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"Writing national history is always fraught, but writing other people's national history can be both more dangerous and, paradoxically, easier than writing your own national history. In the current Australian national context the denial of Aboriginal Australian experiences and the Prime Ministerial appropriation of Gallipolli mean that anything historians write will necessitate taking sides. So too in Indonesia, where the stakes in the current debates over history include contesting claims as to whether remnants of the Soeharto regime, the military, Islamic groups or the Left represent the future of the nation. In surveying these claims, I will raise questions about how an Australian scholar might 'know' of Indonesia."
Adrian Vickers teaches a variety of subjects in Southeast Asian history and has played a major role in CAPSTRANS since its inception. He travels to Indonesia regularly, and is engaged in collaborative research with colleagues at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Leiden University in the Netherlands.
He has been active for many years in the Asian Studies Association of Australia, and is currently a member of its Council. This year he is convenor of the Association's Biennial conference. The conference is rarely held outside of capital cities, and its holding in Wollongong marks recognition of CAPSTRANS' growing international profile.
Prof. Adrian Vickers with Prof. Margaret Sheil before his lecture.
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