History 3960/6960 Spring 2017
Transnational Local: Histories of the Modern in Southeast Asia
Tamara Loos
McGraw 343
TR 1:25-2:40 RF 128
Office hours: R 2:45-4:30
Course Description:
This course introduces students to modern Southeast Asia as a region as to each country
as a distinct polity. It will emphasize the transregional and transnational connections
between Southeast Asia and the rest of the world conducted along economic, religious,
imperial, ideological, technological, epidemiological, and diplomatic lines. The course is
divided into thematic and chronological sections. The sections include: Southeast Asia
Conceptually; Early Modern Southeast Asia; Imperialism and Colonial Subjectivity;
Nationalism, Decolonization, and the Cold War. While readings are designed to give
historical depth to each polity, lectures/discussions are broad, over-arching and thematic.
Course Requirements:
1. Undergraduates
 Attendance and Participation (10%): Undergraduates are expected to come to
lecture and to engage in discussion. This is a small lecture course so we will mix
discussion into each day’s class when possible. Come prepared to discuss the
readings.
 Papers (30%): Undergraduates will write two short papers (4-5 pages each, worth
15% each) on the assigned readings and primary source documents. These papers
are due by 5pm. The first paper is due by Feb. 24 and can be on any of the lecture
topics and assigned readings up to Feb. 24. The second paper is due by April 21
and can be on any lecture topic and readings assigned between Feb. 28 and April
21. You may write only one paper per section.
 Format and Late Policy: For every day an assignment is late, half a grade is taken
off. I encourage you to turn them in EARLY, preferably during the week we
discuss the respective topic. Turn in all papers in Word (not PDF) by email. Put
your name on your paper, give it a title, and give it page numbers. Use in text
citations with a bibliography, or footnotes.
 Exam 1 (30%). Students will take an exam based on the first half of course
lectures and readings on March 16.
 Exam 2 (30%). Students will take an exam based on the second half of course
lectures and readings on May 9.
 There are no make up exams nor can exams be taken early or late.
2. Graduates
 Graduate students will not have a separate section this year although we may meet
to discuss additional readings. They are required to attend the lectures and write a
research paper that will be due by email in Microsoft Word at 5pm May 15.
 Paper should be topically relevant to Southeast Asian history and utilize primary
source materials preferably in a Southeast Asian and a colonial language. 25
pages suggested length.
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
Research paper deadlines (5pm): 2/16 Paper Concept (1-2pp); 3/15 argument,
outline draft (5-7pp); 4/20 draft (12pp); 5/15 Final (25pp).
Required Texts (available at the Campus Store): There is only one required text, which I
encourage you to purchase via Amazon. If you would like a good general textbook about
Southeast Asia, the best out there is Norman Owens, Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia.
All other assigned and recommended readings are available on e-reserve through History
3960’s Blackboard website. All students must create a Blackboard account in order to log in
to the course, which gives you access to the e-reserve materials and other materials. Sign up
at www.blackboard.cornell.edu.
 Eric Tagliacozzo, The Longest Journey: Southeast Asians and the Pilgrimage to
Mecca (2013).
 Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War (1993).
READINGS/LECTURES
Thur 26 Jan 2. Introductions
I.
Southeast Asia Conceptually
Tues 31 Jan Cornell and the Politics of Southeast Asian Studies
 Bruce Cumings, “Boundary Displacement: Area Studies and International Studies
during and after the Cold War,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 29, 1
(Jan/March 1997): 6-26.
 George McT. Kahin, “The Making of Southeast Asian Studies: Cornell’s
Experience,” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 29, 1 (Jan/March 1997): 3842.
 Please review this website http://www.professorwatchlist.org/index.php/about-us
II.
Early Modern Era—Local and Global Connections
Thur 2 Feb
Religious Matrix
 Tony Day, “Ties that (Un)Bind: Families and States in Premodern Southeast
Asia,” Journal of Asian Studies 55, 2 (May 1996): 384-409.
Tues 7 Feb. Family, Slavery and the Labor Power Paradigms
 Anthony Reid, “Introduction: Slavery and Bondage in Southeast Asian History,”
in Anthony Reid, ed., Slavery, Bondage and Dependency in Southeast Asia (NY:
St. Martin’s Press, 1983), 1-43.
 Grads: Oliver W. Wolters, History, Culture, and Region in Southeast Asian
Perspectives (Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Publications, Southeast Asia Program,
Cornell University, 1999), 15-40.
Thur 9 Feb. Ethnonyms and Political Identity. Guest lecture by Matthew Reeder, PhD
candidate, History, Cornell University.
III.
Imperialism and Colonial Subjectivity
Tues 14 Feb Early Empires and Maritime Southeast Asia
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

Antonio Pigafetta, The First Voyage Around the World (1519-1522), (NY:
Marsilio Pub., 1995), 3-19, 43-65, notes.
Rec: Anthony Reid, "The Age of Commerce," Chapter 1 in Anthony Reid,
Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450-1680: Volume Two, Expansion and
Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993): 1-61.
Rec: Emma H. Blair and James A. Robertson, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803
(Cleveland: The A. H. Clark Co., 1903-1909), Vol.1, 280-292, 305-337.
Thur 16 Feb Ideologies of Empire in the Era of High Imperialism
 Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes (London: Routledge, 1992), 1-37.
 Kartini, “Give the Javanese Education!” in Joost Coté, trans., Letters from Kartini
(Clayton, Victoria: Monash Asia Institute, Monash U., 1992).
Tues 21 Feb February break – no class
Thur 23 Feb The Hajj and Colonialism
 Eric Tagliacozzo, The Longest Journey: Southeast Asians and the Pilgrimage to
Mecca (2013), chapters 5-8.
