Rethinking State-Scholar Relations
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On 4 December, Rommel Curaming gave a FASS seminar entitled 'Rethinking the State-Scholar Relations in Indonesia and the Philippines’, in which he discussed his new book, published by Routledge, Power and Knowledge in Southeast Asia: State and Scholars in Indonesia and the Philippines. |
The main aims of the book are:
- To provide a nuanced characterization of the power-knowledge relations
- To push the logic of power/knowledge to its conclusion
- To help scholars minimize harm in their effort to do good
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The seminar involved extensive discussion of two semi-official histories: Tadhana, the ambitious 21-volume history of the Philippines written during the Marcos era; and Sejarah Nasional Indonesia, the six-volume official account of Indonesia written between 1971 and 1975, during the Soeharto regime. |
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Currently, there is anxiety towards the misuse of well-intentioned and rigorous scholarship; for if progressive scholarship can be misused to serve the interests of the already powerful, what hope is left for common people?