Call For Papers - Liberalism and Empire in Southeast Asia

December 16, 2016

Australian National University

Convening committee: Anthony Milner, Gareth Knapman, Mary Quilty

Submit abstracts to Gareth.Knapman [at] anu.edu.au.

Deadline: July 18, 2016

This symposium collects the leading scholars on British colonial thought in Southeast Asia to consider the question of the relationship between liberalism and the British Empire in Southeast Asia. The empire builders in Southeast Asia: Lord Minto, William Farquhar, William Leyden, Thomas Stamford Raffles, and John Crawfurd - to name a few - were fervent believers in a liberal free trade order in Southeast Asia. Three stand out events shaped the British liberal approach to Southeast Asia: the establishment of the colony on the island of Penang, the British occupation of Java between 1811 and 1816, and the founding of Singapore. All of these events have been discussed as defining elements in the making of Southeast Asia, but have rarely been discussed as embodying the tension between empire and  liberalism. The convening committee invites abstracts broadly on the topic of liberalism and the British Empire in Southeast Asia between 1750 and 1900. There is no funding available to support airfares and accommodation. The convening committee will be publishing a selection of papers as part of an edited collection after the symposium.