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A Sea of Islands: Re-Imagining Southeast Asia in the Pacific

Course Description: This is a course about Oceania (the Pacific Island nations and territories) and island Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines) and how we imagine these places and their peoples. It is focused on contemporary issues of development, nations and global-local interactions in this highly diverse world area. The central theme uniting the course is that of space, as geographical place, site of cultural production, and marginality as an analytical space in which national and ethnic marginalities are both contested sources of political constraint and creativity.
 The course aims to challenge conventional partitioning of the these regions, blurring the boundaries between Oceania and Southeast Asia. It concentrates on issues of: ecology and culture, cultural politics and ethnicities, gender relations, development and migration, colonialism, natural resources extraction,  tourism, indigenous peoples and state interventions.
 Our most important  goal is to challenge our own thinking about people, nationalities, ethnicity, and development on the “margins”. We also seek to refigure the conceptual boundaries between Oceania and Southeast Asia. To do all this, we must listen carefully to the many voices of these spaces.

Required Texts: 
In the Realm of the Diamond Queen. Anna L. Tsing (1993), Princeton Univ. Press.
Remaking Micronesia. David Hanlon (1998), University of Hawaii Press.
Tourism, Ethnicity and the State in Asian and Pacific Societies. M. Picard & R. Wood, editors (1996). University of Hawaii Press.
Grand Valley Dani. Karl Heider (1997). Third edition. Harcourt Brace.

Web Sites: These Internet sites are central. You will be asked to visit them for weekly assignments. You should familiarize yourselves with these resources:
http://www.melanesia.org/westpapua.htm
http://pidp.ewc.hawaii.edu/PIReport
http://library.kcc.hawaii.edu/psiweb
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ogden/piir/index.html

Library Reserves: All readings from library RESERVE are on syllabus as [R], followed by title, author, chapter and pages. Some are on-line. To reach the on-line Reserves, go through the library Voyager page, clicking on “Course Reserve” box, and finding my name (de Burlo) at end of list of instructors. From there, find your chapter or article.

Government Policies and Ethnic Relations in Asia and the Pacific. M.E. Brown and Sumit Ganguly, eds. (1997), MIT Press.
Southeast Asia: A Region in Transition. J. Rigg (1991), Unwin Hyman Press.
The Philippines. D.J. Steinberg (1994), Westview Press.
Imagining Indonesia: Cultural Politics and Political Culture. J. Schiller & B. Martin-Schiller, eds. (1997). Ohio University Press.
East Timor, West Papua/Irian and Indonesia, Keith Suter (1997) Minority Rights Group
Indonesia’s Secret War, Osborne, Robin (1985), Allen & Unwin

Class Requirements and Evaluation:
Class is small, conducted in seminar format. You are required to keep up with the reading material and assignments so that we may all have lively class discussions.
 Participation is mandatory for all. Class meets but once a week, so its is necessary that we all come prepared to take part in discussions of the material. This is a significant part of your grade.
 Paper: One term research paper will be completed during the semester. Topics will be made available for students to select from.
 The paper requires library research. You will do best to get started early, and get assistance from a Reference librarian. Papers will be approximately 15 pages (double spaced). The aim is to explore a particular topic, issue using the ideas, concepts and theory which focus the core readings for the course.
 Assignments: Each week a written assignment will be handed out for the next week’s class, the following Monday. These assignments must be word-processed, and will be graded for grammar and spelling (as well as content).
 Final Exam: A final exam to cover selected aspects and key concepts of the course will be given at the last class (December 4).
 Evaluation:
 Participation: 25%
            Assignments: 30%
            Paper:             20%
 Final Exam:    25%