Robert Cribb, BA (Hons)(Queensland) PhD (SOAS)
Professor, Division Pacific and Asian History
Email: robert.cribb@anu.edu.au
Biographical Statement
Robert Cribb grew up in Brisbane, Australia, and spent much time as a
child wandering the bush and the Barrier Reef with his botanist
parents. After completing his undergraduate studies in Asian History at
the University of Queensland, he took his PhD from the School of
Oriental and African Studies, University of London, with a thesis on
Jakarta during the Indonesian revolution, 1945-1949. After graduating,
he taught at Griffith University and the University of Queensland (both
in Brisbane) and as guest lecturer at the University of Leiden in The
Netherlands. He held research positions at the Australian National
University, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and the Nordic
Institute of Asian Studies, where he was also director for two years.
He re-joined the Australian National University at the beginning of
2003.
Research Interests
Robert Cribb's research interests focus mainly on Indonesia, though he
has some interest in other parts of Southeast Asia (especially Malaysia
and Burma/Myanmar) and in Inner Asia. The themes of his research are:
mass violence and crime; national identity; environmental politics; and
historical geography.
Key Publications
- (ed. with Li Narangoa) Imperial Japan and national identity in Asia, 1895-1945), London: Routledge 2003.
- (ed. with Kenneth Christie) Historical injustice and democratic transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe: ghosts at the table of democracy, Routledge, London, 2002.
- Historical Atlas of Indonesia, Curzon Press, London, 2000.
- (with Colin Brown) Modern Indonesia: a history since 1945, London: Longman, 1995.
- Historical Dictionary of Indonesia, Scarecrow Press, Metuchen NJ, 1992.
- Gangsters and revolutionaries: the Jakarta People?s Militia and the Indonesian Revolution, 1945-1949, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1991.
Career Highlights
Fellow in Residence, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study, Wassenaar (1988-89); Director, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen (1997-1999)
