The UP Asian Center will host the public lecture on "Slavery, Bondage, and Metaphysics in Southeast Asian Studies" on 3 October 2025, 2 PM, PHT, at the Seminar Room, Asian Center, UP Diliman. The lecture is free and open to the public. Online registration is encouraged because of limited slots.
ABOUT THE LECTURE
On the final page of his General Theory (1936), John Maynard Keynes writes that “[p]ractical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” This insight is true in that most practical people today are enslaved by the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. What about the field of Southeast Asian Studies? Are we enslaved, or in bondage, servitude, or in thrall to some defunct Southeast Asianist? This lecture will explore the problem of metaphysics in Asian Studies, with reference to Balinese cockfighting, the Cornell Southeast Asia Program, and Max Ernst’s The Elephant Celebes (1921).
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
IAN CALDWELL
Retired Professor, University of Leeds, UK
Dr. Ian Caldwell is a philologist and historian who researches the early Bugis and Makasar kingdoms in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. He holds diplomas from SOAS, the ANU and Satya Wacana Christian University and has taught at the National University of Singapore, the University of Hull, the University of Leeds, and the Instituto Universitario Orientale in Naples. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the UK’s Free Speech Union.
For inquiries, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.
The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. It also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. As an area studies institution, the Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website.
