Image: Three of the panel, Gwyn McClelland, Johanna Garnett and Paul Smith at the launch of Aromas of Asia.
Four members of the UNE Asia Pacific Research Network presented recently at the 25th Biennial Asian Studies Association of Australia Conference held at Curtin University in Perth. This international event explored the theme of Asia Futures: Studies of, in and with Asia, with a specific focus on the Asian region and Asian Studies as the site of future possibilities, challenges, and interconnections. Their inter-disciplinary panel: Dismantling Inequalities: Listening to the Subaltern brought together inter-disciplinary perspectives on this theme with presentations ranging from Myanmar to Japan to Indonesia across politics, peace building, music and history.
Dr Johanna Garnett – Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Peace Studies discussed her latest analysis of grass-roots state-building in Rakhine State, Myanmar in a post-coup and conflict context. Johanna has been working with local Myanmar youth for over a decade and this work is becoming increasingly important in light of serious environmental and human insecurity issues in the region.
Dr Gwyn McClelland – Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies wondered whether heritage can be too dark in the case of the Hidden Christian World Heritage sites of Japan. He has been interviewing local descendants of this group and considering the long inheritances of generational trauma.
Dr Paul Smith – Associate Professor in Music proposed that the aesthetic flow of operatic texts be flipped. Instead of operas coming from Europe to Asia, Asian opera singers and opera singers in Asia rewrite vocal narratives and reveal new operatic meanings originating in diverse Asian contexts.
Dr Indra Saefullah – Lecturer in Digital Humanities (Indonesian Focus) discussed the recent developments of right-wing underground music and musicians in contemporary Indonesia. Musicians associated with right-wing underground music were part of the ‘Islamic underground movement,’ which emerged following the Indonesian political reform (post-1998). This movement gained popularity for a brief period but then declined due to the suppression of Islamist movements by the government in recent years.
Also, at the conference Dr Gwyn McClelland launched his book edited with Dr Hannah Gould of the University of Melbourne, and entitled: Aromas of Asia: Exchanges, Histories, Threats.
The panel will be presenting in the HASS Seminar Series on Thursday 18th July an overview of their presentations at the conference, together with reflections on Asia Studies at UNE, opening up the room to a discussion on the potential of inter-disciplinary decolonisation for understanding the region, especially in listening to the subaltern and the marginalised – enabling space for new voices and lenses.