Research
Research and Research-related Activities on Borneo
Victor King has made a contribution to the study of the societies and cultures of the island of Borneo. He served as the UK Director of the Borneo Research Council from 1985 to 2008, and continues as a member of its International Advisory Board. He has been a Fellow of the Council since 1972 and has edited two volumes of its Conference Proceedings (Tourism in Borneo: Issues and Perspectives1994 [(No 4] and Rural Development and Social Science Research: Case Studies from Borneo1999 [No 6]). He published the first general historical-anthropological text on Borneo: The Peoples of Borneo in 1993, as well as the first general museum-based text on Borneo with Jan B. Avé The People of the Weeping Forest and in its Dutch edition Oerwoud in Ondergang, Culturen Opdrift to accompany the major exhibition at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden opened by Sir David Attenborough in 1985. He has supervised or co-supervised and examined (as an external or internal examiner) a current total of 43 postgraduate theses on Borneo, the majority of them written by local scholars. He has served as external examiner for doctoral theses on Borneo at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Oxford, Cambridge, University College London, London School of Economics, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Kent at Canterbury, Edinburgh, Leicester, Loughborough, The Open University, Oxford Brookes, Uppsala University, University of Helsinki, University of Malaya, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Australian National University, Newcastle (Australia), Queensland, La Trobe, University of Western Australia. He served as International Advisor at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (2003-2006) and External Examiner in Sociology-Anthropology at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (1999-2001, 2009-2011).
He was also the first British scholar to study and organise the translation and publication of the work of the renowned Dutch explorer, traveller, photographer and film-maker Dr Hendrik Tillema, which was brought to fruition in the edited volume HF Tillema, A Journey among the Peoples of Central Borneo in Word and Picture, Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1989, paperback edition, 1990. His early work on Borneo examined issues of ethnicity (see, for example, 1979, 1982), cognatic kinship and the kindred (see, for example, 1976, 1978, 1991), and structural analysis and symbolism (see, for example, 1977, 1980. 1985). He has recently returned to some of these interests with 'Borneo Studies: Perspectives from a Jobbing Social Scientist (2009), as well as two working papers Culture and Identity: Some Borneo Comparisons (2012) and Borneo and Beyond: Borneo Studies, Anthropology and the Social Sciences (2013), and a specially prepared article for the Tun Jugah Foundation journal Ngingit entitled ‘Derek Freeman and the Iban Kindred: a Pertinent Correspondence’ (2014). His later work on Borneo focused on rural development issues (1986, 1988, 1990, 1992), environmental change (1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999) and tourism (1993, 1994).
He also has an interest in travel writing on Borneo and has compiled two anthologies in Oxford Paperbacks: The Best of Borneo Travel(1992, fourth edition, 2001) and Moving Pictures: More Borneo Travel(1999, 2000). The Best of Borneo Travel has recently been translated into Indonesian with a new preface, entitled Kalimantan Tempo Doeloe by Kommunitas Bambu, Depok (2013). Another edited book in Oxford Paperbacks, Explorers of South-East Asia: Six Lives (1995), also contains three chapters on Borneo exploration based on the lives of Robert Burns, Carl Bock and A.W. Nieuwenhuis.
He has recently been engaged as an External Advisor on a ‘high impact’ research project directed by Dr Welyne Jeffrey Jehom on Iban textiles (pua’ kumbu’) at Universiti Malaya. He has also completed a paper re-evaluating the work of Derek Freeman on Iban culture and society, entitled ‘Claiming Authority: Derek Freeman, His Legacy and Interpretations of the Iban of Borneo’. This has since been published in Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, vol. 173(1), 2017, pp. 83-113. He has also co-edited (with Zawawi Ibrahim and Noor Hasharina Hassan), Borneo Studies in History, Society and Culture (2017).
