The article traces an historical relationship between modern architecture (particularly housing) and the condition of emergency. It argues for considering de-housing and re-housing as part of a history of mobilization, which taken in its broadest meaning – to render mobile – was among the most common state-citizen interactions of the twentieth century. Beginning with positions …

WPS 08 Toward a Spatial History of Emergency: Notes from Singapore Read More »

This is a paper about the detention of asylum seekers in Australia. It looks at the detention process as a means of creating alienness and strangeness, to be effectively concealed and yet on hand to be paraded when and if necessary. The paper’s central focus will be detention as spectacle. The paper looks at the political theatrics …

WPS 07 The Spectacle of Detention: Theatre, Poetry and Imagery in the Contest over Identity, Security and Responsibility in Contemporary Australia Read More »

Domestic violence against women has been on the global agenda since the 1970s but the problem has continued to escalate. Singapore and Malaysia have in the last decade enacted specific laws to deal with domestic violence, and while these laws have had some measure of success, further reform is required. This paper highlights the importance of …

WPS 06 A Feminist Critique of Domestic Violence Laws in Singapore and Malaysia Read More »

This paper is part of an inquiry into the history of Indian fisheries during the period of British colonial rule, which I am undertaking with my colleagues from the South Asia Research Unit at Curtin University.  We are seeking an understanding of (i) the effects on the fisheries and fishing communities in the different regions …

WPS 05 The Cultural Significance of Fish in India: First Steps in Coming to Terms with the Contradictory Positions of Some Key Materials Read More »

The exploration of the oral memories of the men and women who belong to ethnic minority groups in southern Laos and who have been involved in the Vietnam Wars constitutes the focus of this paper. It analyses their interpretations of the past through their narratives: their pattern, logic and coherence, but also their discontinuities, omissions …

WPS 04 Narrative, Memory and History: Multiple Interpretations of the Lao Past Read More »

The account of Champa contained within the Chinese dynastic history Ming shi records events, as seen by the Chinese court, extending from 1369 until 1544. The text thus covers the period from that which Georges Maspero referred to as the “apogée” of the polity, to the sack and decimation of the Cham capital at Vijaya …

WPS 03 The Ming shi Account of Champa Read More »

The comparative temporal perspective explored in this paper, which covers the latter part of two centuries, the late eighteenth and the late twentieth centuries, lends explanatory power to the treatment of Iranun maritime raiding, on the one hand, and on the other, modern day crime on the high seas in Southeast Asia, with particular reference …

WPS 02 A Tale of Two Centuries: The Globalisation of Maritime Raiding and Piracy in Southeast Asia at the end of the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries Read More »