Politics of Culture in Southeast Asia (ResMA)

Admission requirements

Admission to the MA Asian Studies (research) or another relevant Research MA. Students from other programmes are kindly referred to the course description of the regular MA course.

Description

Ballet Philippines, the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysian National Literary Laureate, the University of Culture in Yangon, the Pornography Law in Indonesia (much of which is about nudity in performance and media): as these examples indicate, culture is a beloved object of national cultural policy, not least in the Southeast Asian region. UNESCO and many non-governmental organizations are active in this field as well, not to mention the fact that the market has a serious commercial interest in certain cultural genres. The politics of culture in Southeast Asia has a double aim: to provide students with an up-to-date comparative survey of Southeast Asian national politics in the cultural realm, and on a theoretical level to examine the ways in which institutions, communities, and individuals attempt to keep in check the ways of doing and thinking that we call cultural. The course consists of two main parts. In the first and longest, on the basis of weekly readings we discuss cultural politics in the respective Southeast Asian countries. To give the discussion substance and to facilitate comparison within Southeast Asia and with other parts of the world, we focus on concrete cultural categories. In 2016/17 these will be dance, puppetry, and pop, thus covering genres that tend to be developed under state patronage as well as genres that tend to be left largely to the market, and allowing us also to examine transnational cultural connections and flows. The second (short) part takes a more theoretical turn. We will consider the workings of institutional, communal, and individual cultural control on the basis of case studies of the performance of language in Java, Indonesia.

Course objectives

• Knowledge of and comparative insight into contemporary cultural politics in the Southeast Asian countries, in historical perspective;

• Analytical insight into the ways in which institutions, communities, and individuals work to control culture;

• Self-critical awareness, especially the ability to relativize culturally instilled attitudes;

• Theoretical insight into the study of cultural politics.

Timetable

See timetable of the MA Asian Studies (research).

Mode of instruction

Seminar

Attendance and active participation are obligatory for seminars. Students are required to prepare for and attend all sessions. The conveners need to be informed without delay of any classes missed for a good reason (i.e. due to unforeseen circumstances such as illness, family issues, problems with residence permits, the Dutch railways in winter, etc.). In these cases it is up to the discretion of the convener(s) of the course whether or not the missed class will have to be made up with an extra assignment. The maximum of such absences during a semester is two. Being absent without notification and/or more than two times can result in exclusion from the term end exams and a failing grade for the course.

Course Load

Assessment method

Academic Integrity

Students should familiarize themselves with the notion of academic integrity and the ways in which this plays out in their own work. A good place to start is this page. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students may not substantially reuse texts they have previously submitted in this or other courses. Minor overlap with previous work is allowed as long as it is duly noted in citation.  
Students must submit their assignment(s) to the blackboard through turnitin, so they can be checked for plagiarism. Submission via email is not accepted.

Assessment and weighing

Resit

In order to pass the course, students must obtain an overall mark of “5.50” (=6) or higher. In order to be allowed to take the concluding written examination, students should have participated actively in at least 75 per cent of the seminars. An exam resit is possible only for element (2), and only if the student participated in the first written exam and received an overall mark for the course of “5.49” or lower. The concluding examination and the weekly tasks belong together and must be completed in the same academic year. No partial marks can be carried over into following years.

Exam Review

Students may request an oral elucidation of the assessment within 30 days after publication of the grade.

Blackboard

Blackboard will be used for:

• the extended course description (syllabus), including reading lists

• weekly web-postings

• announcements
  Blackboard serves as the primary means of communication about the course between instructor and students outside class meetings. Registration for the course on Blackboard is essential.

Note: there is no separate Blackboard page available for this ResMa course. Please subscribe to the Blackboard page of the regular MA course.

Reading list

Weekly readings to be announced via Blackboard.

For the Research MA students additional reading will be determined by the convener at a later stage taking into account the students’ fields of interest. Extra sessions will be organized to discuss this extra literature.

Registration

Students are required to register through uSis. To avoid mistakes and problems, students are strongly advised to register in uSis through the activity number which can be found in the timetable in the column under the heading “USIS-Actnbr.”. More information on uSis is available in Dutch and English. You can also have a look at the FAQ.

Not being registered, means no permission to attend this course. See also the webpage on course and exam enrolment for registration deadlines and more information on how to register.

Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs

Not applicable.

Contact

Prof.dr. B. Arps

Students with disabilities

The university is committed to supporting and accommodating students with disabilities as stated in the university protocol (especially pages 3-5). Students should contact Fenestra Disability Centre at least four weeks before the start of their courses to ensure that all necessary academic accommodations can be made in time conform the abovementioned protocol.