A Pedagogue's Progress
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
 
Graduate school

I have found a way of synthesising my undergraduate thesis, current teaching experiences, and "life story" into my statement of research interests (to be written at some point of time in the future). All this while ensuring that these interests are realistically within grasp given my linguistic proficiency (which can be improved upon).

Fundamentally, I intend to specialise in 19th and 20th century international history from an Anglo-American perspective. I am particularly interested in the circulation of Anglo-American ideas and their reception in the non-Western world, especially China and Southeast Asia. What mechanisms and institutions existed to help transmit these ideas globally, and how did local conditions -- cultural, political, and economic -- influence how these ideas were received and subsequently modified to suit domestic demands? What were the consequences of these "flows" for both Anglo-American and non-Western peoples?

(There, I'm sounding so grad student already.)

Prester John, of course, was also a global history in some sense of the term, as it examined the influence of non-European ideas on politics and culture in medieval Europe, and revealed that the boundaries which defined Western Europe were perhaps more permeable than we think. My interest in transmission processes also stems in part from the thesis: how did the legend pass from East to West?

Teaching contemporary Southeast Asian history and politics, in particular the histories of nationalism and nation-building, has sparked my interest in the influence of Anglo-American ideas on global politics. What's fascinating is how these ideas were appropriated and modified to suit local contexts: how Sukarno, for instance, adapted nationalist thought to Indonesian demands, or how early 20th century Vietnamese reformers grappled over the fate of the monarchy and the pressures of French colonial rule.


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