Winner of IBP 2019 Dissertations Humanities

Leonor Veiga, 'The Third Avant-garde: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia Recalling Tradition'.
Leonor Veiga's The Third Avant-garde explores the reprocessing of tradition in contemporary art in Southeast Asia. It combines art history with anthropology in order to ground the interpretation of Southeast Asian avant-garde in a specific socio-political context. It argues that the contemporary (‘Third’) avant-garde movement exists at the interstices of art and ethnography, contesting both conservative nationalism and Western art hegemony. This is an important work that should be of lasting value.

Shortlist IBP 2019 Dissertations Humanities

Cindy Ewing, 'The Asian Unity Project: Human Rights, Third World Solidarity, and the United Nations, 1945-1955'.
Cindy Ewing's The Asian Unity Project utilises a wide source base to produce an engaging story about the roots of the development of the international human rights system in the actions of postcolonial Asian actors. Although the 'Asian unity project' was ultimately superseded by a broader notion of the Third World, Ewing restores the importance of this brief historical period.

John L. Hennessey, 'Rule by Association: Japan in the Global Trans-Imperial Culture, 1868-1912'.
John Hennessey's Rule by Association is an exemplary example of modern history writing, which contests the usual image of Japan as a 'marginal latecomer to the community of imperial powers'. It switches effortlessly between case studies and broader arguments, between the empirical exploration of Japanese imperialism and the analytical evaluation of evolving global imperial cultures.

Sanne Ravensbergen, 'Courtrooms of Conflict: Criminal Law, Local Elites and Legal Pluralities in Colonial Java'.
Sanne Ravensbergen's Courtrooms of Conflict deploys an impressive range of sources in her analysis of the nineteenth-century legal system of colonial Java, locating it in the wider context of colonial state formation. This

Faizah Binte Zakaria, 'Sacral Ecologies of the North Sumatran Highlands: An Environmental History of Conversions, 1800-1928'.
Faizah Zakaria's Sacral Ecologies of the North Sumatran Highlands analyses socio-environmental changes during the transition from animist to monotheistic religions and demonstrates an impressive command of diverse sources and engagement with wider debates. It convincingly portrays conversion as a continuous process of reconfiguring the natural environment, shifting the centre of sacral power to built landscapes, divorcing man from the local.

Reading Committee Accolades IBP 2019 Dissertations Humanities

Chairman's Accolade
Lucia M.S. Galli, 'The Accidental Pilgrimage of a Rich Beggar: The Account of tshong dpon Kha stag ʼDzam yag’s Travels through Tibet, Nepal, and India (1944–1956)'.
Lucia Galli's 'The Accidental Pilgrimage of a Rich Beggar' uses a rare personal diary of an ordinary, non-elite cross-border trader to discuss both economic and political histories, as well as to investigate the overlap between pilgrimage and trade.

Specialist Accolade
Petya Andreeva, 'Fantastic Beasts of the Eurasian Steppes: Toward a Revisionist Approach to Animal-style Art'.
Petya Andreeva's 'Fantastic Beasts of the Eurasian Steppes' makes a persuasive argument for re-interpreting Central Asian animal-style art in this broad but finely detailed study. The range of localities integrated into this thesis, and the consequent breadth of necessary cultural proficiencies, is truly remarkable.

Ground-breaking Subject Matter Accolade
Kyle Jackson, 'Colonial Conquest and Religious Entanglement: A Mizo History from Northeast India (c. 1890-1920)'.
Kyle Jackson's 'Colonial Conquest and Religious Entanglement' combines a thorough empirical study and provocative methodological interventions, with his appeal to reconsider established notions of scale and space, as well as his suggestion to take into account animal-centric histories.

Most Accessible and Captivating Work for the Non-specialist Reader Accolade
Faizah Binte Zakaria, 'Sacral Ecologies of the North Sumatran Highlands: An Environmental History of Conversions, 1800-1928'.
Faizah Zakaria's 'Sacral Ecologies of the North Sumatran Highlands' analyses socio-environmental changes during the transition from animist to monotheistic religions and demonstrates an impressive command of diverse sources and engagement with wider debates. It convincingly portrays conversion as a continuous process of reconfiguring the natural environment, shifting the centre of sacral power to built landscapes, divorcing man from the local.