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Book highlights: Award-winning books on Southeast Asia

Published 28 Jul 2023

“By considering Arabs in the Malay world under European rule, Becoming Arab explores how a long history of inter-Asian interaction was altered by nineteenth-century racial categorisation and control.” — Blurb.

Becoming Arab: Creole Histories and Modern Identity in the Malay World by Sumit Mandal won the Harry J .Benda Prize in 2020.

First presented in 1977, the Harry J. Benda Prize is awarded annually by the Association for Asian Studies for a first book about Southeast Asia. It is named in honour of Harry J. Benda, an expert on Indonesian politics who was also the first director of ISEAS. Other books that have won this prize are also available at ISEAS Library, including:

“Extricating liberalism from the haze of anti-modernist and anti-European caricature, this book traces the role of liberal philosophy in the building of a new nation. It examines the role of toleration, rights, and mediation in the postcolony. Through the biographies of four Filipino scholar-bureaucrats–Camilo Osias, Salvador Araneta, Carlos P. Romulo, and Salvador P. Lopez–Lisandro E. Claudio argues that liberal thought served as the grammar of Filipino democracy in the 20th century.” — Publisher.

Liberalism and the Postcolony: Thinking the State in 20th-century Philippines by Lisandro E. Claudio won the George McT. Kahin Prize in 2019.

The Association for Asian Studies also awards the biennial George McT. Kahin Prize, which was initiated in 2007. The prize is named after George McTurnan Kahin, an expert on Southeast Asia.

Other winners of this prize available at ISEAS Library are:

“The yellow shirts (PAD-People’s Alliance for Democracy) that are the focus of the book are anti-democratic movements grown out of democratic periods in Thailand, but became the catalyst for the country’s democratic breakdown. Why, when, and how supporters of these movements mobilize offline and online to bring down democracy are some of the key questions that Sinpeng answers.” — Publisher.

Opposing Democracy in the Digital Age: The Yellow Shirts in Thailand by Aim Sinpeng won the ASAA Early Career Book Prize in 2022.

The Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) awards biennial prizes for books by early-career and mid-career scholars. Other winners of these prizes are also available at ISEAS Library:

Other award-winning books at the Library include:

All the above books are available at ISEAS Library. Drop by and pick up one (or more)!
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