Launch of Southeast Asia Institute Video Series: “Southeast Asianists: Scholarly Profiles”

We are proud to announce one of our flagship initiatives: Southeast Asianists: Scholarly Profiles video series.

Hosted and produced by Emir Syailendra, the Southeast Asianists video series profiles scholars and intellectual policymakers who have spent numerous years working and contributing to our understanding of Southeast Asia as a region.

Emir is a PhD Candidate at the Strategic and Defence Studies Center in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affars at The Australian National University. Emir is inherently curious about the process that drives scholars to produce their groundbreaking works. In this series, he asks insightful questions to better understand what drives the Southeast Asianists into the field, their interactions with their environment as they conduct fieldwork, their writing process, their struggles, and what thoughts often keep them from sleeping at night when thinking about the region.

For the pilot episode, Emir interviewed Professor Evelyn Goh about her struggle for analytical precision and her journey to be one of the most accomplished scholars in her field. Professor Goh is the ANU Southeast Asia Institute Director. Evelyn Goh is the Shedden Professor of Strategic Policy Studies at The Australian National University, where she is also Research Director at the Strategic & Defence Studies Centre. She has published widely on U.S.-China relations and diplomatic history, regional security order in East Asia, Southeast Asian strategies towards great powers, and environmental security.

In the interview, we talked about her various works, including her book (co-authored with Barry Buzan) Re-thinking Sino-Japanese Alienation: History Problems and Historical Opportunities (Oxford University Press, 2020), The Struggle for Order: Hegemony, Hierarchy and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia (Oxford University Press, 2013); ‘Great Powers and Hierarchical Order in Southeast Asia: Analyzing Regional Security Strategies’, International Security 32:3 (Winter 2007/8):113-57; and Constructing the US Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974 (Cambridge University Press, 2004). 

Through this video series, we aim to educate other emerging Southeast Asianists by offering rare insights into how established scholars approach their works. See the series page for more episodes and further information, and subscribe to our Youtube channel for the next episodes.