SOAS University of London

Centre of South East Asian Studies

Centre of South East Asian Studies Members

Centre Chair: Dr Rachel Harrison

Centres and Programmes Office

Members

Anthropology

Dr Kostas Retsikas
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Kostas Retsikas
The anthropology of personhood, social theory and poststructuralism, religion (especially Islam), the anthropology of the gift and of Islamic economics, Indonesia and South East Asia.
  • Tel: 020 7898 4432
  • Email: kr1@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 552
  • Academic Support Hours: By Email Appointment

Development Studies

Dr Tim Pringle
Tim Pringle

East Asia, labour relations in China and Vietnam, trade union reform in China and Vietnam, labour and social movements in China, labour migration in China.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4678
  • Email: tp21@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 260a
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesdays 1.30pm - 3.30pm

Economics

Professor Anne Booth
Anne E Booth
The role of agriculture in the growth process in Indonesia; poverty measurement, determinants and policy; oil and economic policy; economic history of East and South Asia. Teaching includes, South East Asia.
Professor Mushtaq Khan
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Mushtaq Khan
South and South East Asia: institutional economics and political economy; the economics of rent seeking, corruption and patron-client networks; late industrialisation and the state
  • Tel: 020 7898 4546
  • Email: mk100@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 233
  • Academic Support Hours: On Research Leave 2019/20
Dr Ulrich Volz
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Ulrich Volz

International Finance, Open Economy Macroeconomics, Financial Market Development and Stability, Development and Transition Economics, Global Economic Governance, East Asian Financial Markets

  • Tel: +44(0) 207 898 4721
  • Email: uv1@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 285
  • Academic Support Hours: On Research Leave 2019/20

Finance & Management

Ms Sonja Ruehl
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Staff Silhouette
Financial Sector Development in Japan and Vietnam. Gender Issues in Financing Development. Microfinance Institutions in Vietnam
  • Tel: 020 7898 4057
  • Email: sr2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 542
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 3-5

History

Professor Ian Brown
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Ian Brown
The modern economic and political history of South East Asia; the economic impact of the inter-war depression on South East Asia
Professor Michael W. Charney
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Mike Charney
The history of Buddhist societies in South and Southeast Asia and of culture, technology, and warfare in colonial Africa and Asia
  • Tel: 020 7898 4612
  • Email: mc62@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 322
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 5:00-6:00 pm
Professor William Gervase Clarence-Smith
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
William Gervase Clarence-Smith
History of Islam, sexuality, diasporas, slavery, stimulants, rubber, livestock and textiles, with special reference to Maritime South East Asia
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4608
  • Email: wc2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 313
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursdays 11-1

History of Art & Archaeology

Dr Pamela Corey
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Pamela Corey

Modern and contemporary art and critical theory; Southeast Asian art history and visual studies (expertise in Vietnam and Cambodia); urban studies; postcolonial studies; theories of subjectivity, space, diaspora, transnationalism, intermedia and aesthetics.

  • Tel: 0207 898 4452
  • Email: pc50@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: B318
  • Academic Support Hours: Wednesdays, 10:30-12:00 (T1)
Dr Peter D. Sharrock
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Peter Sharrock
He is now focusing on the evidence in Indochina for the influence of tantric or esoteric Buddhism, developed in the great monasteries of the Ganges valley and diffused and developed in different ways through much of Asia.
  • Tel: 020 7898 4462
  • Email: ps56@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: B406
  • Academic Support Hours: Wednesdays 3pm-4pm
Professor Ashley Thompson
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Ashley Thompson

Southeast Asian arts, aesthetics, literatures and cultural histories, with a focus on Cambodia, from the Angkorian to the post-Angkorian to the contemporary; Theravadin Buddhist arts, literatures and ritual; cultural heritage; sexual difference; deconstruction; memory and textuality.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4130
  • Email: at50@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: B301
  • Academic Support Hours: Thursdays, 10:00-12:00
Dr Louise Tythacott
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Louise Tythacott

Chinese and Buddhist art in museums; history of Yuanmingyuan (or ‘Summer Palace’) collections; museology; colonialism and material culture; post-colonial critiques of museum representations; history and theory of collecting; art and anthropology.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4159
  • Email: lt15@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: B320
  • Academic Support Hours: Wednesdays, 16:00-17:00

International Studies & Diplomacy

Dr Harald Heubaum
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Harald Haubaum

Energy and climate policy in Europe, the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region; institutional change and innovation in global energy, climate and financial governance; data for climate and sustainable finance; decarbonisation of transport; low-carbon cities, resilient infrastructure and urban resource management; public policy

  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4362
  • Email: hh15@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 4431
  • Academic Support Hours: By appointment

Languages & Cultures of South East Asia

Professor Rachel V Harrison
Chair, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Rachel Harrison 2018
Modern Thai Cultural Studies, Cinema and Literature; gender studies with reference to Thailand; literary criticism and South East Asian Literatures in a comparative context; Western film set in South East Asia
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4247
  • Email: rh6@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 455
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 1-2pm, Friday 1-2pm
Dr Dana Healy
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Dana Healy
Modern Vietnamese cultural studies (literature, film, gender); Vietnamese social and cultural history (the Vietnam War; art and politics); the sociology of contemporary Vietnamese literature; the Vietnamese diaspora
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4252
  • Email: dh4@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 465
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 2-3pm, Wednesday 10-11am
Dr Mulaika Hijjas
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Mulaika Hijjas

