Thomas Alexander Charles BARKER
Date of Birth:
Citizenship:
Marital Status:
16 October 1980
Australian and British
Single
Contact Details:
+65 92974140 (mobile), +65 65166356 (office)
t.a.c.barker@gmail.com, soctacb@nus.edu.sg
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University
of Singapore, AS1 #03-06, 11 Arts Link, Singapore 117570.
17 Columbia St, Chapel Hill, Brisbane QLD, Australia, 4069.
Resume Highlights
2006-2011
2010
2008-2009
2001-2002
Groundbreaking research into the post-New Order Indonesian film industry analyzing its
cultural economy as pop culture.
Co-editor of a collection of essays published in Asian Cinema journal, subsequently
translated and published in Indonesia in the edited volume Mau Dibawa Kemana Sinema
Kita? (Jakarta: Penerbit Salemba).
PhD fieldwork in Jakarta, Indonesia. Interviewed over fifty key figures from the
Indonesian film industry, including producers, directors, government officials and critics.
Participant on the Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Program.
Current Position
August 2011 Visiting Fellow, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore.
Lecturer for SC2210 ‘The Sociology of Popular Culture’ (150 students).
Education
2011
Ph.D. Sociology, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Supervisor: Prof. Chua Beng Huat.
Thesis: A Cultural Economy of the Contemporary Indonesian Film Industry.
2005
M.Phil. Contemporary Critical Theory. University of Birmingham, UK.
Supervisor: Dr. Monica Bungaro.
Thesis: Being Resistance: A Postcolonial Literary Inquiry.
2002
B.A. Indonesian. Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
B.AppSc. Physics. Queensland University of Technology, Australia.
Publications
2011
2010
2010
2010
‘Dangdut the Sound of Indonesia’, IIAS Newsletter, Summer, 57, 36.
co-editor, Mau Dibawa ke Mana Sinema Kita? Beberapa Wacana Seputar Film Indonesia, (with
Gaik Cheng Khoo and Ekky Imanjaya), Jakarta: Penerbit Salemba.
‘Mempertanyakan Konsep “Film Nasional”’, in Mau Dibawa ke Mana Sinema Kita?, edited by
Khoo Gaik Cheng and Thomas Barker, Jakarta: Penerbit Salemba, 7-29.
‘Membayangkan “Indonesia”: Produser Etnis Tionghoa dan Sinema pra-Kemerdekaan’ (with
Charlotte Setijadi-Dunn), in Mau Dibawa ke Mana Sinema Kita?, edited by Khoo Gaik Cheng
and Thomas Barker, Jakarta: Penerbit Salemba, 31-56.
2010
2010
2010
2009
2009
2008
2008
2008
2007
2006
guest editor, Asian Cinema, special edition on Indonesian Cinema, with Khoo Gaik Cheng,
Fall/Winter 21(2).
‘Historical Inheritance and Film Nasional in post-Reformasi Indonesian Cinema’, Asian Cinema,
Fall/Winter 21(2): 7-24.
‘Imagining ‘Indonesia’: Ethnic Chinese film producers in pre-independence cinema’ (with
Charlotte Setijadi-Dunn), Asian Cinema, Fall/Winter 21(2): 25-47.
‘Modernity and the Mobile Phone: Exploring Tensions about Dating and Sex in Indonesia’ (with
Lee Humphreys) in Mobile Telephony Devices: The Technological Revolution, edited by
Dhananjay Keskar and Reena Poddar, Hyderabad: Icfai University Press.
‘The new law will put films back in the box’ (with Veronica Kusuma), The Jakarta Post,
09/09/2009.
‘Ahmadiyah and crisis of Indonesian Islam’, The Jakarta Post, 7/11/2008.
‘Three Months in the Field’, E-Bulletin, International Sociological Association, Sage: London,
March.
‘Old bicycle fans riding the past into the future’, The Jakarta Post, 7/4/2008.
‘Modernity and the Mobile Phone: Exploring Tensions about Dating and Sex in Indonesia’ (with
Lee Humphreys), M/C Journal 10(1), <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0703/06-humphreysbarker.php>.
‘VCD Pornography of Indonesia’ in Vickers, A. and Hanlon, M. (eds) Asia Reconstructed:
Proceedings of the 16th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, 2006, Wollongong, Australia.
