Asia in Europe, Europe in Asia

About the Contributors

322 About the Contributors About the Contributors Syed Farid Alatas is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. His book Democracy and Authoritarianism: The Rise of the Post-Colonial State in Indonesia and Malaysia is published by Macmillan (1997). His recent articles include “The Study of the Social Sciences in Developing Societies: Towards an Adequate Conceptualization of Relevance” (with Vineeta Sinha); “Teaching Classical Sociological Theory in Singapore: The Context of Eurocentrism; “Islam, Ilmu-Ilmu Sosial dan Masyarakat Sipil”, Antropologi Indonesia 25; and “Eurocentrism and the Role of the Human Sciences in the Dialogue Among Civilizations”, The European Legacy 7. He is currently working on a second book in the area of the philosophy and sociology of social science and on another project on Muslim ideologies and utopias. Gregory K. Clancey teaches in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore. His research is primarily on the cultural history of modern Japanese science, but he also writes about architecture, natural disaster, and the politics of emergency. He has co-edited Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (Singapore: Singapore University Press & World Scientific, 2002) and Major Problems in the History of American Technology (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1998). He is currently writing a book about the science, culture and politics of earthquakes in Meiji Japan. Beng-Lan Goh is Assistant Professor at the Southeast Asian Studies Program, National University of Singapore. She is a cultural anthropologist working on the issue of postcolonial modernity and urbanism in Southeast Asia. She is the author of Modern Dreams: An Enquiry into Power, Cultural Difference and the Cityscape in Contemporary About the Contributors 323 Urban Malaysia (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2002). John Kleinen is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam. He is a former SSRC representative in Hanoi collaborating with the National Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities. He has extensively researched rural villages, fisheries and integrated coastal zone management in Vietnam, and Vietnamese migrants in Europe. His previous publications include Vietnam (1989), Facing the Future, Reviving the Past (1999), Vietnamese Society in Transition (edited, 2001). He is also part of the Maritime Anthropology Research Unit. Van Nguyen-Marshall is Assistant Professor of History at Trent University, where she teaches the histories of East Asia and Southeast Asia. Nguyen-Marshall’s research interest lies in modern Vietnamese history, with a particular focus on social and cultural issues. Her doctoral dissertation examines elite discourses on poverty and charity in French colonial Vietnam. She is presently researching the organization and meanings of Vietnamese mutual-aid societies in early twentieth-century Vietnam. Henk Schulte Nordholt is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and IIAS Professor of Asian History at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He coordinates a research programme on modern Indonesia at the KITLV in Leiden. His research interests are Balinese history, the anthropology of colonialism, and political violence. Recent publications include The Spell of Power: A History of Balinese Politics 16501940 (1996); (edited) Outward Appearances: Dressing State and Society in Indonesia (1997); (edited with I. Abdullah) Indonesia: In Search of Transition (2002); Kriminalitas, Modernitas dan Identitas dalam Sejarah Indonesia (2002); Indonesia in Transition: Work in Progress (edited with Gusti Asnan, 2003). Pravin J. Patel, Vice-Chancellor of Sardar Patel University, Gujarat, is a sociologist, and did his post-doctoral research at Columbia University. He has held several important positions in the M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara, and won several awards and honours including a Fulbright Fellowship, Charles Wallace Fellowship and UGC Visiting Professorships/Fellowships at many universities of India. He is on the 324 About the Contributors editorial boards of several academic journals including the British Sociological Society’s Work, Employment and Society. Maurizio Peleggi is Assistant Professor of History at the National University of Singapore and is the author of The Politics of Ruins and the Business of Nostalgia (Bangkok: White Lotus, 2002) and Lords of Things: The Fashioning of the Siamese Monarchy’s Modern Image (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002). He is currently working on a social and cultural history of modern Thailand to be published by Reaktion Books in 2006. Srilata Ravi (formerly of the National University of Singapore) is currently teaching in European Languages and Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her main research interests are in twentieth century French and Francophone literatures, travel literature and postcolonial studies. She is the author of L...