Dr. John Roosa Wins Association of Asian Studies’ Kahin Prize



Congratulations to Dr. John Roosa on winning the George McT. Kahin Prize of the Association for Asian Studies for his book, Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia (University of Wisconsin Press 2020).

The George McT. Kahin Prize of the Association for Asian Studies is given biennially to an outstanding scholar of Southeast Asian studies from any discipline or country specialization to recognize distinguished scholarly work on Southeast Asia beyond the author’s first book.

Based upon years of documentary research and personal interviews with victims, Buried Histories is an impressive contribution to the literature on genocide and mass atrocity, addressing themes of media, military organization, economic interests, and resistance.

 

About the Book

Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia

In 1965-66, supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia were regularly killed in army-organized massacres. Very few of these atrocities have been studied in any detail, and answers to basic questions remain unclear. What was the relationship between the army and civilian militias? How could the perpetrators come to view unarmed individuals as dangerous enemies of the nation? Why did Communist Party supporters, who numbered in the millions, not resist?