Ocean Pulse: Historicizing the Modern with Muse Mentors, Barbara and Leonard Andaya

seacoast Muse/Mentor Visit, Slow Seminar

Maritime Southeast Asia is a region that has been defined by deep histories of cultural exchange, regional and global trade networks, and multiple, fluid maritime polities. Historians have shown how the flow and exchange of goods, peoples, and ideas shaped the diverse epistemic conditions upon which trade and later colonial relations were perceived and negotiated. Here, modern categories of difference, including race, animality, and binaries of gender, sexuality, and self-other, encounter divergent forms of tractions, frictions, and slippages—all of which are still being worked through in contemporary modern Southeast Asian societies. Diving into historical currents and navigations, we take a closer look at the indeterminacies of modernity and the processes that contribute to its reification and discontents.

Ocean Pulse is an invitation to explore the historical forces and relations that have shaped maritime Southeast Asia, and open up conversations about how modern categories of difference, and the realities they engender, are shaped by specific and interconnected historical conditions.

As we navigate these complexities, we are fortunate to have SEACoast Muse Mentors for this year, Professors in History, Leonard and Barbara Andaya, who will each deliver a talk that draw from their ongoing works, Pacific History from the View of Eastern Indonesia, and “Braving the wrath of sea monsters and the wile of sea-maids”: Gendering Early Modern Encounters with the Underwater World, respectively (abstracts attached).

Each talk will be followed by roundtable discussions with UCSC’s very own, Professors Carla Freccero (History of Consciousness), Sharon Kinoshita (Literature), and Vanita Seth (Politics). We are grateful to be hosting these distinguished scholars from different disciplinary fields, and to bring their groundbreaking work and ideas into conversation with each other.

We would love for you to be a part of the conversation at the two events we have planned for Ocean Pulse. Please see below for more details and links to register. Event flyers are also attached, for you to circulate in your networks that are local or close to Santa Cruz for this in-person event.

If you have any questions, please write us a seacoast@ucsc.edu.

Slow Seminar on Leonard and Barbara Andaya’s works

3.50 – 5pm | Monday January 30th, 2023 | Social Sciences 1, Room 261

This seminar is an opportunity to read and discuss some of Leonard and Barbara Andaya’s key arguments about the broader currents of trade, colonial, ethnic, sexual, and gender relations that have shaped maritime history and spatial imaginations in Southeast Asia.

Readings

Leonard Andaya’s articles:
2001.The Search for the ‘Origins’ of Melayu. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.
2000. A History of Trade in the Sea of Melayu. Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History.

Participants are asked to read the selected texts ahead of the seminar, and not to be discouraged if you are unable to get through all of the readings. Read as much as you are able, and feel free to focus on sections that are of particular interest to you!

Please REGISTER here for event location and updates.

Talks by Leonard and Barbara Andaya & Roundtable discussions 

with Carla Freccero, Sharon Kinoshita, and Vanita Seth

9am-3pm | Friday Feb 10, 2023 | Namaste Lounge, College 9 UCSC

09:00-09:15 Opening Remarks by SEACoast Directors
09:15-10:15 Talk by Leonard Andaya: Eastern Indonesia in Oceania*
10:15-10:25 Coffee Break 
#1
10:25-11:25 Roundtable Panel
 by Vanita, Sharon, and Carla
11:25-12:10 Lunch
12:10-13:10 Talk by Barbara Andaya: “Braving the wrath of sea monsters and the wile of sea-maids”: Gendering Early Modern Encounters with the Underwater World*
13:10-13:20 Coffee Break 
#2
13:20-14:50 Plenary Discussion

*Abstracts for each talk are attached in the flyer below.

Please REGISTER here for event location and updates.

Event flyer for Ocean Pulse: Historicizing the Modern Slow Seminar on Leonard and Barbara Andaya's works 3.50 - 5pm | Monday January 30th, 2023 | Social Sciences 1 Room 261 This seminar is an opportunity to read and discuss some of Leonard and Barbara Andaya's key arguments about the broader currents of trade, colonial, ethnic, sexual, and gender relations that have shaped maritime history in Southeast Asia. Readings Leonard Andaya's articles: 2001.The Search for the 'Origins' of Melayu. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 2000. A History of Trade in the Sea of Melayu. Itinerario, European Journal of Overseas History. Barbara Andaya's book: To Live as Brothers: Southeast Sumatra in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Talks by Leonard and Barbara Andaya & Roundtable discussions with Carla Freccero, Sharon Kinoshita, and Vanita Seth 9am-3pm | Friday Feb 10, 2023 | Venue TBD Leonard's Talk: Eastern Indonesia in Oceania Barbara's Talk: "Braving the wrath of sea monsters and the wile of sea-maids": Gendering Early Modern Encounters with the Underwater World
Abstract of Eastern Indonesia in Oceania Though the eastern islands of Indonesia today form a distinct part of this archipelago nation, this area can be properly regarded as part of Oceania. The connection extends far back in prehistory at the time of the Austronesian-speaking communities in Southeast Asia and their expansion into the Pacific. Eastern Indonesia’s maritime environment, its boat technology, and the prominence of the fisher-forager-trader are all factors that came to define eastern Indonesia and underscore the argument that eastern Indonesia should be regarded as an integral part of both Southeast Asia and Oceania.Abstract for "Braving the wrath of sea monsters and the wile of sea-maids": Gendering Early Modern Encounters with the Underwater World Despite scientific scepticism, public belief in the existence of “sea monsters” and humanoid marine creatures can be tracked across the globe, even into contemporary times. In the sixteenth century European sailors brought entrenched ideas about an underwater world with them as they ventured into the unfamiliar waters of Asia. Here they encountered societies that shared similar views of the sea as a domain where supernatural forces were always present. The presentation explores some of this interaction as recorded in sources from the early modern period (ca 1400-1800), but also argues that these sources were highly gendered. First, with rare exceptions, long distance sea travel was a male activity and the ocean was therefore viewed primarily through men’s eyes; second, sea monsters could be male, female or androgynous, but their very size and ferocity was a challenge to the masculinity implicit in maritime exploration; and third, it was sea beings in a female form -- as beguiling sirens, seductive mermaids, or vindictive spirit-crones -- that dominated mariners’ imagination. In the 21st century alleged sightings of sea monsters and mermaids attest the extent to which the underwater world still remains both gendered and mysterious.

 

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