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Professor Adrian Vickers

Professor of Southeast Asian Studies (Personal Chair)
Director, Asian Studies Program
Director, Australian Centre for Asian Art & Archaeology
PhD (Sydney), BA (Hons) (Sydney)

Room 637, Brennan MacCallum Building A18

Phone: +61 2 9351 2878
Fax: +61 2 9351 2319

Professor Vickers researches and publishes on the cultural history of Southeast Asia. His research utilises expertise in the Indonesian language as well as drawing on sources in Balinese, Kawi (Old and Middle Javanese) and Dutch. He has held a series of Australian Research Council grants (Discovery and Linkage), the most recent looking at Indonesian-Australian connections, labour and industry in Southeast Asia, and Balinese art. As part of a linkage grant on the history of Balinese painting, he is preparing a virtual museum, continuing previous pioneering work in eResearch and teaching. His books include the highly popular Bali: A Paradise Created (2012), A History of Modern Indonesia (2012) and Balinese Art: Paintings and Drawings of Bali, 1800-2010 (2012). Professor Vickers has supervised more than twenty PhD theses to completion, and has taught subjects on Southeast Asian history and culture from first year to Honours and Masters levels. Professor Vickers is frequently asked to comment on Indonesia and Australian-Indonesian relations for national and international media.

Research areas

  • Indonesian history and historiography
  • Indonesian art, particularly Balinese art
  • Australian-Indonesian relations
  • Labour and globalisation in the Asia-Pacific
  • Maritime Southeast Asia
  • Panji stories in Southeast Asia
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Current projects

Recent talks from these projects
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Recent selected publications

Books
  • Balinese Art: Paintings and Drawings of Bali, 1800-2010. Singapore: Tuttle, 2012. Link to publisher’s website
  • A History of Modern Indonesia. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012 (translated as Sejarah Indonesia Modern, Jakarta: Mizan, 2012, also in Turkish translation).
  • Bali Tempo Doeloe. Jakarta: Komunitas Bambu; translation of Traveling to Bali. Four hundred years of travel writing, editor and compiler. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press.
  • Bali: A Paradise Created. 3rd ed. Berkeley: Periplus, 2012 (previous eds translated into German, 1994; Dutch, 1997; Japanese 2000; Indonesian, in press).
  • Peradaban Pesisir: Menuju Sejarah Budaya Asia Tenggara [Coastal Civilisation: Towards a Cultural History of Southeast Asia]. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Larasan/Udayana University Press, 2009.
Articles
  • “Clothing Production in Indonesia: A Divided Industry”, International Journal of Institutions and Economies 4, 3, due out late 2012.
  • with Julia Martínez “Indonesians overseas – deep histories and the view from below”, Indonesia and the Malay World, 40 (2012): 111-121.
  • “Sakti Reconsidered: Power and the Disenchantment of the World”. In L. Chua, J. Cook, N. Long, L. Wilson ed., Southeast Asian Perspectives on Power. London: Routledge, 2012.
  • “Bali Rebuilds its Tourist Industry”. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land en Volkenkunde, special issue on the 1950s in Indonesia, 167-4 (2011): 459-481. This article online
  • “The Old Javanese Kapiparwa and a Recent Balinese Painting”. In A. Acri, H. Creese and A. Griffiths ed., From Laṅkā Eastwards: The Rāmāyaṇa in the Literature and Visual Arts of Indonesia. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2011. Publisher’s website
  • “Balinese Art versus Global Art”, Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal of Bali Studies), 1,2 (2011): 34-62.
  • “Reconciliation and Democracy in Indonesia”, in Beyond National Boundaries: Building a World without Walls, ed. Center for International Studies, pp. 393-417, Gyeonggi-do: Academy of Korean Studies Press, 2011.
  • “Southeast Asian Civilisation and its Place in the World”, in Beyond National Boundaries: Building a World without Walls, ed. Center for International Studies, pp. 23-50, Gyeonggi-do: Akademy of Korean Studies Press, 2011.
  • “Dugas Jepangé, The Japanese Period: Bali under the Japanese”, pp.86-92; “Indonesian Historiography of the Occupation Period”, pp. 448-453, “Agung, Mr Ide Anak Agung Gde (1921-1999)”, pp. 472-473. In P. Post et al. (eds.) The Encyclopaedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War, Leiden/Boston: Brill, awarded Choice’s Outstanding Academic Title 2010. Online version
  • “Where are the bodies: The haunting of Indonesia”. The Public Historian 32, 1 (2010): 42-55.
  • “Southeast Asian Studies after Said”, Arts 31 (2009): 58-72. Online version
  • “When Did Legong Start: A Reply to Stephen Davies”. BKI 165, 1(2009): 1-7. Online version
  • “The Sanur School of Painting and Theo Meier”. In Museum Pasifika: Selected Artworks of Asia Pacific, ed. Philippe Augier and Georges Breguet, pp. 33-39. Singapore: Equinox, 2009.
  • Retrospective I Nyoman Mandra, Kamasan, Klungkung, exhibition and catalogue. Sanur: Griya Santrian Gallery & Sangkring Art Space, Yogyakarta, 2009.
  • “Mengapa tahun 1950-an Penting bagi Kajian Indonesia”. In Perspektif Baru: Penulisan Sejarah Indonesia, ed. Henk Schulte Nordholt, Bambang Purwanto dan Ratna Saptari, pp. 67-78. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia/KITLV-Jakarta/Pustaka Larasan, 2008.
  • “Ida Bagus Made and Bali’s Modern Art”. In Ida Bagus Made: The Art of Devotion, pp. 26-30. Ubud: Ratna Wartha Foundation, 2008.

