Research Expertise and Interest

Indonesia, South and Southeast Asian studies, literature and gender, cultural studies of Southeast Asia, discourse oral, print, electronic, socio-cultural formations at the national and sub-nation level, non-governmental organizations

Research Description

Sylvia Tiwon teaches literature, gender, oral and cultural studies of Southeast Asia with a focus on Indonesia. Her areas of interest include national and pre-national literatures, oral discourse and mythologies, as well as socio-cultural formations at the national and sub-national levels. She has undertaken fieldwork in a number of cultural regions in the Indonesian archipelago. Her work includes the book, Breaking the Spell: Colonialism and Literary Renaissance in Indonesia (1999), and articles on literature and poetry, on women and the national imaginary, development, post-colonialism and cultural resistance in English and Indonesian. She is a founding member of the Indonesian network Praxis and member of its  Board of Education She is currently completing a book on women in the production of discourse in Indonesia and launching new research on poetry and resistance in Indonesia.