Date: 30th November – 1st December 2012

Time: 9:00am – 4:30pm

Venue: IAS Meeting Room, FASS Building, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Keynote speaker: Victor T. King (Eminent Visiting Professor, Institute of Asian Studies, UBD)

Among the major contributions to post-war studies of the island of Borneo are those within the fields of anthropology and other related social sciences. Some of this research has also contributed to the multidisciplinary fields of development, environment and ecology, cultural studies, and gender. The impetus for this workshop, which is being organised and sponsored by the Institute of Asian Studies, comes from the recent Borneo Research Council conference hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at UBD on 25-27 June at which several local social scientists suggested that we begin a stock-taking exercise to determine where we are now in research in Borneo Studies and where we should go or intend to go in the future. One of the major themes in the inaugural research programme of the Institute of Asian Studies is Borneo Studies and an important objective of the Institute is to become a major focus of research on Borneo.

The time is ripe to take stock of, analyse and evaluate the contributions of the social sciences (particularly anthropology) across the whole island (Sarawak, Sabah, Brunei and Kalimantan) in the context of more general developments in these disciplines both within Southeast Asia and more generally. It will require the categorisation of these studies as well as the compilation of a chronological record. It will also involve the compilation of those institutions in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei which have been involved in and havesponsored and organised research on the island; and those which hold published and unpublished resources, and which house ethnographic collections. One outcome of the workshop will be a detailed bibliography, a list of theses, and a record of relevant government and other official publications and reports. It is anticipated that the results of the research will be posted on the Institute’s website as the work progresses. A summary paper will be sent to the Borneo Research Bulletin in due course and an edited book will be prepared.

For further information, please contact:

Institute of Asian Studies, Level 2, FASS Building, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

Tel: +673 246 3001 extension 2592/2586  Email: office.ias@ubd.edu.bn