24 Feb: First papers due in class by this date.
Tues 28 Feb Siam: Colonial or Imperial Power?
 Prince Prisdang, et al., A Petition for the Reform of Siamese Administration
(1885)
 King Chulalongkorn, “1888 Speech on Government Reform.”
 Tamara Loos, “Siam’s Subjects: Muslims, Law, and Colonialism in Southern
Thailand,” SEA Program Bulletin (Winter-Spring 2004-2005): 6-11.
 Rec: Thongchai Winichakul, “The Quest for ‘Siwilai’: A Geographical Discourse
of Civilizational Thinking in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century
Siam,” Journal of Asian Studies 59, 3 (August 2000): 528-549.
Thur 2 Mar America’s Philippines - Debate
 “Our Philippine Policy” and “Platform, American Anti-Imperialist League 1899,”
in Daniel Schirmer and Stephen Rosskamm Shalom, eds., The Philippines Reader
(Boston: South End Press, 1987), 23-26, 29-31.
 Edward Atkinson, “The Government De Facto of the Philippine Islands”; Felipe
Agoncillo, “Memorial to the Senate of the United States”; and Emelio Aguinaldo,
“Appendix: To the Philippine People.” In The Imperialist I, 2 (3 June 1899): 1-9.
 Elihu Root, “Speech by the Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of War, at Canton, Ohio,”
(24 October 1900), 3-33.
Tues 7 Mar French Indochina
 Phan Chau Trinh, “Letter to Governor-General Paul Beau,” in Truong Buu Lam,
Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 1900-1931 (Ann
Arbor: The U. of Michigan Press, 2000), 125-140.
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
Phan Chau Trinh, “Letter to Emperor Khai Dinh,” in Phan Chau Trinh and His
Political Writings, ed. & trans. by Vinh Sinh (Ithaca: Cornell SEAP Publications,
2009), 87-102.
Thur 9 Mar Resistance – Island SEA
 Readings TBA.
Tues 14 Mar 13. Resistance – Mainland SEA and Review Session
 Michael Adas, “From Avoidance to Confrontation,” in Nicholas B. Dirks, ed.,
Colonialism and Culture (Ann Arbor: The U. of Michigan Press, 1992), 89-126.
 Patricia Herbert, The Hsaya San Rebellion (1930-1932) Reappraised (1982), 113.
 Ben Anderson, “Census, Map, Museum,” Imagined Communities (1991), 163-185.
Thur 16 Mar 14. Undergraduate Exam 1 [AAS Toronto, March 16-19]
IV.
Nationalism, Decolonization, and the Cold War
Tues 21 Mar Early Indonesian Nationalisms
 Readings TBA.
Thur 23 Mar Literature and Empire in British Malaya and Borneo. Guest lecture by
Prof. Geoffrey Hill.
 Anthony Burgess, Devil of a State, pages TBA.
Tues 28 Mar The Failure of the Nation of Indochina
Thur 30 Mar Burma
 Thant Myint-U, “Studying in the Age of Extremism,” The River of Lost
Footsteps: Histories of Burma (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), 198-219.
APRIL 2-9
SPRING BREAK
Tues 11 Apr Pan-Asianism and Pacific War
 Benda and Larkin, “Japanese Blueprint for Southeast Asia,” The World of Southeast
Asia 1967), pp. 219-223.
 Alfred McCoy, “Introduction,” in McCoy, ed., Southeast Asia Under Japanese
Occupation (1985), 1-13.
 Eri Hotta, “Introduction: Pan-Asian Ideology and the Fifteen Years’ War,” PanAsianism and Japan’s War, 1931-1945, pp.1-18.
 Rec: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, The Mute’s Soliloquy (NY: Hyperion East, 1999),
“Death in a Time of Change” and “Working for the Japanese,” 153-191.
Thur 13 Apr
Decolonization and the Cold War
Tues 18 Ap Bandung and the Non-Alignment Movement
 Richard Wright and Bandung- Readings TBA.
 George Kahin, The Asian-African Conference (Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1956), 1-8.
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
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Indonesia, Asia-Africa Speaks from
Bandung (Jakarta: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1955), 19-29, 57-63, 129-133, 63-66.
Thur 20 Ap

No class. Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture (film, 2013)
Begin reading Bao Ninh, Sorrow of War (1993).
21 April: second papers due.
Tues 25 Ap Indochina Wars
 Finish reading Bao Ninh, Sorrow of War (1993).
 Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried, 67-85.
 Rec: Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried, 39-61.
Thur 27 Ap Cambodia and Laos
 Audrey and George Kahin, Subversion as Foreign Policy (1995), 3-19.
 Listen to: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/23/511185078/america-in-laos-traces-themilitarization-of-the-cia
Tues 2 May Thailand
 Benedict Anderson, “Withdrawal Symptoms,” Spectre of Comparisons, chp. 7.
 Thongchai Winichakul, “Remembering/Silencing the Traumatic Past: The
Ambivalent Memories of the October 1976 Massacre in Bangkok,” in Shigeharu
Tanabe and Charles F. Keyes, Cultural Crisis and Social Memory (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2002), 243-283.
 Rec: Kanokrat Lertchoosakul, The Rise of the Octoberists in Contemporary
Thailand (New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies, Monograph 65, 2016).
Thur 4 May Contemporary SEA and Review
 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/07/world/asia/rodrigo-dutertephilippines-drugs-killings.html?_r=0
 Adrian Chen, “When a Populist Demagogue Takes Power,” The New Yorker (21
Nov. 2016). http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/21/when-a-populistdemagogue-takes-power
Tues 9 May
20. Exam II
Mon 15 May Graduate Student Research Papers due (5pm)
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Norman Owen, The Emergence of Modern Southeast Asia (2005), 500.
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