His engagement with other scholars of Borneo, following his BKI 2017 paper, pp. 83-113 continues with his ‘Rejoinder: Styles and Approaches in Academic Argument: the Iban Case, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land enVolkenkunde, 2018, 174(4), pp. 173-183; and his paper ‘Wild Borneo’: Anthropologists at War in the Rainforest, Working Papers series, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, No. 53, 2020. Further contextualization of these issues is located in his ‘Truth’s Fool: Derek Freeman and the War over Cultural Anthropology’, International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 2019, 15(1), pp. 183-197; ‘Engagements with Sarawak: Anthropological Reminiscences of Research on A Malaysian Borneo State’, in Hew Cheng Sim and Kelvin Egay, eds. Beyond Romance: Reflections on Research in Sarawak, 2017, pp. 25-57; and with Zawawi Ibrahim, ‘Local and Transnational Anthropologies of Borneo’, Eric C. Thompson and Vineeta Sinha, eds,Southeast Asian Anthropologies: National Traditions and Transnational Practices, 2019, pp. 207-242.
He has co-edited with Stephen C. Druce two volumes published in 2021. in the Modern Anthropology of Southeast Asia series to celebrate the pioneering work of Professor Donald E. Brown on Brunei. These are Origins, History and Social Structure in Brunei Darussalam (including a co-written editorial introduction and a sole-authored chapter, ‘Donald E. Brown’s Contribution to Borneo Studies and Anthropology’); and Continuity and Change in Brunei Darussalam (with an editorial introduction). He is also co-editing with Professor OoiKeat Gin the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Brunei to be published by Routledge in 2022.
He has recently returned to some of his earlier ethnographic interests and is engaged in a project with Dr Magne Knudsen on the Iban of Brunei, with specific attention to Iban communities in Temburong (see for example King and Knudsen, 2021). A book is planned for 2023. He is also engaged in co-editing a volume arising from the Borneo Studies Network-UBD-IAS Conference in 2021 on Borneo Within, Borneo Beyond: Issues and Perspectives in which he has a chapter on ‘Borneo Studies in Context: A Personal View’.
He has published a paper on ‘Revisiting Social Organisation and Identity in Borneo’, 2022. In Bornéo à Coeur. Hommage à Bernard Sellato: Argonaute de la forêttropicale. Auxonne: ed. Pierre Le Roux, K. Alexander Adelaar and Bernard Moizo, Auxonne: Le Murmure, Sciences humainesensociales, 16pp.
He has recently written a tribute to Dr Herb Whittier, ‘Herb Whittier (Herbert Lincoln Whittier) 1941-2021. A Remembrance and Random Reflections on Borneo Studies’, and a paper on ‘An Overview of Research on Kalimantan from the 1960s to the Present’ for the Borneo Research Bulletin, probably to be included in issue 54, 2023.
Recent research
Tourism
From 2009 to 2013 Victor King was principal investigator of a research team [comprising Michael Parnwell recently at Leeds University and the Macau University of Science and Technology, Michael Hitchcock previously at the IMI University Centre Lucerne and the Macau University of Science and Technology, and Janet Cochrane previously at Leeds Metropolitan University; with research assistance provided by Sigrid Lenaerts, Goh Hong Ching, Jayesh Paranjape, and Joanna Fross, and involving local researchers including Kannapa Pongponrat (Mahidol University, and now at the Asian Institute of Technology), Jayum Jawan (Universiti Putra Malaysia), I Nyoman Darma Putra (Universitas Udayana), Erik Akpedonu (Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila), and Kusmayadi Husein (Sahid Institute of Tourism)] undertaking research on a comparative study of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia funded by the British Academy through the Research Committee of ASEASUK. The programme of research on tourisam in which he has been involved since the early 1990s was featured in The British Academy’s ‘Evolving Societies: A showcase of overseas research into community, identity and environment’ held at the Barbican Centre in November 2007. It builds on the three co-edited volumes with Michael Hitchcock and Michael Parnwell:Tourism in South-East Asia (1993), Tourism in Southeast Asia: Challenges and New Directions (2009) and Heritage Tourism in Southeast Asia (2010), and with Michael Hitchcock the special issue of Indonesia and the Malay World (2003) entitled ‘Tourism and Heritage in South-East Asia’. He co-edited with Ploysri Porananond Rethinking Asian Tourism: Culture, Encounters and Local Response (2014) and also co-editing Tourism and Monarchy in Southeast Asia (2016).