Canberra: Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) Inc. & Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies (RSPAS), The Australian National University.
<coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennialconference/2006/proceedings.html>.
Work Experience
2009-2011
2007
2006-2009
2003
Teaching Assistant, SC1101 Making Sense of Society
Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore
Managing ten two-hour tutorial classes of twenty students, including organizing content
to be taught week to week. Conducting assessment, including assignments and final
examination.
Research Assistant, Violence in Southern Thailand.
Project of Dr. Saroja Dorairajoo, National University of Singapore
Sourcing and compiling material for research project.
Undergraduate Tutor, Department of Sociology, NUS.
Teaching classes of twenty students. Subjects taught include: Making Sense of Society
(SC1101), Popular Culture (SC2210) and Sexuality in Comparative Perspective
(SC3219).
Researcher, Centre for Social and Southeast Asian Studies (PSSAT)
Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Self-defined, 6-month research project on social issues and the media in Yogyakarta.
Seminar Papers
2011
2011
2011
2011
‘Malay Horror Films, Then and Now - Pontianak and National Anxieties’, Malay Arts and Islam
Seminar Series 2011, National University of Singapore, 27 October 2011.
‘Indonesian Horror Films: Ghosts of Historical Trauma’, Seminar at the Asia Research Institute,
National University of Singapore, Indonesia Studies Cluster, 28 July 2011
‘Indonesian Horror Films: Ghosts of Historical Trauma’, Haunting and Globalization: Symptoms
of the Present, Faculty of the Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 25 July 2011.
‘Film and Sociology’, Presentation to undergraduate students, Ateneo de Manila University,
Manila, 13 July 2011.
Conference Papers
2011
2010
2010
2009
2009
2009
2006
2006
2006
‘Indonesian Horror Films: Ghosts of Historical Trauma’, Symposium on Haunting and
Globalization: Symptoms of the Present, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 25 July 2011.
‘Tracing the City through Cinema- Transformation of the Individual in Jakarta’, International
Conference on Civil Space, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, 3-5 August, 2010.
‘Trash or Cultural Treasure? Indonesia’s International Co-Productions of the 1980s’ 6th
ASEACC Meeting, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 1-4 July, 2010
‘The New Generation of Indonesian Filmmakers’, Asia Research Institute, National University of
Singapore, 4th Asian Graduates Forum on Southeast Asian Studies, 15-17 July 2009.
‘The Indonesian Film Industry and the East Asian Connection’, The Thirteenth Asian Studies
Conference Japan (ASCJ), Sophia University, Tokyo Japan, 20-21 June 2009.
‘A Japanese Filmmaker in Indonesia and the Search for Independence’, 12th Annual Harvard
East Asia Society Graduate Student Conference, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, 27
February - 1 March 2009
‘Playboy and the Pornography Industry in Indonesia’, Media: Policies, cultures and futures in the
Asia Pacific Region, Curtin University of Technology, 27-29 November, 2006.
‘The Changing Nature of Indonesian Video Pornography’, 7th ASEAN InterUniversity Seminars
on Social Development, Vietnam National University, 19-21 July 2006.
‘VCD Pornography in Indonesia’, The 16th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association
of Australia (ASAA), University of Wollongong, 26-29 June 2006.
Awards and Scholarships
2008
2006
2003
2001
Graduate Research Support Scheme, National University of Singapore.
Graduate Research Scholarship, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore.
Humanities School Scholarship 2003/2004, University of Birmingham, UK.
Australia-Indonesia Youth Exchange Programme.
Languages and other Skills
Languages (in order of proficiency): English, Indonesian, German.
Audio and Video editing, including Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro software.
Academic research resources, journals and databases including Euromonitor and LexisNexis.
Computer Software including MS Office suite, SPSS, EndNote.
References
Prof. Chua Beng-Huat, Head of Sociology, National University of Singapore.
soccbh@nus.edu.sg, Ph. +65 6516 3833
Dr. Khoo Gaik-Cheng, Lecturer in Gender, Sexuality, Culture, Australian National University.
gaik.khoo@gmail.com, Ph. +61 2 6125 8472
Dr. Joost Coté, Adjunct Research Fellow, Monash University, Australia.
Joost.Cote@monash.edu, Ph. +61 400504618
More references available on request.