Engaging Asia
Essays on Laos and Beyond in Honour of Martin Stuart-Fox
Will be published approx. on 1. November 2018
Book
Hardback
492 pages
978-87-7694-253-3 (ISBN)
Description
Long regarded as a peripheral state in mainland Southeast Asia, Laos has attracted far less scholarly attention than wealthier and more powerful neighbours like Thailand and Vietnam. This has meant, however, that there is a greater potential for individual scholars of Lao studies to make significant contributions to their field. One such scholar is Australia's Martin Stuart-Fox, in honour of whom this festschrift has been produced with contributions from colleagues, former doctoral students and friends.
The volume is more than a hagiography, however. Its chapters on Laos all make significant contributions to Lao studies. These range from the writing of Lao prehistory in Laos, to early Lao Thai relations, from French colonial archaeology to medical practices and gun-boat diplomacy, from the 'invention' of Laos as a modern state to its revolutionary transformation and present politics.
Though the main focus is on the history, politics and national identity of Laos, essays also point 'beyond' Laos, both geographically and metaphorically. Engaging Asia is thus a volume that will stimulate and satisfy, while at the same time honouring a scholar whose unusual career took him from marine biologist to war correspondent to respected scholar of Southeast Asian politics and history.
The volume is more than a hagiography, however. Its chapters on Laos all make significant contributions to Lao studies. These range from the writing of Lao prehistory in Laos, to early Lao Thai relations, from French colonial archaeology to medical practices and gun-boat diplomacy, from the 'invention' of Laos as a modern state to its revolutionary transformation and present politics.
Though the main focus is on the history, politics and national identity of Laos, essays also point 'beyond' Laos, both geographically and metaphorically. Engaging Asia is thus a volume that will stimulate and satisfy, while at the same time honouring a scholar whose unusual career took him from marine biologist to war correspondent to respected scholar of Southeast Asian politics and history.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Copenhagen
Denmark
Illustrations
31
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-87-7694-253-3 (9788776942533)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Desley Goldston is an independent scholar and educator who has travelled widely and lived many years in Asia, including a decade in Laos.
Content
Introduction (Desley Goldston) * Contributors * 1. Martin Stuart-Fox: Evolution of a Worldview (Jessica Harriden) * 2. On Writing Volume One of The History of Laos (Souneth Phothisane) * 3. The Half Millennium Quandary: Establishing the Ayutthaya-Lan Xang Frontier 1357-1827 (Pheuiphanh and Mayoury Ngaosrivathana) * 4. The La Grandiere, 1894-1910: A French Naval Presence on the Upper Mekong (Kennon Breazeale) * 5. The Birth of French Research into the Prehistory of Laos (Lia Genovese) * 6. Nurse Khamphanh and His Dead Horse: The Practice of Biomedical Science in Early Twentieth Century Laos (Kathryn Sweet) * 7. The Invention of French Laos (Geoffrey Gunn) * 8. Laos in the 60s (Tim Page) * 9. The Lao Long of Cambodia: Ethnic Lao in the Cambodian Revolutions (Martin Rathie) * 10. Marxist Leninist Ideology Drove the Lao Revolution (Desley Goldston) * 11. Mobilizing Hearts and Minds: Reconciliation Politics in Laos (Soulatha Sayalath) * 12. Photographing Laos (Steve Northup) * 13. The Ethno-Religious Identity of the Tai People in Sipsong Panna and Its Resurgence in Recent Manuscripts (Volker Grabowsky) * 14. An Embassy from Banten at the Court of Charles II (Sarah Tiffin) * 15. Tonkinese Migrant Labour in Cambodia: A Coolie History (Margaret Slocomb) * 16. Decentralization in Vietnam: Resolving Central-Provincial Relations (Timothy McGrath) * 17. What is the First jhana? The Central Question in Buddhist Meditation Theory (Roderick S. Bucknell) * 18. Biological and Cultural Evolution: A Proper Analogy (Juan Ramon Alvarez) * Afterword (Martin Stuart-Fox ) * Publications of Martin Stuart-Fox * Index