late to the party

but I just got Google Wave, & was immediately thrilled by all the possibilities. After digging around to see what wonderful things people were doing with it so far, the thought that occurred to me was: what a spectacular way to read books with other people! like a book club, but so much more focused [...]

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quotables, & contortions about racial thinking

When the archive seems easily to give access to what one expects of it, the work is all the more demanding. One has to patiently give up one’s natural ‘sympathy’ for it and consider it an adversary to fight, a piece of knowledge that isn’t to annex but to disrupt. It is not simply a [...]

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links for 2010-01-22

Banyan: The books of slaughter and forgetting | The Economist on the incomplete Indonesian Reformasi — at least in the case of book censorship — it seems to me that the kneejerk paranoia of many Southeast Asian governments with regard to accounts of the recent past is something that needs explaining (tags: southeastasia censorship indonesia [...]

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links for 2010-01-19

The Mansion on O Street | Washington, District Of Columbia | Atlas Obscura more DC destinations. (PS: I take recommendations) (tags: washington gohere museum) Politics and Prose | An independent bookstore in Washington, DC since 1984 note to self: visit this bookshop in DC (this summer!) (tags: washington bookshop gohere)

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links for 2010-01-18

Illustration Art: Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) this is so glorious – and tragic that the tragedy of war rendered his art irrelevant to an ugly modern world (tags: frankbrangwyn art modernpressures) The Anatomy of Salary Negotiations « Productive Geek Forums in case the whole academia thing doesn't work out, sigh (tags: jobs future) Harvard University Press: [...]

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sticks and stones

Image source: The Guardian Malaysia is in the news again for the usual reasons: nine churches firebombed by radical Muslims in the last week, on account of a rising controversy over the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Christians. A Catholic weekly paper, The Catholic Herald, was ordered by the government to cease publishing its [...]

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links for 2010-01-09

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go – Advice – The Chronicle of Higher Education harrowing Chronicle article for the day (2) (tags: academia humanities phd future tragedy) The Trials of Tony Judt – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education harrowing Chronicle article for the day (1) (tags: tonyjudt intellectuals academic [...]

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Cliopatria Awards 2009

I’m delighted to have won a Cliopatria Award (2009) in the category of ‘Best Post’, for my article on the Belitung Wreck (Curating the Oceans: The Future of Singapore’s Past, 14 July 2009). Many thanks for the votes — I had a lot of fun writing it. (Pirates! scandal! intrigue on the high seas!) And [...]

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washington, here I come

I’ve just been selected to attend the National History Center’s Decolonization Seminar [PDF] in Washington DC this July! It’s a four-week summer program for 15 grads or recent grads, to discuss the history of decolonization in the twentieth century with some of the doyens of imperial scholarship (eg. the towering & brilliant Wm. Roger Louis [...]

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Review

Generally speaking, I only review books that I think very highly of. It makes it easier to say stuff. This means that you should all go & read this book immediately.

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