166-218 Colonial/Postcolonial S.E.Asian Politics

Usually a first-year politics or first-year Asian studies subject.

This subject is structured to foster an approach to the study of Southeast Asian politics and history that is comparative, interdisciplinary, and historiographically grounded. It introduces students to the dominant and emergent scholarship on Southeast Asian politics, while at the same time problematising established ways of studying Area Studies and 'politics'. Students who complete this subject should have a more nuanced and rigorous understanding of the resilience of traditional ideas of power, indigenous belief systems and local knowledges; how the nation-state attempts to control and regulate life at the level of the family, identity, ethnicity, religion, and minority groups. Students should be able to engage in historically specific, non-generalising, and comparative frames of reference for understanding 'politics' and 'power' - and the ways in which these are dis/engaged, wielded, organized, resisted, ignored, transformed, subverted, co-opted, and/or transcended in Southeast Asian communities.

• be able to research through the competent use of the library and other information sources, and be able to define areas of inquiry and methods of research in the preparation of essays;

• be able to conceptualise theoretical problems, form judgements and arguments and communicate critically, creatively and theoretically through essay writing, tutorial discussion and presentations;

• be able to communicate knowledge ideologically and economically through essay writing and tutorial discussion;

• be able to participate in teamwork through small group discussions;

• be able to manage and organise workloads for recommended reading, the completion of essays and assignments and examination revision.

An in-class test of 1000 words 40% (due mid-semester) and a research essay of 3000 words 60% (due during the examination period).

A subject reader will be available.