I received my Ph.D. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1998, after studying for two Masters Degrees (History, Southeast Asian Studies) from Ohio University in 1990 and 1991. My interest in the environmental and cultural history of Southeast Asia, and particularly the Straits of Melaka, began when I taught at universities in Sumatra. My eclectic interests are reflected in my current research into the cultural and environmental history of Southeast Asia alongside studies of Malay films in the 1950s and 60s and the development of our understanding of the natural environment in the Malay Archipelago. This is also reflected in my publications. My first book, Raja Kecil dan Mitos Pengabsahannya (1994), was a Malay language book focusing on Malay historiography. Some of my other publications include Multiple Centres of Authority (2003) and the edited works Contesting Malayness (2004) and Nature Contained (2014). I recently published a history of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, Nature’s Colony (2016). I teach introductory modules on Asian History in addition to upper level modules focusing on the Malay World, Environmental History, and Film. In my spare time, I enjoy collecting memorabilia related to musical icon Nigel Tufnel and American conservationist Harlan Pepper.

TEACHING AREAS:

• Environmental History
• Film
• Indonesia
• The Malay World of Southeast Asia

CURRENT RESEARCH:

• The Environmental History of Singapore
• Social and Environmental History of the Early Modern Malay World
• Malay Film as a Historical Source

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Books:

• Nature’s Colony: Empire, Nation and Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Singapore: NUS Press, 2016
• Nature Contained: Environmental Histories of Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, 2014. [Editor]
• Contesting Malayness: Malay Identity across Boundaries. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2004.
• Multiple Centres of Authority: Society and Environment in Siak and Eastern Sumatra, 1674-1827. Leiden: KITLV, 2003.
• Raja Kecil dan Mitos Pengabsahannya. (Raja Kecil and His Legitimation Myth). Pekanbaru, Indonesia: Pusat Pengajian Melayu, 1994.

Selected Journal Articles:

• “Historiography and Shifting Interpretations of the Death of Sultan Mahmud Syah II,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 89, 2 (2016): 3-25.
• ‘“This Class of Vagabonds and Sharpers”: Europeans, Rantau and the Malay World prior to Colonial Rule,’ Indonesia and the Malay World 43, 126 (2015): 255-69.
• “Protecting the Dragon: Dutch Attempts at Limiting Access to Komodo Lizards in the 1920s and 1930s”, Indonesia 92 (2011): 97-123.
• ‘Film Melayu: Nationalism, Modernity and Film in a Pre-World War Two Malay Magazine,’ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 41, 1 (2010): 47-70.
• ‘Decolonization and the Nation in Malay Film, 1955-1965,’ South East Asia Research, 17, 1 (2009): 65-86.
• ‘Celates, Rayat-Laut, Pirates: The Orang Laut and their Decline in History,’ Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 80, 2 (2007): 33-49.
• ‘Rules for Rulers: Obscure Texts, Authority, and Policing in Two Malay States,’ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 32, 2 (2001): 211-25.
• 'The Timber Trade in Pre-Modern Siak,' Indonesia 65, (1998): 86-96.
• ‘Local Heroes and National Consciousness: The Politics of Historiography in Riau,' Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 153, 4 (1997): 509-526.
• 'Taman Penghiburan: Entertainment and the Riau Elite in the Late 19th Century,' Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 62, 2, (1994): 17-46.

Selected Book Articles:

• ‘The Rafflesia in the Natural and Imperial Imagination of the East India Company in Southeast Asia,’ in The East India Company and the Natural World, ed. Vinita Damoradaran, Anna Winterbottom, and Alan Lester (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), pp. 147-166.
• “The Hajj, Islam, and Power among the Bugis in Early Colonial Riau” in Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, Movement, and the Longue Duree, ed. Eric Tagliacozzo (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2009), pp. 65-82.
• “Chasing the Dragon: An Early Expedition to Komodo Island” in Lost Times and Untold Tales from the Malay World, ed. Jan van der Putten and Mary Kilcline Cody (Singapore: NUS Press, 2009), pp. 41-53.
• “The Shaw Brothers’ Malay Films” in China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic Cinema, ed. Poshek Fu (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008), pp. 154-73.
• “Malay Cosmopolitan Activism in Post-War Singapore” in Paths Not Taken: Political Pluralism in Singapore, ed. Michael Barr and Carl Trocki (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008), pp. 134-55. [Co-written with Jan van der Putten]
• “Old Malay Heroes Never Die: The Story of Hang Tuah in Comics and Film”, in Film and Comic Books, ed. Ian Gordon, Marc Jancovich, and Matthew P. McAllister (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), pp. 246-67, 292-4. [Co-written with Jan van der Putten]
• “Film, Literature and Context in Southeast Asia: P. Ramlee, Malay Cinema, and History” in Southeast Asian Studies: Debates and New Directions, ed. Cynthia Chou and Vincent Houben (Singapore and Leiden: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies / International Institute for Asian Studies, 2006), pp. 162-79.
• “Mestizos as Middlemen: Tomas Días and his Travels in Eastern Sumatra” in Iberians in the Singapore-Melaka Area (16th to 18th Century), ed. Peter Borschberg (Weisbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004), pp. 147-60.
• “Chickens, Cakes and Kitchens: Food and Modernity in Malay Films of the 1950s and 1960s” in Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film, ed. Anne L. Bower (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 75-86.