Max Lane

Researcher’s Profile

For 50 years I have written articles and books on Indonesian politics, history and culture. I have been a Second Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta; Principal Research Officer, Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade; written hundreds of articles for newspapers and non-government organisations and am a published translator of Indonesian literary works, including works by Pramoedya Ananta Toer and Rendra. I have been an academic at the University of Sydney, Victoria University (Melbourne), Murdoch University and the National University of Singapore and lectured at universities in Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.

Current Research

• I follow closely and write about contemporary domestic Indonesian politics, with a special interest in the underlying character of elite political formations and political conflicts as well as in labor and developments in extra-parliamentary political formations.
• I also follow to analyse developments with political implications in the realm of literary and artistic endeavour.

Selected Publications

Books

• (ed), Continuity and Change after Indonesia’s Reforms: Contributions to an Ongoing Assessment, ISEAS, 2019
• An Introduction to the Politics of the Indonesian Union Movement, ISEAS, 2019
• Indonesia tidak ada di Bumi Manusia: Pramoedya, Sejarah dan Politik, Djaman Baroe, 2018.
• Indonesia And Not: Poems And Otherwise: Anecdotes Scattered, Djaman Baroe, 2016
• Unfinished Nation: Ingatan Revolusi, Aksi Massa dan Sejarah Indonesia, Djamn Baroe, 2015
• Decentralization and Its Discontents: An Essay on Class, Political Agency and National Perspective in
• Indonesian Politics, ISEAS, 2014.
• Catastrophe in Indonesia, Seagull Books, (University of Chicago Press), 2010
• Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and after Suharto, Verso, 2008 (Re-printed 2018)
• Catastrophe in Indonesia, Seagull Books, (University of Chicago Press), 2010
• The Urban Mass Movement in the Philippines, 1983-1987, Australian National University and Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1990.
• Openness, political discontent and succession in Indonesia: political developments in Indonesia, 1989-90, Nathan, QLD, Australia: Griffith University, 1991.
• Translator, This Earth of Mankind, by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Penguin, many editions
• Translator, Child of All Nations by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Penguin, many editions
• Translator, Footsteps by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Penguin, many editions
• Translator House of Glass by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Penguin, many editions
• Translator The Chinese in Indonesia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Select Books, Singapore
• Translator Arok Dedes (Arok of Java) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Horizon Books, Singapore
• Translator, The Struggle of the Naga Tribe, by Rendra, University of Queensland Press and St Martins Press, New York