My research and teaching focuses on the politics and history of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and East Timor. I am particularly interested in issues of political violence, social movements, collective action and human rights.
My current research is focused on East Timor. One project is a micro-history of violence in a single locality over 300 years that aims to how recurrent violence has patterned and transformed both internal cleavages and alliances with supra-local actors, and how those solidarities and cleavages played out in the 'post-conflict' realms of transitional justice and political reconstruction. A second project examines the historical development of elites in East Timor from the mid-nineteenth century until the present.
OTHERS
“World-turned-upside-down: Benedict Anderson, Ruth McVey and the ‘Cornell Paper’,” Indonesia 104 (October 2017): 1-26.
“Timor-Leste in 2014,” The Contemporary Pacific 27(2) (2015): 537-544.
“Proclaiming East Timor,” Ellipsis 10 (2013): 21-34 [special issue on Timor-Leste]
“Queens of Timor”, Archipel 84 (Nov. 2012), pp. 149-173.
“Where are they now? The careers of army officers who served in East Timor in 1998-1999”, Indonesia 94 (Oct. 2012), pp. 111-130.
(with Faizah Zakaria), “Detention in Mass Violence: Policy and Practice in Indonesia, 1965-1968”, Critical Asian Studies 44(3) (2012): 441-466.
“Metaphors of Slavery in East Timor” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, Special Issue: Parts of Asia, 17/18 (2010): 257-280.
“Subordinating Timor: Central authority and the origin of communal identities in East Timor,” Bijdragen tot de Tal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 166(2/3) (2010): 244-269.
“Fragments of Utopia: Popular Yearnings in East Timor,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40(2) (2009): 385-408.
“A tape-recorder and a wink? Transcript of the May 29, 1983 Meeting Between Governor Carrascalão and Xanana Gusmão,” (translation) and “Commentary on the Transcript,” Indonesia 87 (2009): 73-102.
Recent book chapters include:
“Progress and Propaganda in Timor-Leste: Visions of the Future in Comparative Historical Perspective,” in Visions of the Future in Timor-Leste, ed. Judith Bovensiepen. Canberra: ANU Press, 2018.
“Buying Peace in Timor-Leste”, in Peacebuilding in the Asia-Pacific, eds. James Ockey and Carmela Lutmar. London: Palgrave, 2018.
“Gusmão’s Ruling Strategy: From Peace-building to Purchase and Coercion”, in The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Timor-Leste, ed. Andrew McWilliam and Michael Leach. London and New York: Routledge, 2018.
(with Hans Hägerdal), “The Lost Queens of Timor,” in Sara Niner, ed., Women and the Politics of Gender in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste, 17-45. Oxford: Routledge, 2017.
“Fantasy and Fossilization in the Study of Timor-Leste: Territoriality, Demography, and Status,” in Maj Nygaard-Christensen and Angie Bexley, eds., Doing Research in East Timor, 125-143. Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2017.
“Timor-Leste and ASEAN,” in The 3rd ASEAN Reader, 54-58. Singapore: ISEAS, 2015.
“Counter-revolutionary violence in Indonesia,” in Narayanan Ganesan and Sung Chull Kim, eds., State Violence and Political Transition in East Asia. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, forthcoming December 2012.
“Between Violence and Negotiation: Rethinking the Indonesian Occupation and East Timorese Resistance,” in Michelle Miller, ed., Autonomy and Armed Separatism in South and Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012, 93-112.
(with Katharine McGregor), “Introduction: The Contours of Mass Violence in Indonesia, 1965-1968,” in Kammen and McGregor, eds. The Contours of Mass Violence in Indonesia, 1965-1968. Singapore: NUS Press for ASAA, 2012, pp. 1-24.
(with David Jenkins), “The Army Para-Commando Regiment and the Reign of Terror in Central Java and Bali,” in Kammen and McGregor, eds. The Contours of Mass Violence in Indonesia, 1965-1968. Singapore: NUS Press for ASAA, 2012, pp. 75-103.
(with Yen-ling Tsai), “Anti-Communist Violence and the Ethnic Chinese in Medan, North Sumatra,” in Kammen and McGregor, eds. The Contours of Mass Violence in Indonesia, 1965-1968. Singapore: NUS Press ASAA, 2012, pp. 131-155.
“The Armed Forces in Timor-Leste: Politicization through Elite Conflict,” in Marcus Mietzner, ed., The Political Resurgence of the Military in Southeast Asia: Conflict and Leadership. London and NY: Routledge, 2011, pp. 107-125.