Staff Profiles

Background

Jacqueline Aquino Siapno is originally from Pangasinan, Philippines. She is the author of Gender, Islam, Nationalism and the State in Aceh: The Paradox of Power, Co-optation and Resistance (Routledge Curzon 2002); Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures: Volume I: Methodologies, Paradigms and Sources, Leiden: Brill, 2003; and co-editor, Between Knowledge and Commitment: Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Peace-building in Regional Contexts, Osaka: Japan Center for Area Studies, 2004. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of California-Berkeley, in South and Southeast Asian Studies, in 1997, her undergraduate studies at Wellesley College, Masschusetts, and her Master's at SOAS, University of London, both in Political Science. She has had teaching and research fellowship appointments at ANU, Canberra, University of California at Berkeley, Riverside, and Irvine. In addition to her academic work, she has also worked with grassroots organizations, NGOs, and political parties in East Timor, Aceh, Indonesia and the Philippines. She has worked as a consultant, external evaluator, and trainer for UNDP, OXFAM, Concern-Worldwide, UNIFEM, and government departments in East Timor, in the areas of rural development and gender issues. She is currently Associate Editor of the six-volume Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures (EWIC) project, Leiden: Brill, ongoing. . She also lives in Dili, East Timor, where she teaches half of the year at Universidade da Paz (UNPAZ).She envisions her contribution to the field of Political Science and Asian Studies as that of producing critiques of conventional approaches to poverty assessment, governance, democratisation, international security, international human rights, and international political economy from a gendered perspective and with subtle and sensitive attention to the politics of class, race, religion, rank, ethnicity, language and translation.

Jacqueline also teaches in the Indonesian Studies program in the Melbourne Institute of Asian Languanges and Societies.

Research

Jacqueline's research interests include art and politics in Southeast Asia, political performativity, women's labor and the economy, post-conflict reconstruction and development administration, women and public health issues, comparative studies of Muslim societies, and dance forms in Southeast Asia. She has conducted extensive fieldwork and published articles on Islam and social movements in Mindanao, the contradictions between feminism and nationalism in Aceh, East Timor, and the Philippines, state terror in Aceh, and other issues.

Subjects Taught

• 2nd/3rd year: Gender and Politics in Southeast Asia
• 2nd/3rd year: Colonial/Postcolonial Southeast Asian Politics
• 4th year: Human Rights Theory and Practice: Southeast Asia
• MA and Honours: Governance and Sustainable Development: Internship to East Timor

Supervision

Southeast Asian History and Politics, Gender Studies and Feminist Theory, Development Administration, Human Rights in Comparative Perspective, Rural Development in East Timor, and Islam and Social Movements in Southeast Asia.

Recent Publications

Books

Co-editor, Between Knowledge and Commitment: Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Peace-building in Regional Contexts, Osaka: Japan Center for Area Studies, 2004.

Associate Editor, Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures: Volume I: Methodologies, Paradigms and Sources, Leiden: Brill, 2003.

Gender, Islam, Nationalism, and the State in Aceh: the Paradox of Power, Co-optation and Resistance (Routledge and Curzon Press, 2002).

Book Chapters

"The Disciplinary Field of Political Science: Sources and Methods for Research on Women and Islamic Cultures," in Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures. Leiden: E.J. Brill, Volume I, 2003.

"Notes of an Out-of-Place Widow," in Violence Against Women in Asian Societies, edited by Lenore Manderson and Linda Bennett. London: Routledge Curzon Press, 2003.

"Gender, Nationalism and the Ambiguity of Female Agency in Aceh and East Timor", in Frontline Feminisms: Women, War and Resistance, Marguerite Waller, Jennifer Reycinga, and Chandra Mohanty (eds.). Routledge: 2001.

Journal Articles

War and Peace in Aceh and East Timor: The Limitations of the Language we Use', Association of Social Scientists in Australia (ASAA) Bulletin, January 2001.

'Political Violence in Southern Philippines and Aceh', Inside Indonesia, December 2000.

Reports

External Evaluation Report of Concern's Program on Transitional Development and Empowerment of Rural Women in Lautem and Ainaro Districts, East Timor', report circulated amongst international and local organizations working on women and rural development in East Timor. Completed January 2002.