively isolated region in Nepal. She combines a theoretically informed political anlysis with a good sense for local variations and a bottom up approach which is illustrated by moving life histories, while she also provides relevant policy recommendations. An impressive achievement.
The National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) is a multidisciplinary research institute located in Bangalore. We are looking for two Ph.D. students and one senior researcher to work in a new research programme of the School of Social Sciences, entitled ‘Provincial Globalisation: The Impact of Reverse Transnational Flows in India’s Regional Towns’. This is an international collaborative programme of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR), University of Amsterdam (UvA), and NIAS, beginning in January 2010. The doctoral fellowships will be for four years beginning in August 2010 and the research position for two years beginning in May 2010. Miriam L. Brenner (University of Amsterdam), Hammer, Sickle and Igil. A study of the evolution of Tuvan music. Farabi Fakih (Leiden University), Political Java in Modern times. The political thoughts of Tjipto Mangoenkoesoemo and Noto Soeroto 1908-1930. Marloes van Houten (University of Amsterdam), Nepal's Civil War and its Impact. Conflict impact, social capital and resilient institutions in the CPN-Maoist heartland communities of Nepal. Rosalien van der Poel (Leiden University), Rijk Palet. Chinese exportschilderkunst overzee. Dermott J.Walsh (Leiden University), Re-Visiting Nishida's Ethnics. The influence of confucianism in An Inquiry into the Good.
IIAS has become partner in a new network called JARAK, the Jatropha Research and Knowledge network on claims and facts concerning socially sustainable jatropha production in Indonesia. Jatropha is crop that seems very promising: it can be used as a clean non-fossil diesel fuel and it can provide new income sources in marginal areas that will grow the crop. The promise has already inspired millions of dollars of realised investment in jatropha plantations and many plans for more announced in newspapers and conferences. In only a few years, an ordinary hedge plant known in Indonesia as jarak pagar, has been turned into a valuable commodity for energy production: jatropha. What casued this rapid process of commoditisation? What are the environmental requirements and consequences? How can local producers and labourers benefit from the prospective profits?
IIAS celebrated a milestone recently with the publication of the 50th issue of the IIAS Newsletter. And what better way to mark the occasion than by unveiling a new look and a new name for the newspaper. 'The Newsletter', as it is now called, was re-launched on 8 April at the Snouck Hurgronje Huis in Leiden. Among the guests was Prof. Paul Van der Heijden, Rector Magnificus and Chairman of the Leiden University Board. Prof. Van der Heijden received the first copy of Newsletter #50 from Editor, Anna Yeadell.
IIAS fellow and former Rubicon researcher Dr Birgit Abels received a grant from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for her project ‘Of Islam, Ancestors and Translocality in Borderlands: Identity negotiation and the performing arts among the Sama Dilaut of Southeast Asia'. Dr Abels isalso guest researcher at the music department of the University of Amsterdam. The project ‘Domestic and Geopolitical Challenges to Energy Security for, China and the European Union', led by Dr Mehdi Amineh, has been extended for another year with financial input from the KNAW China Exchange Programme. IIAS received a grant from the European Commission to establish the Europe-Asia Policy Forum. The project will contribute to engagement between Europe and Asia for effective bi-regional co-operation in addressing policy issues of common concern, in particular those related to the Millennium Development Goals. |
As of 1 April 2010, Dr Philippe Peycam will be the new Director of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS).
