Dr. Kisho Tsuchiya and I have organized the 3rd Reconceptualizing the Cold War workshop from the 14th to 26th September 2020, in which we discussed eleven papers that focus on diverse local experiences of “social warfare” in different places of Southeast Asia. Due to the COVID-19 situation, this workshop was held virtually by utilizing Google Docs. We read one paper a day, and exchanged 35-100 comments per paper. The workshop also enabled scholarly exchanges with our local research collaborators who had been working on our digital oral history archive project in the Philippines and Indonesia. The project team is aiming for a follow-up workshop and an edited volume in the future based on the series of workshops since 2019.

Reconceptualizing the Cold War: On-the-Ground-Experience in Asia Project Workshop, September 14 – 26, 2020

 

Schedule

September 14th (Monday)

Day 1. Veronica B. Sison, University of the Philippines

“The Danger is Internal: The Philippine Marines in the Early Cold War Philippines”

 

September 15th (Tuesday)

Day 2. Pa Kuan Huai, National University of Singapore

“Becoming Literate: Youth, women and the Socialist Front of Malaya”

 

September 16th (Wednesday)

Day 3. Appridzani Syahfrullah, Universitas Gajah Mada

“Voices of the Victimized: Tracing Experiences through Former SOBSI Political Prisoners during the Cold War in Indonesia”

 

September 17th (Thursday)

Day 4. Siti Zaainatul Umaroh, Universitas Negeri Surabaya

“Another Solidarity Cold War? Shipping Indonesian Teachers to Malaysia under Soeharto’s New Order, 1965-1985”

 

September 18th (Friday)

Day 5. Uyen Nguyen, University of California

“Brothers in War, Enemies in Peace: The Takeover of Hanoi and the Transition to Socialism in North Vietnam, 1954-1956” [TBC]

 

Weekend Break

 

September 21st (Monday)

Day 6. Imam Muhtarom, Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang

“Terror in Java: NU-Army versus PKI Conflict Before and After 1965 in Southern Wlingi, Wlingi District, Blitar Regency, East Java, Indonesia”

 

September 22nd (Tuesday)

Day 7. Mathew Woolgar, St Cross College, University of Oxford

“Socio-Cultural Polarisation and the Cold War: Islam and Communism in West Java, Indonesia, 1945-1965”

 

September 23rd (Wednesday)

Day 8. David E. Gilbert, University of California

“Unruly Agriculturalists and Empire Building: Emancipatory agrarian movements and the USA’s covert war in Sumatra’s plantation lands 1946-1960”

 

September 24th (Thursday)

Day 9. Robert Moisa, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Romania)

Indonesian ’65 Mass-killings: Rituals and Their Implications in Shaping a Genocide in the Context of Cold War

 

September 25th (Friday)

Day 10. Juliette Senda, Université d’Aix-Marseille

“On-the-ground experiences of the Cold War. The Javanese village of Bejiharjo from the 1965 repression until the end of Suharto New Order in 1998”

 

September 26th (Saturday)

Day 11. Cui Feng, National University of Singapore

“Assimilation of Chinese in Thailand during the Pibun Era, 1948-1957”