School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Deputy Head of Department (Term 1)

South East Asia Section, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics

Senior Lecturer in Indonesian and Malay

Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS)

Member

Centre for Gender Studies

Member

SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies

Academic Staff, Centre of South East Asian Studies

The Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme

Programme Board Member, Outreach Sub-board Member, Research and Publications Sub-board Member

Academic Board

Member

Name:

Dr Ben Murtagh

Email address:

bm10@soas.ac.uk

Telephone:

+44(0)20 7898 4248

Address:

SOAS University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Building:

Russell Square: College Buildings

Office No:

466

Academic Support Hours:

TERM 1: Tue 1-2, Wed 12-1pm / TERMS 2-3 SABBATICAL

Biography

I first travelled to Indonesia in 1990 and have been going back ever since. In the 1990s I backpacked across various parts of Indonesia from West Timor to Aceh. I also did quite a lot of cycle touring in Sumatra and Peninsula Malaysia. I still try to return to Aceh as often as possible, but my research interests mean that recently I have spent more time in Jakarta and Surabaya. While I have less spare time now, I still enjoy hiking and trying to get to new places around the archipelago whenever I have the chance.

I started at SOAS as an undergraduate in 1995. I did my BA in History and Indonesian and then continued at SOAS for my MA in Languages and Literatures of South East Asia. My MA dissertation (2000) was a study of the early 19th century poem Syair Perang Inggeris di Betawi, a poem about the British invasion of Java of 1811. I kept with this theme for my PhD (2004), which explored ‘Representations of the British in Traditional Malay Literature’.

More recently my research has focused on genders and sexualities in Indonesian cinema and literature, and my book, Genders and Sexualities in Indonesian Cinema: constructing gay, lesbi and waria identities on screen was published by Routledge in 2013.

From 2014-2015 I was Co-Managing Editor of the journal Indonesia and the Malay World, one of the leading academic journals specialising on the arts and humanities of the region. I still serve on the Editorial Board of this journal. I am currently Book Reviews Editor for the journal South East Asia Research.

I was appointed Lecturer in Indonesian and Malay at SOAS in 2001, and currently teach courses on Indonesian Language, Literature and Cinema. As well as departmental courses I also contribute to courses taught across the school on History, Cinema and Comparative Literature. I am also the convenor of the Indonesian year abroad programme.

I welcome anyone interested in coming to SOAS to study any of these subjects, be it at BA, MA or PhD level, to get in touch to find out more.

Modules Taught

• Directed Studies on an Asian or African Language A
• Directed Studies on an Asian or African Language B
• Genders and Sexualities in South East Asian Film
• Indonesia on Screen
• Indonesia on Screen(PG)
• Introduction to Research
• Queer Cinema in Asia

PhD Students supervised

• Allan Simpson, Locating a Queer Theory in the Context of Contemporary South Korean Literature (with a focus on the novels of Kim Hyena)
• Firuz Akhtar Mohamad Bohari, The Notions of Captivity in Arab, Malay and Persian Travel Writing from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century
• Vera Mey, Signs of a region: in search of the aesthetic imagination of Southeast Asia after 1948 (working title)

Recent PhD Students Supervised:

• Atit Pongpanit. 2011. The bitter–sweet portrayals of expressing and maintaining “non-normative genders and sexualities in Thai mainstream cinema from 1980 to 2010.
• Muh. Arif Rokhman. 2013. Encountering the other in the works of the Indonesian literary association Forum Lingkar Pena
• Alicia Izharuddin. 2014. Gender and Islam in Indonesian cinema.
• Sangeeta Rani Mer Chand Bhardwaj. 2015. Sojourner turned settler: literary representations of the Malaysian/Singaporean Punjabi diaspora in the works of its writers in English.
• Luqman Lee.  Malay Culture and Minority Cultures: Performing Malay on Senario

• 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

For help in contacting SOAS academics and advice on services to business and the community, please contact SOAS Enterprise on +44(0)20 7898 4837 or email enterprise@soas.ac.uk.
For all press and media enquiries please call +44 (0)20 7898 4135 or email press@soas.ac.uk

Available for

• TV
• Radio
• Press
• Briefings
• Special Study Programmes
• Short Term Consultancy
• Long Term Consultancy

Regional Expertise

• South East Asia

Country Expertise

• Indonesia
• Malaysia

Languages

• Malay-Indonesian
• Portuguese

Authored Books

Murtagh, Ben (2013) Genders and sexualities in Indonesian cinema: constructing gay, lesbi and waria identities on screen. London, UK: Routledge.