Arising from the world heritage project he co-authored a paper with Michael Parnwell on World Heritage Sites in Thailand: a Comparative and Critical Appraisal published as an e-paper in the Leeds East Asia Papers series (New Series No. 1, 2010); a revised version has been published by the SOAS Journal South East Asia Researchas ‘World Heritage Sites and Domestic Tourism in Thailand: Social Change and Management Implications’ (vol. 19, 2011, pp. 381-420).Another paper on Melaka as a World Heritage Site: Cultural Politics, Identities and Tourism in a World Heritage Site was also presented in the Leeds East Asia Papers series (New Series No. 4, 2012). Recently he wrote a paper for the Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam in its Working Papers Series, UNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspectives, (2013, No 4). An additional paper on ‘UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia: Problems and Prospects’, with Michael Hitchcock appeared in the co-edited book by Porananond and King (2014). His edited book UNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspective (2016) has been published with NIAS Press, Copenhagen with chapters on heritage sites in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. He has presented lectures on the research programme and on case material from Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines at Oxford, Cambridge, Ateneo de Manila (twice), Macau University of Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, the University of Hull, School of Oriental and African Studies, Chiang Mai University and the SADACC Trust (South Asian Decorative Arts and Crafts) in Norwich in association with the University of East Anglia
He has co-edited (with Ismar Borges de Lima), Tourism and Ethnodevelopment: Inclusion, Empowerment and Self-determination (2017).
He has also compiled (with David Harrison and Jerry S. Eades) a four-volume reader on Tourism in East and Southeast Asia, to be published by Routledge, London, in 2018. He has written the introduction to volume 3: The Global and the Local: Tourism, Culture and identity.
He is currently working on a research project on tourism development in Thailand (2019-2020). To date this has resulted in a co-authored paper with Joseph Rotheray, ‘Negotiations in Space and Time: Gender Relations in Thai Tourism-oriented Encounters’, Suvannabhumi: Multi-disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2019, 11(2), pp. 23-55; and Tourism and Leisure in Thailand: Erik Cohen and Beyond, Institute of Asian Studies, Working papers series, No 40, 2018.
His co-edited book Tourism in South-East Asia, with Michael Hitchcock and Michael Parnwell, published by Routledge in 1993 has been re-issued in the Routledge Library Editions series: Business and Economics in Asia, volume 32, 2019, with a new Preface.
He has recently published two papers with Professor Jennifer Kim Lian Chan on tourism in Southeast Asia and the Coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic. One is a Working Paper in the IAS-UBD series, no 57, 2020, and the other an article for a special issue on the pandemic in Horizon. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, July 2020.
He has written a paper for the recently introduced section ‘Perspectives’, in the International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies on the theme of the Covid-19 pandemic and the marginalised populations of Southeast Asia, using tourism as a case study, 2021.
Area Studies and Southeast Asia as a Region
His other preoccupation during the past decade has been devoted to the conceptualisation and rationale of Southeast Asia as a region and the development of Southeast Asian Studies in the UK, Europe and more widely in institutional and scholarly terms. He has published a series of papers on these issues, including 'South-East Asia: a Field of Anthropological Study?' (2002); Defining Southeast Asia and the Crisis in Area Studies: Personal Reflections on a Region (2005); 'Southeast Asia: Personal Reflections on a Region', (2006); The Development of Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom (and Europe): the Making of a Region (2011); and he has co-edited (with Park Seung Woo) The Historical Construction of Southeast Asian Studies: Korea and Beyond (2013) with a co-written editorial introduction ‘The Construction of Southeast Asian Studies and the Emergence of a Region’, and a sole authored chapter on the theme of ‘British Perspectives on Southeast Asia and Continental European Comparisons: the Making of a Region’. He has published a much longer version of this paper in the Leeds East Asia Paper series as The Development of Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom (and Europe): the Making of a Region(New Series No3, 2011). Other constructions have been ‘Scholarly Viewpoints’ on area studies, in the International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (2013) ‘Southeast Asian Studies: the Conundrum of Area and Method’ in a volume edited by Mikko Huotari, Jürgen Rüland and Judith Schlehe (eds) entitled Methodology and Research Practice in Southeast Asian Studies (2014: 44-64). He served as guest editor for a special issue of the Korean journal Suvannabhumi on ’Southeast Asian Studies: Area, Method and Comparison’ with an ‘Introduction’ and a paper entitled ’Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian Studies: Issues in Multidisciplinary Studies and Methodology’ (2015, vol. 7, pp. 3-47). He has also written a review article on ‘Conceptualising Culture, Identity and Region: Recent Reflections on Southeast Asia’ for Pertanika: Journal of Social Science and Humanities (2016). In addition he has written ‘Southeast Asian Studies: Insiders and Outsiders, or is Culture and Identity the Way Forwards?’ (2016), and co-edited (with Paul Carnegie and Zawawi Ibrahim), Human Insecurities in Southeast Asia (2016).
