The Asian Center will host two academics from the University of Brunei Darussalam on 14 November 2014 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the ASEAN Hall, Hall of Wisdom, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center, Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman.
In “Romusha and Ianfu: Exploiting the Indigenous Population in the Japanese-Occupied Territories During World War II,” Dr. Frank Dhont examines two groups of Indonesians, the Romusha and Ianfu, who were exploited by the Japanese. Living in Java, they became slaves and comfort women, and were also sent to wherever their labor and services were needed.
Dr. Frank Dhont is Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Asian Studies (IAS), University Brunei Darussalam (UBD). He obtained his Ph.D. in History from the Yale University, specializing in the history of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. As an Indonesianist, he is regularly involved in multidisciplinary initiatives and is founder and chair of the International Indonesia Forum. His major research interests include the reactions of both indigenous rulers and ordinary people to Japanese colonialism in the Netherlands Indies during World War II. He is also interested in the history of both World Wars in Asia and the spread of nationalism, especially in the context of colonial empires in Asia. He is currently working on the manuscript of Outlasting Colonialism: Socio-political Change in the Javanese Principalities under the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia during World War II.
Joining Dr. Dhont at the Asian Center is Dr. Rommel A. Curaming, who will deliver a lecture, “When does the ethical happen? Towards rethinking the ethics of doing oral history (or any scholarship for that matter).” Dr. Curaming reflects why oral historians, or scholars in general, tend to have a restricted notion of ethical responsibility; explores how this tendency manifests in the widely accepted ethical practices, and discusses its adverse but often ignored consequence. He then argues for a need to embrace a holistic view of ethical responsibility, which entails the re-thinking of the ethics of scholarly practice.
Dr. Rommel A. Curaming is Lecturer in History and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD). He completed his Ph.D. at the Australian National University (ANU) with dissertation that compares state-historian relations in Indonesia and the Philippines during the Suharto and Marcos periods, respectively. Prior to joining UBD, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and La Trobe University under the Endeavour Australia Award. His research interests span the history and memory of political violence, the politics of writing and public consumption of history, comparative historiography, and knowledge politics and state-intellectual relations in Islands Southeast Asia. He has published articles and reviews in international refereed journals such as Critical Asian Studies, South East Asia Research, Time and Society, Sojourn, Philippine Studies, and Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, among others.
The lectures are open to the public, but seats are limited and are available only on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, please contact Janus at 981.8500 local 3586 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The Asian Center offers MA degrees in Asian and in Philippine Studies. The Asian Studies program offers specializations in Northeast Asian Studies, Southeast Asian Studies, South Asian Studies, or West Asian Studies. The Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allow students to specialize on Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. The Center also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. Like the Asian Center on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @upasiancenter.