Perspectives on the Past at New Mandala

Just over 18 months ago, the Perspectives on the Past blog was born. Its mission is to bring new topics and perspectives on the Southeast Asian past to interested readers. Grounded in research, the blog’s articles have covered the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Cambodia, from a wide variety of disciplinary standpoints: history, archaeology, museology, performance studies, geography, and art history. We have had the pleasure of hosting several guest bloggers who have shared their expertise on food, family history, and maritime heritage in Southeast Asia.

We are excited to announce that the PoP blog will be moving to New Mandala from today. This collaboration will bring more historical content to New Mandala, and connect PoP’s readers to broader conversations about crucial issues in Southeast Asia. Contemporary life is shaped by different perspectives on the past, and our knowledge of the past is shaped by contemporary circumstances—that is what makes this collaboration between PoP and New Mandala especially fruitful.

Perspectives on the Past will be hosted on New Mandala at a special feature section, including posts by our editors as well as by guest contributors. The whole back catalogue of the PoP blog is also available on New Mandala. The blog will still run on seasiapasts.com as well. We’ll still be tweeting updates on new PoP posts and other recommended reads at @SEAsiaPasts. We’d also invite you to join the PoP Facebook group.

We are excited to take this new step, and are especially thankful to the editor of New Mandala, Liam Gammon, for his work in making this collaboration a reality. We also thank the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC) and the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC) for their support of PoP over the last year and a half.

If you have an idea for a blog post or would like to submit your work, we would love to hear from you! Please contact us at [email protected]

—the Perspectives on the Past Editors