Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Michelle Ann Miller, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Mobility and circulation, considered quintessential characteristics of Southeast Asia as a region, are explored in this paper that follows a small community of amateur musicians, fans, family, and friends based in Singapore who “tour” the region to play music for recreational purposes. Reid, Andaya, Scott, Ong, and many others provide thick evidence of this Southeast Asian reality in both the past and the present, whether its historical and contemporary movements of people and things back and forth between Zomia realms and the lowlands, or the traffic in and along the Asian maritime trade network. These scholarly renditions consider mobility and circulation as generative, productive features of southeast lives. However, generally scholarly attention is given to the “selective localizations” (Andaya) in the region produced in localities and within situated local knowledge and identity formations. This paper examines the process of selective localization that takes place as an entourage of Singaporeans descend upon various southeast Asian cities to play music and have “fun”. Selective localization from this point of view notes the manner in which portable localizations generate equally portable local knowledge and identity formation in this time of reduced visa restrictions and budget airfares for ASEAN citizens. These sonic circuits reveal the mobility of selective localizations increasingly becoming a characteristic feature of the region.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Steve Ferzacca is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Lethbridge located in Alberta, Canada. Professor Ferzacca’s research and publication trajectories follow two broad themes: medical anthropology and the anthropology of popular culture. In either his empirical and theoretical orientations center on sense and sensibility whether medical or musical. He has conducted ethnographic research on medical pluralism and lived experiences of Type 2 diabetes in Indonesia and the United States. Professor Ferzacca’s current attentions include public health research on health, food, and eating among groups of Singaporean women, and the experiences of a small community of Singaporean musicians as well.

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