The Malay manuscript tradition; Islam in South East Asia; gender in the Malay world; modern literatures of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore

  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4253
  • Email: mh86@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 454
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesday 1-2.30pm, Friday 4.15-4.45pm
Dr Ben Murtagh
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Ben Murtagh
Modern Indonesian cinema and literature; queer studies and sexuality in Indonesia; representation of genders and sexuality in Southeast Asian film and literatures; traditional Malay literature
  • Tel: +44(0)20 7898 4248
  • Email: bm10@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 466
  • Academic Support Hours: TERM 1: Tue 1-2, Wed 12-1pm / TERMS 2-3 SABBATICAL
Professor Justin Watkins
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Justin Watkins

Burmese languages and Burmese linguistics; language policy in Burma; experimental and acoustic phonetics; computer lexicography; minority languages of South East Asia; Mon-Khmer and Tibeto Burman languages; tone languages. Sign languages in Burma and South East Asia.

  • Tel: 020 7898 4254
  • Email: jw2@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 462
  • Academic Support Hours: Monday 4-5, Thursday 3-4, or email for appointment

Law

Dr Ernest Caldwell
Ernest Caldwell

Public Law in China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia; Environmental Constitutionalism;  History of Environmental Law; Biodiversity and Law; Natural Resources and Law; Wildlife Law and Policy; Wildlife Trafficking

  • Tel: +44 (0)207 898 4645
  • Email: ec24@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: S327
  • Academic Support Hours: By Appointment (ec24)
Dr Vanja Hamzić
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Vanja Hamzić

Law and Society of South Asia (esp. Pakistan), South East Asia (esp. Indonesia) and West Africa (esp. Senegal); Islamic Law; Legal and Social History; Legal and Social Anthropology; Gender, Sexuality and the Law; Colonialism and Slavery in the 18th and 19th Centuries; Marxism; Critical Theory; Law of Tort; Global Law/Governance; Cold War Studies.

  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4501
  • Email: vh1@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: S336
  • Academic Support Hours: Monday 15:30-17:30
Professor Carol G. S. Tan
Member
Carol Tan

Contract, legal history, British overseas rule and the law especially in relation to the leased territory of Weihaiwei and to ethnic Chinese communities in Hong Kong and South East Asia, law and society in South East Asia, traditional Chinese law

  • Tel: +44 (0)207 898 4630
  • Email: ct9@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: S131
  • Academic Support Hours: by prior appointment

Library & Information Services

Jotika Khur-Yearn
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Jotika Khur-yearn
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4173
  • Email: jk53@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: Library E10
  • Academic Support Hours: Thu: Working from home

Music

Dr Nick Gray
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Nick Gray

Music of South East Asia, Indonesia, Bali, especially music for the Balinese shadowplay; composition; improvisation; analysis; music and religion

  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4686
  • Email: ng18@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 505
  • Academic Support Hours: Terms 1-2: Mondays, 11am-1pm; Term 3: Sabbatical

Politics & International Studies

Dr Carlo Bonura
Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Carlo Bonura

Comparative political thought; Contemporary Islamic thought in Southeast Asia; Southeast Asian politics, particularly Thailand and Malaysia; Culture and politics.

  • Tel: +44(0) 20 7898 4617
  • Email: cb84@soas.ac.uk
  • Room: 205
  • Academic Support Hours: Tuesdays, 2.30-4.30pm
Dr Michael Buehler
Chair, Centre of South East Asian Studies
Staff Silhouette

Comparative Politics, Elections and Party Politics, Islam, Local Politics, Southeast Asian Politics, particularly Indonesia

Research Associates

Dr Susan Conway
Research Associate, SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies
Susan Conway

Tai Theravada Buddhist art and culture of inland Southeast Asia, particularly the Shan of Burma (Myanmar) and the Tai Yuan of Lan Na (Northern Thailand)

Dr Monica Janowski
Research Associate, SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies
Monica Janowski

SE Asia, in particular Borneo; environmental anthropology; food, particularly rice, and the use of food as an ‘ethnic marker’ in the context of migration; kinship and ‘relatedness’ through food.

Dr Patrizia Pacioni
Research Associate
Staff Silhouette

South East Asian linguistics; classifiers, syntax and semantics, syntax semantic interface; Cantonese, Chinese, Khmer

Dr Titipol Phakdeewanich
Research Associate, SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies
Titipol Phakdeewanich

Progress of democracy in Thailand, focusing the parliamentary system

Dates of appointment: Oct 2019 - Oct 2020

Dr Edoardo Siani
Research Associate, SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies
Edoardo SIANI

Buddhism and power in contemporary Thailand

Dates of appointment: Oct 2018 - Sept 2019