He edited a special issue of Suvannabhumi: Multi-disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, entitled ‘Revisiting and Reconstructing Southeast Asian Characteristics’, Volume 8(1), 2017; and for the same journal ‘Alternative Approaches in Southeast Asian Studies: Compounding Areas Studies and Cultural Studies’, volume 10(2), 2018. As the Editor-in-Chief of the journal he has edited in 2020 a special issue for Suvannabhumi, volume 12(2), on the theme of ’Debating Southeast Asia’. He produced a Working Paper on The Construction of Southeast Asian Studies as an Academic Field of Study (2019) and from this emerged his paper on Syed Hussein Alatas in relation to the work of Willem F. Wertheim and Edward Said (2022).
He has also co-edited a book with Professor Jérémy Jammes on Fieldwork and the Self: Changing Research Styles in Southeast Asia published with Springer, Singapore (2001), in the IAS-UBD-Springer series, Asia in Transition (this includes a sole-authored chapter on ‘A Sociological-Anthropological Gaze on Changing Perspectives in Southeast Asian Studies: Personal Interventions in Discipline and Area’ and a co-written ‘Editorial Introduction Fieldwork and the Self: Perspectives and Debates’) and a co-written chapter with Jeremy Jammes titled ' Prologue: Rehearsing the Self and Reflexivity: Notions of Self from Two Anthropologists'.
He is also currently engaged in a project with Ooi Keat Gin to be published by Springer titled Southeast Asia: Pioneers and Critical Thinkers, in two volumes 2002/2003 (with Ooi Keat Gin). He is currently compiling material on Archaeology and Early History; Geography and the Environment; Anthropology and Sociology; and Religion and Beliefs.
He gave an interview for the Southeast Asian Social Science Review, the journal of the Malaysian Social Science Association, coordinated by Wan Puspa Melati Wan Hashim on his career in Southeast Asian Studies and Borneo Studies and his views on Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian research and research training, volume 6, 2021.
He has recently written an extended essay on ‘Borneo as a marginalized sub-region? Perspectives on areas, regions, and sub-regions in a globalized world’ which is under consideration for the Brunei Museum Journal.
Funded Research Projects since 2000
UK Register of South-East Asianists, British Academy, 2000-2001; Socio-economic Development in Perak, Malaysia, British Academy, 2002-2005; The Middle Classes in South East Asia, British Academy, 2006-2008; Language-Based Area Studies Initiative, White Rose East Asia Centre, HEFCE, ESRC, AHRC, 2006-2012, and Sasakawa Foundation, Japanese Studies initiative, 2008-2013; and LBAS initiative funded by the AHRC from 2012-2015; The Management of World Heritage Sites in South-East Asia: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, (with Michael Parnwell, Michael Hitchcock and Janet Cochrane), British Academy/ASEASUK, 2007-2013; Collaborative research on modern East Malaysia: Visiting Fellowship Scheme, Tun Jugah Foundation, 2006-2013; Borneo Studies programme, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 2012-2013.
Universiti Brunei Darussalam, three research grants.
Editorships and Membership of Boards of Journals
1979-81: Associate Editor, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science (SEAJSS, National University of Singapore).
1980-1997: Member, International Editorial Advisory Board, Studies in Third World Societies, (College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va).
1981-85: Editorial Committee member, SEAJSS (NUS, Singapore).
1985-2000: Member, International Advisory Board, SEAJSS (NUS, Singapore).
