A geographer and an Indonesianist by training, I have a broad range of research interests spanning the politics, history, geography and sociology of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. Within Indonesia I have a special interest the island of Sulawesi. I have published on the subjects of nationalism, regionalism, and ethnicity; on environmental, demographic and agricultural history; on sustainability and natural resource management; on state formation and colonial expansion; on political institutions and ideology; on economic development and finance; and on the comparative economic histories of Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. My most recent research has been on the politics of religious sound in Indonesia, on Southeast Asian regional identity, and on cultures of the human body in Southeast and Northeast Asia.

More information about David Henley

Fields of interest

A geographer and an Indonesianist by training, I have a broad range of research interests spanning the politics, history, geography and sociology of Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. Within Indonesia I have a special interest the island of Sulawesi. I have published on the subjects of nationalism, regionalism, and ethnicity; on environmental, demographic and agricultural history; on sustainability and natural resource management; on state formation and colonial expansion; on political institutions and ideology; on economic development and finance; and on the comparative economic histories of Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. My most recent research has been on the politics of religious sound in Indonesia, on Southeast Asian regional identity, and on cultures of the human body in Southeast and Northeast Asia.

Teaching and administration

I teach in several different Leiden University programmes at BA and MA level, and am currently director of the BA South and Southeast Asian Studies programme. I have supervised more than 50 BA and MA dissertations, together with the following completed PhD projects:

Frans Stoelinga: Albert Winsemius: de Nederlander achter de BV Singapore. Leiden University, defended 19 November 2020. Jointly supervised with Roel van der Veen.

Wijayanto: Between fear and power: Kompas, Indonesia's most influential daily newspaper, 1965-2015. Leiden University, defended 17 January 2019. Supervisor: David Henley; co-supervisor: Ward Berenschot.

Ariel C. Lopez: Conversion and colonialism: Islam and Christianity in North Sulawesi, c.1700-1900. Leiden University, defended 18 September 2018 and awarded cum laude. Jointly supervised with Jos Gommans.

Un Leang: A comparative study of education and development in Cambodia and Uganda from their civil wars to the present. University of Amsterdam, defended 19 April 2012. Co-supervised with Henk Schulte Nordholt.

Ahmad Helmy Fuady:  Elites and Economic Policies in Indonesia and Nigeria, 1966-1998. University of Amsterdam, defended 19 April 2012. Co-supervised with Peter Boomgaard.

I am a member of the Scientific Committee (Wetenschapscommissie) of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and Society.

Background

A graduate of Cambridge University (BA 1985) and the Australian National University (PhD 1992), I have previously worked as lecturer at Griffith University in Brisbane, as researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden, and as research fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore. From 2006 to 2012 I was Southeast Asia coordinator for Tracking Development, an international, multidisciplinary research project, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, comparing development policy and performance in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. An official video of the final Tracking Development plenary conference in 2011 can be viewed here.

Selected public media outreach

Public forum discussion on 'Building Sustainable Peace in Papua: Critical Recollection and Future Agenda' (Papua Strategic Policy Forum #8, Gugus Tugas Papua, Universitas Gadjah Mada), 28 November 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyfCUs6amX4

David Henley and Giulia Frigo, 'Lessons from Brasilia: on the empty modernity of Indonesia's new capital'. New Mandala, 14 April 2020 https://www.newmandala.org/lessons-from-brasilia-on-the-empty-modernity-of-indonesias-new-capital/

'De democratie van Indonesië is sterker dan we denken', Volkskrant, 17 April 2019 https://www.volkskrant.nl/columns-opinie/de-democratie-van-indonesie-is-sterker-dan-we-denken~bc57db04/ and in paper edition of 18 April 2019, p. 23.

'What can Africa learn from SE Asia?' (interview), African Business special issue for the African Green Revolution Forum, Kigali, 5-8 September 2018, pp. 12-14. Scholarlypublications Universiteit Leiden.

Major publications

Publications