Follow this link for a full list of publications by Professor Vickers.

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Areas of teaching and research supervision

Teaching

Teaching

  • Introduction to Southeast Asia;
  • Commodity Relations in Southeast Asia;
  • Modern Indonesian history;
  • Art and Archaeology of Southeast Asia; Islam in Southeast Asia;
  • Asian Popular Culture.
Supervision
  • Indonesian art and culture
  • Indonesian history, historiography and politics
  • Southeast Asian cultural history
  • Australia and Indonesia
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Recent invited conference papers

  • 2012, “Sukarno”, Afro-Asian Conference, McGill and Concordia Universities, Montreal.
  • 2011, “Problems of Modernity and Modernism in Southeast Asian Art” in “Making a ‘Great’ Art Museum: Contending with Southeast Asian Modernities and Art”, NHB Academy IPS Symposium, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore.
  • 2011, “The Contribution of Bali’s Visual Arts to Global Culture”, Bali World Culture Forum, June, Dinas Kebudayaan Pemerintah Bali.
  • 2011, Commentator, Sites Bodies and Stories: Indonesia, India and (Post) Colonial Heritage Formation, Universitas Gajah Mada, Yogyakarta.
  • 2010, “Reconciliation and Democracy in Indonesia”, Lecture Series of World Distinguished Scholars, Graduate School of Korean Studies, Academy of Korean Studies.
  • 2010, “Southeast Asian Civilisation and its Place in the World”, Global Forum on Civilization and Peace, Academy of Korean Studies.
  • 2010, “Bali Rebuilds its Tourist Industry: the 1950s”, Kemerdekaan dan Perubanahn Jati Diri: Postcolonial Indonesian Identity, Universitas Gajah Mada, Yogyakarta.
  • 2008 “The Survival of Balinese Culture”, Kongres Kubudayaan Bali. Denpasar: Panitia Pelaksana Kongres Kebudayaan Bali I.
  • 2006, Convenor, 16th Biennial conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, University of Wollongong 26-29 June, 2006
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Other professional contributions

  • Editorial Board member, ASAA Southeast Asia publications series; Routledge Media, culture and Social Change in Asia series; Jurnal Kajian Budaya Bali; Majalah Historia.
  • Faculty Reviews, University of Tasmania, Charles Darwin University.
  • International assessor from grants and promotions for Asian, North American and European universities.
  • Member of the Steering Committee of the Innovative Approaches to the Provision of Languages in Higher Education in Australia (CASR-DASSH) Review.
  • Public lectures on Indonesia.
  • Speaker at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2012.
  • Invited speaker and facilitator, AsiaLink Leadership Program.
  • Media interviews, including ABC, SBS, Kompas, Metro TV, Dewata TV, Jakarta Post, Jakarta Globe, Bali Post, Los Angeles Times, The New Straits Times.
  • Consultancies to business on social impacts of development in Southeast Asia
  • Consultancies to the media and public galleries and museums on Indonesian culture and art
  • Adrian Vickers' Blog