Honorary Adjuct Associate Professor Jean Gelman Taylor

Overview

Current research projects on paintings, photography and film documentaries from Indonesia's colonial era

Research Summary

Indonesian History.

Special focus
Special focus on: Social history of Indonesia; interactions between Dutch and Indonesians; issues of modernity; conflicts over Islamic identity; the role of women; decolonization; social history of colonialism; the use of paintings, photographs and other graphic materials as sources in history; material culture and technology transfer.

Publications

Monographs
Global Indonesia, London: Routledge, 2013.


Indonesia: Peoples and Histories. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2003.

Smeltkroes Batavia: Europeanen en Euraziaten in de Nederlandse vestigingen in Azië. Translation: E. Henssen and others. Groningen, Wolters-Noordhoff, 1988.

The Social World of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia, University of Wisconsin Press, 1983, revised edition 2009 (Also published in Dutch and Indonesian translations)

Kehidupan Sosial di Batavia. Translation. Jakarta: Masup, 2009.

The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia: A New History, University of Hawaii Press, 2005, with David Chandler, Norman G. Owen, William R. Roff, David Joel Steinberg, Robert H. Taylor, Alexander Woodside and David K. Wyatt.

Editor and contributor

Women Creating Indonesia: the first fifty years. Clayton, Vic.: Monash Asia Institute, 1997.

Cleanliness and Culture: Indonesian Histories, Leiden: KITLV Press, 2011, co-editors Kees van Dijk and Jean Gelman Taylor

Chapters in Recent Books
"Aceh Histories in the KITLV Images Archive", in Mapping the Acehnese Past , eds. R. Michael Feener, Patrick Daly & Anthony Reid, Leiden: KITLV Press, 2011, pp.199-239.

"Een gedeelde mentale wereld: Multatuli en Kartini" in De minotaurus onzer zeden: Multatuli als heraut van het feminisme , eds. Myriam Everard & Ulla Jansz, Amsterdam: Aksant Press, 2010, pp.147-166.

"Aceh Narasi Foto," in Perspektif Baru Penulisan Sejarah Indonesia eds. Henk Schulte Nordholt et al., Jakarta: Obor/KITLV, 2008.

"Identity, Nation and Islam: a dialogue about men's and women's dress in Indonesia," in Roces, Mina and Louise Edwards, The Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas. Sussex Press, 2007.

“The Chinese and the Early Centuries of Conversion to Islam in Indonesia” in Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting, edited by Tim Lindsey and Helen Pausacker, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005.

“Slippery Identities: Race, Religion and Destiny in 17th and 18th Century Java”, in Recalling the Indies: Colonial Culture and Postcolonial Identities, edited by Joost Cote and Loes Westerbeek, Amsterdam: Aksant, 2005. (Also published in Indonesian translation)

Journals
"The Sewing-Machine in Colonial-Era Photographs: A Record from Dutch Indonesia", in Modern Asian Studies 46, 1, January, 2012: 71-95.

"Being 'Dutch' in the Indies", in Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs 32, 2, 2009.

"Painted Ladies of the VOC" in South African Historical Journal 57, December 2007.

“Meditations on a Portrait from Seventeenth Century Batavia” in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 37 (1) February 2006.

Affiliations and Memberships

Coordinator, Asia Research Group, UNSW
Affiliated Research Fellow, Royal Institute of Indonesian and Caribbean Studies, The Netherlands
Asian Studies Association of Australia
Asian Studies Association (US)

Other Information

Member, Sydney Indonesia Studies Circle

PhD students successfully supervised to completion
In the area of Indonesian history, supervised four students to graduation, and another student will shortly achieve graduand status.

Honours students successfully supervised to graduation
Thirty-five honours students have completed theses under my supervision, in histories of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and East Timor, in colonial and post-colonial periods.

MA in Asian Studies
A dozen MA in Asian Studies students under my supervision have completed, focusing on: Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, Philippines, and Vietnam.

Interests

Tsunami recovery, Aceh, Indonesia. Curated and catalogued an exhibition of photographs of Aceh from 1870-1930, including foreword in published catalogue, 2006.