News

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New Staff

Dr Sally Sargeson joined PSC as a Fellow in February 2007. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Political and Social Change and the Contemporary China Centre. She currently is researching the local politics of property reforms in rural China, and working on a Ford Foundation-funded project on women's property rights and agency in expanding urban areas of China.

New Students

Ms Nattakant Akarapongpisak from Thailand and Mr Irwan Sinaga from Indonesia commenced their Ph.D. program at PSC in July 2007.

Ms Akarapongpisak's research interests include agrarian politics, Thailand's local politics, political participation. She will be co-supervised by Prof. Ben Kerkvliet and Dr Sally Sargeson.

Mr Sinaga's broad research area is emigration and national security of Indonesia. Dr Greg Fealy and Dr Edward Aspinall will be his main supervisors.

Postdoctoral Fellowship at the United Nations University in Tokyo

Morten Pedersen, a recent PhD from PSC and a visiting fellow in the department, has been awarded a two year Postdoctoral fellowship at the United Nations University in Tokyo to continue his research and writing on political dynamics in Burma/Myanmar. The fellowship started in mid-October, 2006.

Student Awarded PhD

Bima Arya Sugiarto was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree. His dissertation is titled 'Beyond Formal Politics: Party Factionalism and Leadership in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia'.

Currently Dr Bima Arya Sugiarto serves as executive director of The Lead Institute, Centre for Political Leadership, Paramadina University Jakarta. He is also a Senior Lecturer and Researcher at Department of International Relations, Paramadina University Jakarta.

Visitors to PSC

Dr Freddy Kirana Kalidjernih joined PSC as a Visiting Fellow from 29 March 2007 to 29 September 2007 under a DEST Endeavour Research Scholarship. His research project concerns human rights advocacy by Indonesianists in Australia.

Dr Kalidjerhih is a Lecturer at Graduate School of Communication Studies, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, the University of Indonesia.

Dr Kacung Marijan joined PSC as a Visiting Fellow from 16 October 2006 to 16 June 2007. Dr Marijan has a strong record of academic achievement in the study of Islamic politics and political economy in Indonesia. He plans to do research on political violence in the 2005 East Java local election which he will later publish in a refereed journal.

2007 Vietnam Update

The 2007 Vietnam Update conference will be held in University House from 29-30 November, 2007. The theme of this year's conference is 'Education in Vietnam Today: Changes and Challenges'. For detailed information, please see 2007 Vietnam Update.

The Vietnam Update has been a frequent event at the University since 1990. The purpose of the Update is to review the most important economic, political and social developments in Vietnam during the past year and to focus on a special theme.