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Knowing Indonesia Inside and Out: Herb Feith and the Intellectual Search for Understanding

journal contribution
posted on 2007-01-01, 00:00 authored by Jemma Purdey
Herb Feith was one of Australia's first and most prominent scholars of Indonesia. His books and articles dating from the late 1950s are still read by students of Indonesian politics today, and his opinion on Indonesia's future was sought until the day he died by people both in Australia and in Indonesia. He was also among the first to teach peace studies in Australian universities and is remembered for his activism on human rights, peace, and environmental issues as well as his scholarship. Jemma Purdey is researching and writing a biography of Herb Feith with particular focus on his engagement with Indonesia, both as scholar and humanist. This article endeavours to open up one of the areas explored in the biography, the relationship between the ‘foreign’ scholar and his subject, Indonesia. How does the initial point of engagement with Indonesia impact on the scholars’ way of ‘knowing’ it? The article is also a preliminary reflection on the process of writing, as the author negotiates her approach as biographer.

History

Journal

Life writing

Volume

4

Issue

2

Pagination

181 - 195

Publisher

Routledge

Location

Oxon, England

ISSN

1448-4528

eISSN

1751-2964

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

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