1987-2017: Joint Editor, ASEASUK News, Newsletter of the Association of South-East Asian Studies in the UK(Hull, SOAS).
1990-2017: Member, Editorial Board, Modern Asian Studies (University of Cambridge).
1992-1995: Member, Advisory Board, Ilmu Masyarakat (Malaysian Social Science Association).
1993-1998: Member, International Advisory Board, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV, Leiden).
1993-1997, 2010-13: Member, International Advisory Board, Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (Universiti Putra Malaysia).
1995-1999: (general editor with forewords) Anthologies of South-East Asia (Oxford in Asia Paperbacks, Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press), 5 volumes.
1993-1997, Member, Advisory Board; 1997-2001: Member, International Advisory Board,Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (NUS, Singapore).
2000-2017: Member, International Advisory Committee, Sojourn: Journal of Southeast Asian Social Issues(Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore).
2000-2003: Member, Editorial Board, Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal (Universiti Brunei Darussalam).
2003-continuing: Member, Advisory Board, East Asia: an International Quarterly(University of Durham).
2003-continuing: Member, Editorial Advisory Board, South East Asia Research (SOAS).
2003-2006: series editor, with W.D.Wilder and then Michael Hitchcock (2006-continuing), The Modern Anthropology of South-East Asia, Routledge (12 titles published and 2 forthcoming).
2005-continuing: Member, Editorial Board, International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang).
2009-2013: Member, Editorial Board, International Institute of Asian Studies, IIAS Publication Series, (University of Amsterdam Press).
2011-continuing: Member Editorial Advisory Board, TRaNS: Trans-National and –Regional Studies of Southeast Asia, (Sogang Institute for East Asian Studies, Sogang University, Seoul).
2012-continuing: Member Editorial Board, Asia Matters: Business, Culture and Theory, (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam).
2014-continuing, International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research.
2016-2018, Associate Editor, Asian Journal of Tourism Research (Center for Tourism Research, Chiang Mai University, Thailand).
2016-2024, Chief Editor, Suvannabhumi. Multi-disciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Korean Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, South Korea).
2016-continuing. Senior Editorial Advisor, Monograph series, ‘Critical Perspectives on the Mekong Region’ ‘and ‘Consortium of Development Studies in Southeast Asia’.(Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University, Thailand).
2016-2021, Member Editorial Board, Asia in Transition series, Institute of Asian Studies and Springer, Singapore, Universiti Brunei Darussalam.Add 2016-2024, and remove the bold from this entry.
Conferences and Other Activities since 2001
Panel convenor, 'Tourism and Heritage in Southeast Asia ', European Association of Southeast Asian Studies, SOAS, September, 2001 (and paper with Gwynn Jenkins, 'Heritage and Development in a Malaysian City: George Town under Threat?).
Paper/keynote, 'Anthropology and Development', 7th Biennial International Conference, Borneo Research Council, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah , Malaysia , June, 2002.
Keynote address, International Institute for Asian Studies, Amsterdam/Leiden, 'Southeast Asia: Personal Reflections on a Region', and 'Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom', Southeast Asian Studies in Europe: Reflections and New Directions, November 2004.
Paper, ‘Defining Southeast Asia and the Crisis in Area Studies: Personal Reflections on a Region’, Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, University of Lund, April, 2005.
Co-organiser: 'Tourism in Asia' conference, Leeds Metropolitan and Leeds University, June 2006 (and paper on 'Anthropology and Tourism in South East Asia').
Co-organiser: 'Civil Societies and Middle Class Identities in South-East Asia', 24th ASEASUK Conference, Liverpool, (paper ‘The Middle Classes in Southeast Asia’), September 2008.
Keynote address: 'Borneo Studies: Perspectives from a Jobbing Social Scientist’, Malaysian Social Science Association, 6th International Conference, August, 2008.
Public Lecture: ‘35 Years of Research in the Heart of Borneo’, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, June 2010.
Corporate Talk: ‘Culture and Identity: Social Science and Modern Southeast Asia’, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Perak Campus, July 2010.
Organiser: Panel ‘Heritage Tourism and Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia with specific reference to UNESCO World Heritage Sites’ (and paper ‘Melaka as a World Heritage Site: Cultural Politics and Identity in Malaysia’), 26th ASEASUK Conference, University of Cambridge, September, 2011.
