Located between China, Korea and Japan to the East and the Indian Subcontinent to the West, Southeast Asia has experienced centuries of movement - of people, languages and material culture, as well as commodities, ideas, philosophies and belief-systems.

Southeast Asia also witnessed the arrival of traders, teachers and settlers from the Hadramaut - a region of southern Arabia encompassing eastern Yemen, parts of western Oman and southern Saudi Arabia - and to this day there are large and visible communities of Hadhrami Arabs in many parts of Southeast Asia.

Presentations followed by a panel discussion will offer a broad overview of the Hadhrami experience in Indonesia, and show how the Hadhrami community has been closely linked to Indonesian society, and how these two communities share a common history that is constantly evolving.

Speakers:

Prof. Engseng Ho

Professor of Anthropology and History at Duke University in the US, Prof. Ho is a leading scholar of transnational anthropology, history and Muslim societies, Arab diasporas, and the Indian Ocean. His research expertise is in Arabia, coastal South Asia and maritime Southeast Asia and he is co-editor of the Asian Connections book series at Cambridge University Press. His previously held positions include Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University; senior scholar at Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies; international economist for the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation/Monetary Authority of Singapore; director of the Middle East Institute and the Muhammad Alagil Distinguished Visiting Professor of Arabia Asia Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Prof. Farish A Noor (Badrol Hisham Ahmad Noor)

Prof. Noor, who will join the seminar virtually via Zoom, is a professor in the Department of History, Faculty of the Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya. Prof. Noor's work has focused mainly on 19th century colonial Southeast Asia, and he has written extensively about the impact of colonialism on the formation of collective group identities in the region. His works include The Discursive Construction of Southeast Asia in 19th Century Colonial-Capitalist Discourse, America's Encounters with Southeast Asia 1800-1900, and Data Collecting in 19th Century Colonial Southeast Asia. 

Prof. Fatimah Husein

Professor in Philosophy of Religion at the State Islamic University Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and an associate director of the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies, Yogyakarta. Her research interests include inter-religious relations, countering religious extremism, religion and social media, and Hadhrami communities in Indonesia. She has published her research in various journals, and presents her work to diverse academic audiences in Indonesia and internationally.

the moderator is :

Prof. Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk

Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Qatar University, Prof. Abushouk received his PhD in history from Bergen University, Norway, in 1998. Before joining Qatar University in 2012, he worked at Bergen University (1998-1999) and International Islamic University Malaysia (1999-2012). He has authored more than 25 books and 70 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. His publications include A History of Islah and Irshad Movement and Shaykh of the Irshadis Ahmad Muhammad al-Surkitti in Indonesia, 1876-1943 (2000); A Sudanese Scholar in the Diaspora: Life and Career of Ahmad Muhammad al-Surkitti in Indonesia, 1911-1943, Studia Islamika (2001); Al-Manar and the Hadhrami Elites in the Malay World: Challenges and Prospects, and The Hadrami Diaspora in Southeast Asian: Identity Maintenance or Assimilation? (2009).

Interpretation from English to Arabic 

Date: 10 February 2024

Time: 5:30 - 7:00 PM

Language: Arabic and English

Target Audience: General public

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