Research Expertise and Interest

Indonesia, South and Southeast Asian studies, literature and gender, cultural studies of Southeast Asia, orality and literacy.

Research Description

Sylvia Tiwon teaches literature, gender, oral and cultural studies of Southeast Asia with a focus on Indonesia and the Malay World. Her areas of interest include national and pre-national literatures, oral discourse and mythologies. 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), Trajectories of Memory (ed., with M. Budianta, 2023)) 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. Her current projects include work on coloniality, print-capitalism and gender in Indonesia and the literature of West Papua.