Chair for the panel on ‘Culture’, and presentation on ‘UNESCO World Heritage Sites: a Comparative and Critical Appraisal’, Southeast Asian Studies Symposium on ‘Contemporary Issues in Southeast Asia’, Project Southeast Asia, University of Oxford, 10-11 March 2012.
Paper ‘UNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspective’, Institute of Philippine Culture and Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila, 22 June, 2012.
Paper ‘Culture and Identity: Some Borneo Comparisons’, 11th Biennial International Conference, Borneo Research Council, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 25-28 June, 2012.
Public lecture ‘UNESCO in Southeast Asia: World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspective’; Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 29 September, 2012.
Organiser and Chair, International Workshop, ‘Borneo Studies: the State-of-the-Art and Future Directions’, and presentations on ‘Borneo and Beyond: the Contribution of Anthropology to Borneo Studies and the Wider World’, and ‘Identities in Borneo: Constructions and Transformations’, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 30 November-1 December 2012.
Keynote introductory address ‘Human Insecurities in Southeast Asia: Uncertainty, Risk and Trust’, ASEAN Inter-university Seminar, ‘Human Insecurities in Southeast Asia, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 10-12 December, 2012.
Paper ‘Identities in Borneo: Constructions and Transformations’ 2nd Southeast Asian Studies Symposium, Project Southeast Asia, University of Oxford, 9-10 March, 2013; and roundtable discussion on ‘The Future of Borneo Studies’, 10 March 2014.
Paper ‘UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia: Comparisons and Management Policies ’, Macau University of Science and Technology, 5 July 2013.
‘Paper, UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia: Comparisons and Management Policies’, Institute of East Asian Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 29 August, 2013.
Public lecture ‘UNESCO World Heritage, Identity and Economic Development: Southeast Asia Compared’, Institute of Philippine Culture, Southeast Asia Program, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ateneo de Manila, 25 September, 2013.
Keynote address ‘World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia: Problems and Prospects’, International Conference on Tourism and Culture in Asia’, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 17-18 November, 2013.
Public lecture, ‘Cities of Splendour: UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia’, History of Art series, University of Hull, 28 November, 2013.
Public lecture, ‘UNESCO in Southeast Asia: : World Heritage Sites in Comparative Perspectives’, The SADACC Trust and University of East Anglia, Norwich, 4 March 2014.
Seminar with Professor Vincent Houben, ‘Interdisciplinary Area Studies: Problems and Possibilities’, as part of our external review of the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University, 15-18 March, 2014.
Intellectual Discourse, UNESCO in Southeast Asia: Comparative Perspectives’, Faculty of Human Ecology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 27 June, 2014.
Special Lecture, ‘Tourism and Research’, Department of Tourism/ Centre for Tourism Studies and Academic Services, Faculty of Humanities, Chiang Mai University, 25 August, 2014.
Keynote address, ‘Tourism Research and Multidisciplinary Studies: Issues and Problems’, International Conference on Tourism and Development, Centre for Tourism Studies and Academic Services, Chiang Mai University, 29-30 August, 2014, and ‘Tribute to Professor Erik Cohen’ on receipt of a special award from Chiang Mai University, 29 August, 2014.
Special lectures, ‘Whither the Sociology of Southeast? Some Reflections on 40 Years of Sociological Research’, 3 September, 2014, and ‘Southeast Asian Studies: the Conundrum of Area Studies and Methodology’, Regional Center for Sustainable Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, 10 September, 2014.
Seminar Paper, UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia: Issues, Problems and Prospects, Centre of South East Asian Studies, SOAS, 11 November, 2014.
Keynote address, ‘UNESCO and World Heritage Sites in Southeast Asia: Issues and Concepts’, 4thInternational Conference on Tourism Research, Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA and Sustainable Tourism Research Cluster, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 9-11 December, 2014.
Workshop, ‘Academic Writing and Publishing’, Centre for Tourism Studies and Academic Services, Chiang Mai University, 13-15 December, 2014.
