'Robert Edward Elson' is
professor of
South-East Asian
History at the
University of Queensland,
Brisbane,
Australia, having previously taught at
Griffith University.
Elson is regarded as an authority on
Indonesian history in particular, with his biography of former President
Suharto and works on the
cultivation system in
Colonial Java (the latter frequently being described by Elson himself as "very long and very boring books") considered leading works on their subjects.
He is also engaged in teaching about
nationalism in the region at an undergraduate level.
Elson has many contacts with other leading scholars of his field, including names such as
Benedict Anderson and
Anthony Reid, as well as with certain political leaders of the region - such as
Anwar Ibrahim.
References
Elson, R E. 2001. ''Suharto: A Political Biography''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Elson, R E. 1997. ''The End of the Peasantry in Southeast Asia: A Social and Economic History of Peasant Livelihood, 1800s-1990s''. London: Macmillan.
Elson, R E. 1994. ''Village Java under the Cultivation System, 1830-1870''. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Elson, R E. 1984. ''Javanese Peasants and the Colonial Sugar Industry: Impact and Change in an East Java Residency, 1830-1940''. Singapore: Oxford University Press.
External links
★
Elson's page at the University of Queensland