Through the years, my experience in and outside the classroom has brought me to a general reflection on what type of ‘relations to the other’ was implied by the Area/Southeast Asian studies, even after the ‘decolonization’ of the studies. What this relation could be, underlies my work in both the classroom and the research field.

My teaching is driven by…

• a certain idea of the purpose of education, trhough which, I think, people could and should how to realize themselves.
• the belief that area studies should lead us to a better understanding of cultural diversity and the value (and challenges) of cultural differences for societies, especially in Europe.

…and is informed by my research on

• Memory and history
• Islam in Southeast Asia
• Space, borders, and territory

In recent years, teaching graduate students from Indonesia and the Philippines, and students having a particular family history with the region, has brought me to develop a new stream of research bringing questions related to heritage, colonial history, and area studies together. This ongoing reflexion informed several of my Master’s classes and seeks to bring these fields into closer dialogue, while examining how historical legacies and practices of heritage shape contemporary understandings of the region.