Seminar paper, ‘Southeast Asian Studies: the Conundrum of Area Studies and Methodology’, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 18 February, 2015.
Public lecture, ‘ASEAN and Tourism: Regionalism, Perspectives and Encounters’, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 2 March 2015 (coverage in The Brunei Times and The Borneo Bulletin.
Opening address, ‘Development Studies: the Deep Past, the Complex Present and the Problematical Future’, conference on ‘Rethinking Development Studies in Southeast Asia: State of Knowledge and Challenges’, Center for ASEAN Studies and the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development at Chiang Mai University, 7-8 March 2015.
Keynote address, ‘Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian Studies: Issues in Multidisciplinary Studies and Methodology’, International Conference of the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, Republic of Korea, ‘Regional Characteristics of Southeast Asia and its Comparisons with Others (and) Approaches to Southeast Asian Studies: Methodological Quests’, 23-24 April 2015.
Special lecture, ‘An Engagement with the Sociology of Southeast Asia and Future Directions’, Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, 27 April 2015.
Seminar paper, ‘Southeast Asian Studies: the Conundrum of Area Studies and Methodology’, Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 30 April 2015.
Public lecture, ‘Southeast Asian Studies: the Conundrum of Area Studies and Methodology’, College of Arts and College of Tourism, Rikkyo University, Tokyo, 2 May 2015.
Introductory address, ‘Textiles Tales of Pua Kumbu: Polysensory Intermedia Exhbition, Galeri Seni, Universiti Malaya, 13 June, 2015.
Public lecture ‘Revisiting “Indigenous Knowledge” in Southeast Asia: is it a dead-end or a Way Forward?’, Universiti Malaya, 15 June, 2015.
Keynote address, ‘Ethnicity and Tourism: Culture on the Move’, International Conference on ‘Tourism and Ethnicity in ASEAN and Beyond’, Chiang Mai University, 15-16 August, 2015.
Workshop seminar on ‘Academic Publishing’, Chiang Mai University, 18-19 August, 2015.
Open lecture on ‘Sociological and Anthropological Perspectives on Southeast Asia: a View from Outside the Region’, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, 25 November, 2015.
Workshop/seminar paper on ‘Borneo Studies: Brunei and Malaysia: Borders and Boundaries’, Research Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University, 26 November, 2015.
Keynote address ‘Culture and Identity in Southeast Asia: Continuing the Impasse or the Way Forward?’, 6th International Conference on Southeast Asia, Universiti Malaya, 2-4 December, 2015.
Roundtable discussion ‘Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian Studies: the Future’, 6th International Conference on Southeast Asia, Universiti Malaya, 2-4 December, 2015.
Paper, ‘Convergence and Divergence in Tourism Development: Issues of State and Region in Malaysian Borneo. Brunei Darussalam, and Indonesian Kalimantan’, International Seminar on ‘Tourism in Asia: Economic Development and Socio-cultural Change’, Center for Tourism Research and Research Administration Center, Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-25 |February, 2016.
Keynote address, ‘Southeast Asian Studies: from Euro-American Centrism to Asia-centrism? Or is Culture and Identity the Way Forward?’, International Conference of ISEAS/BUFS, ‘Revisiting and Reconstructing Southeast Asian Characteristics’, Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, 26-28 May, 2016.
Seminar, ‘Academic Publishing in International Journals: the Main Issues’, RCSD, Faculty of Social Sciences and Research Administration Center, Chiang Mai University, 15 June 2016.
Keynote address, ‘Emerging Tourisms and Tourism Studies in Southeast Asia’, International Conference on ‘Emerging Tourism in the Changing World’, Centre for Tourism Research and Research Administration Center, Chiang Mai university, 12-13 November 2016.
Paper ‘World Heritage Sites and their Margins in Southeast Asian Tourism Development: Heritagescapes or Non-heritage Spaces’, International Seminar on ‘Tourism in Asia: Change and Diversity’, Centre for Asian Tourism Research and Research Administration Center, Chiang Mai University, 16-17 February 2017.
Paper ‘Tourism and Leisure in Thailand: Development, Mobilities and Encounters’, 13th International Conference of Thai Studies, Chiang Mai University, 15-18 July 2017.
