Past Events at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies
February 2020
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Thursday, February 13th Buffers Against Famine: Social Ties and the Effects of Collectivization in Khmer Rouge Cambodia
Date Time Location Thursday, February 13, 2020 2:00PM - 4:00PM Seminar Room 208N, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON, M5S 3K7 + Register for this Event Print this Event Bookmark this Event
Description
This paper addresses the causes of non-execution deaths during the Cambodian Genocide. Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) had one of the highest mortality rates of any communist revolution, with the deaths of approximately one quarter of the population: half from direct violence and the other half from indirect means, in particular starvation. What explains the variation in indirect deaths, those that resulted from means other than execution, during this period of mass violence? I argue that it was not just control over agricultural production that led to high rates of starvation deaths, but the policies of social control associated with the collectivization process that exacerbated the problems of famine. The set of policies surrounding the family, including forced marriages and the separation of family units, which I call social collectivization, undermined traditional buffers against famine and decreased the likelihood of survival. The decision to include social components was an ideological one, but those it targeted reflect a strategic logic shaped by economic and security interests. I find that collectivization of economic activities also affected the likelihood of survival; but the social elements tipped the balance toward disaster. High levels of social control targeted preexisting social network and communal ties, fracturing those networks that would ordinarily have acted as a buffer against poor policy or economic downturns in a community. As a result, individuals were more vulnerable to the effects of overwork and over-requisitioned rice, making deaths from indirect means—starvation and exhaustion in particular—more likely. Through this study, I demonstrate the consequences of governing a revolutionary state for the indirect victims of mass violence.
Rachel Jacobs is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Dickinson College. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2019. Her research centers on questions of survival during periods of mass violence. More broadly, she researches issues of political violence, gender and conflict, human rights, and the long-term consequences of conflict.
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Disclaimer: Please note that events posted on this website are considered to be public events – unless otherwise stated – and you are choosing to enter a space where your image and/or voice may be captured as part of event proceedings that may be made public as part of a broadcast, webcast, or publication (online and in print). We make every effort to ensure your personal information is kept and used in compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). If you have any questions please get in touch with our office at munkschool@utoronto.ca or 416-946-8900.
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Wednesday, February 26th Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition across Southeast Asia
Date Time Location Wednesday, February 26, 2020 2:00PM - 4:00PM Seminar Room 208N, 1 Devonshire Place + Register for this Event Print this Event Bookmark this Event
Description
Opium was once integral to colonial rule in Southeast Asia. The drug was a major source of revenue for European colonizers, who also derived moral authority from imposing a tax on a peculiar vice of their non-European subjects. Yet between the 1890s and the 1940s, colonial states began to ban opium, upsetting the very foundations of overseas rule—how? Empires of Vice traces the history of this dramatic reversal, revealing the colonial legacies that set the stage for the region’s drug problems today. Diana Kim challenges the conventional wisdom about opium prohibition—that it came about because doctors awoke to the dangers of drug addiction, or that it was a response to moral crusaders—uncovering a more complex story deep within the colonial bureaucracy. Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence across Southeast Asia and Europe, she shows how prohibition was made possible by the pivotal contributions of seemingly weak bureaucratic officials who delegitimized the taxing of opium, which in turn made major anti-opium reforms possible.
Diana Kim is Assistant Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a core faculty member of the Asian Studies Program. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago (2013) and held a Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship in Economics, History, and Politics at Harvard University.
If you are attending a Munk School event and require accommodation(s), please email the event contact listed above to make appropriate arrangements.
Disclaimer: Please note that events posted on this website are considered to be public events – unless otherwise stated – and you are choosing to enter a space where your image and/or voice may be captured as part of event proceedings that may be made public as part of a broadcast, webcast, or publication (online and in print). We make every effort to ensure your personal information is kept and used in compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). If you have any questions please get in touch with our office at munkschool@utoronto.ca or 416-946-8900.
March 2020
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Friday, March 6th The Politics of the Fatwa: Modern Islamic Legal Authority and Rise of the Indonesian Council of Ulama
Date Time Location Friday, March 6, 2020 10:00AM - 12:00PM Seminar Room 208N, 1 Devonshire Place, Toronto, ON, M5S 3K7 + Register for this Event Print this Event Bookmark this Event
Description
Fatwas from Islamic organizations are prominent elements of public debates in democratic Indonesia, as well as the broader Muslim world. Yet scholars lack a clear theoretical explanation for the power of fatwas in politics. This paper draws on original archival material to explicate the legal authority of the fatwas from the Indonesian Council of Ulama (Majelis Ulama Indonesia, MUI), which over the past twenty years has become one of the country’s most influential actors. The paper distinguishes three periods in the growth and transformation of MUI’s authority; starting with charismatic authority and state corporatism, MUI later gained formal regulatory authority, and now uses agenda setting, lobbying, mass mobilization, and the threat of violence. By examining how the power of MUI’s fatwas increased as the organization accrued more forms of authority, this periodization demonstrates that explaining the political power of the fatwa requires understanding the modern organizational authority of Islamic actors. In the modern age, Islamic legal authority reflects the dominant logic of political authority in society.
Jeremy Menchik is Assistant Professor in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and faculty affiliate in Political Science. His first book, Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 2016) was the co-winner of the 2017 International Studies Association award for the best book on religion and international relations.
If you are attending a Munk School event and require accommodation(s), please email the event contact listed above to make appropriate arrangements.
Disclaimer: Please note that events posted on this website are considered to be public events – unless otherwise stated – and you are choosing to enter a space where your image and/or voice may be captured as part of event proceedings that may be made public as part of a broadcast, webcast, or publication (online and in print). We make every effort to ensure your personal information is kept and used in compliance with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). If you have any questions please get in touch with our office at munkschool@utoronto.ca or 416-946-8900.