Emplacing East Timor explores the relationship between the cycle of regime change and that of knowledge production, offering an alternative framework to periodize the history from the 1850s to the 2010s. Kisho Tsuchiya shows that the prevailing perceptions of East Timor have been shaped by large-scale wars, postwar consolidation, and the dominance of foreign observers. The transitions that construct what we know about East Timor have followed the rhythm of devastating violence and regime transformations. Playing a role as well are personal, institutional, and geopolitical interests and the creativity of Timorese and foreign observers. Acknowledging this cycle, Tsuchiya interweaves narrative of crucial events and political movements with an analysis of Timor’s connections to global circulations and historical transitions. He traces key persons and communities that shaped the contour of East Timor—from Portuguese colonial officers to anthropologists, Japanese occupiers to Australian activists, and Timorese poets to revolutionaries. Their experiences and imaginations of (East) Timor have been expressed through scholarly works, secret documents, policy statements, ceremonies, revolutionary songs, and museums.
Kisho Tsuchiya is assistant professor in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. He is a historian and Southeast Asian area studies scholar specializing in colonialism, the Cold War, race and ethnicity, social warfare, place and space, borderlands, identity politics, community formation, religious transformation, human-rights, and multi-culturalism. He is also an editorial board member of Southeast Asian Studies (Kyoto University) and Diálogos (National University of East Timor) and member of the Association for Asian Studies’ Indonesia and East Timor Studies Committee. In addition to his first monograph, he has published his research in Indonesia, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, and Revista Oriente, as well as in a chapter for the forthcoming book Cold War Asia: Unlearning Narratives, Making New Histories (Cornell, 2025) edited by Hajimu Masuda.
Participants are asked to read the Introduction of Emplacing East Timor (https://go.exlibris.link/ffFhX5s1), “Converting Tetun” (https://go.exlibris.link/QxDNlhc2), and “What was Independence” (PDF will be distributed via the mailing list). If you encounter trouble accessing the readings, please email qhuang98@mail.ubc.ca to enquire about PDF files.
The conversation will begin with brief remarks from Professor Tsuchiya about the motivation behind the book. Participants will be invited to share their own reflections, thoughts, and connections made with the assigned chapter and articles. Light lunch will be provided. All are welcome; no RSVP required.
Professor Kisho Tsuchiya will also be giving a talk on his book on the same day, from 3 PM to 5:30 PM. For more information, please visit https://sppga.ubc.ca/events/event/epistemologies-and-emplacements/.