Seminar paper, ‘Permutations of the Global Publication Regime: Case-studies from Tourism Studies’, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 10 October, 2017.
Keynote address, ‘Tourism and Heritage in the ASEAN and Borneo Context: Issues, Problems and Prospects’, International Conference and Exhibition, Borneo Studies Network and Institute of Asian Studies, ‘Tourism and Heritage: The ASEAN and Borneo Context’, 16-17 January, 2018.
Seminar paper ‘Claiming Authority in Borneo: Derek Freeman, His Legacy and Interpretations of Iban Material Culture’, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 31 January, 2018.
Seminar paper ‘From Borneo to Southeast Asia: Reflections on Research and Writing in Comparative Perspective’, TRiP2, Translating Research into Publications, seminar series of the Office of the Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Research), Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 7 February, 2018; and Universiti Sabah Malaysia, Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, 1 March 2018.
Keynote address ‘Other Southeast Asias? Or Beyond and Within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Affairs, 2018 International Conference of ISEAS/BUFS, ‘Alternative Perspectives on Southeast Asian Studies: Compounding Area Studies and Cultural Studies’, 10-12 May, 2018.
Paper, ‘Methodologies and Mishaps: A Sociological-anthropological Gaze on Changing Perspectives in Southeast Asian Studies’, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Conference on ‘Changing Research Styles, Methodologies and Perspectives on Southeast Asia, 30-31 July 2018.
Keynote address ‘Comparative Excursions in the Study of Tourism in Borneo: Past, Present and Future’, 14th International Biennial Conference of the Borneo Research Council, ‘Translating the Past/Envisioning the Future’, Institute of Borneo Studies and the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, 6-8 August, 2018.
‘Who Made Southeast Asia? Personages, Programs and Problems in the Pursuit of a Region’, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Busan University of Foreign Studies, 2019 International Conference of ISEAS/BUFS, ‘The Recognition and Construction of Southeast Asia as a Holon: Building Southeast Asian Studies on Compounding Area Studies and Cultural Studies’, 23-25 May, 2019.
Keynote Forum: 'Integrating the Culture and Civilisation of the Nusantara: Perspectives of the Social Sciences and Humanities': 'From the Sociology of the "Social" to the Sociology of the "Cultural": East-West Parallels and the Southeast Asian Context', International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities, ICOSSH 2019, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Bintulu Sarawak Campus, and Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Sarawak, 8-9 October, 2019, Bintulu.
Seminar paper ‘Professor Donald E. Brown’s study of Brunei and his contribution to anthropology: an evaluation’, Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, 12 February 2020.
'ASEAN Tourism Development: Borneo Case Studies', and 'Writing for Academic Publication', Borneo Tourism Research Centre, Faculty of Business, Economics and Accountancy, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 27 February 2020.
A Contextualization and Deconstruction of Borneo Studies over the Last 50 Years, Keynote address, Borneo Studies Network and Institute of Asian Studies, ‘Borneo Studies: Borneo Within, Borneo Beyond, UBD, 30 June-1 July 2021.
The Iban of Brunei: Case Studies of Change and Response in Temburong, Borneo Studies Network and Institute of Asian Studies, ‘Borneo Studies: Borneo Within, Borneo Beyond, UBD, 30 June-1 July 2021 (with Magne Knudsen).
East/West Synergies and Complexities: Syed Hussein Alatas, Willem F. Wertheim and Edwards Said, seminar, UBD-Institute of Asian Studies, 29 September 2021.
East-West Interactions and Complexities: Syed Hussein Alatas, Willem Wertheim and Edward Said, online seminar for Department of Sociology and Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore, 28 October 2021.
The Iban of Brunei Darussalam, with Magne Knudsen, Institute of Asian Studies seminarseries, 24 March, 2021,
Southeast Asian Studies: Pioneers and Critical Thinkers (part one and part two), joint seminar, Institute of Asian Studies-Academy of Brunei Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, seminar with Professor Ooi Keat Gin,2 and 16 November 2022.
Inaugural Distinguished Lecture, Academy of Brunei Studies, with participation of staff from Institute of Asian Studies and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Borneo and Borneo Studies in the Malay World. 9 November, 2022.