Articles

Murtagh, Ben (2017) 'Double Identities in Dorce's Comedies: Negotiating Gender and Class in New Order Indonesian Cinema'. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, (173) 2-3, pp 181-207.

Murtagh, Ben (2015) 'LGBT Indonesians bring entertainment and activism together online'. Inside Indonesia [Online].

Murtagh, Ben (2011) 'Gay, lesbi and waria audiences in Indonesia: watching homosexuality on screen'. Indonesia and the Malay World, (39) 115, pp 391-415.

Murtagh, Ben (2011) 'Coklat Stroberi: sebuah roman Indonesia dalam tiga rasa'. Jurnal Gandrung, (2) 1, pp 45-72.

Murtagh, Ben (2011) 'Lesbi in the metropolis: fatal attraction in an Indonesian movie from the early 1990s'. Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, (45) 1 & 2, pp 95-132.

Murtagh, Ben (2010) 'Coklat Stroberi: an Indonesian romance in three flavours'. South East Asia Research, (18) 2, pp 219-243.

Murtagh, Ben (2009) 'Indonesian Movie Gems'. the Jakarta Post, Weekender Magazine, pp 30-31.

Murtagh, Ben (2008) 'Chocolate strawberry: an Indonesian film breaks new ground on the subject of teenage sexuality'. Inside Indonesia 93.

Murtagh, Ben (2007) 'Beautiful Men in Jakarta and Bangkok. The Pressure to Conform in a Recent Indonesian Novel'. South East Asia Research, (15) 2, pp 281-99.

Murtagh, Ben (2006) 'Istana kecantikan: The First Indonesian Gay Movie'. South East Asia Research, (14) 2, pp 211-30.

Murtagh, Ben (2004) 'Two poems commemorating Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee of 1887'. Jurnal Filologi Melayu, (11), pp 31-43.

Murtagh, Ben (2002) 'Syair Perang Inggeris Di Betawi: A Malay Account of the British Invasion of Java of 1811'. Indonesia and the Malay World, (30) 86, pp 27-36.

Edited Books or Journals

Murtagh, Ben and Jelani, Harun, (eds.), (2013) Esei penghargaan kepada Professor Emeritus V.I. Braginsky: mengharungi laut sastera Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Braginsky, Vladimir and Murtagh, Ben, (eds.), (2007) The Portrayal of Foreigners in Indonesian and Malay Literatures: Essays on the Ethnic "Other". Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press.

Book Chapters

Murtagh, Ben (2019) 'Reimagining HIV in Indonesian online media: a discussion of two recent Indonesian webseries'. In: Luther, J.Daniel and Loh, Jennifer Ung, (eds.), Queer Asia: decolonising and reimagining sexuality and gender. London: Zed Books, pp 45-64.

Murtagh, Ben (2011) 'Bangkok's beautiful men: images of Thai liberality in an Indonesian gay novel'. In: Jackson, Peter A., (ed.), Queer Bangkok: 21st century markets, media, and rights. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp 163-180.

Murtagh, Ben (2007) 'Portrayals of British Individuals in Malay Literature'. In: Braginsky, V. and Murtagh, B., (eds.), The Portrayal of Foreigners in Indonesian and Malay Literatures Essays on the Ethnic "Other".. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, pp 107-164.

Murtagh, Ben (2005) 'The changing images of Britain in traditional Malay literature'. In: Z.Ajamain, and N.Ahmad, , (eds.), Kesusasteraan tradisional Asia Tenggara; prosiding Seminar Antarabangsa Asia Tenggara ke-3. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (Malaysia), pp 103-136.

This list was last generated on Thursday, 9th April 2020, 04:14 Europe/London.