Greg Barton ("West" Who likes about "East")

BIOGRAPHY

Currently a professor at Monash University, Dr. Greg Barton joined APCSS in January 2006 as a full time faculty member and continues to remain part of the adjunct staff.

Before joining APCSS he was an Associate Professor in politics at Deakin University (Melbourne, Australia, 1993 - 2005) where he taught courses on Political Leadership, Global Islamic Politics, and Society and Culture in Contemporary Asia.  He has a long-running interest in Islamic thought, Muslim social movements – including both democratic reformist civil society movements and jihadi Islamist terrorist movements - Southeast Asian affairs, and religion and modernity in Asian society. 

His 1995 PhD thesis at Monash University examined the development of liberal Islamic thought in Indonesia.  In the decade since then he has continued to research and publish extensively on the influence of Islamic and Islamist thought in Indonesia, its contribution to the development of civil society and politics, and the emergence of Jihadi terrorism. 

His research has been funded by three Australian Research Council Large Grants and a series of one-year grants.  This work has involved more than thirty visits to Indonesia.  He has developed internationally recognized expertise in Islam, civil society, politics and Islamist radicalism in Southeast Asia .

He has written or edited five books and published dozens of refereed articles and book chapters in this field, together with numerous essays in publications such as the The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Herald Sun, Asia Week, Dissent, Eureka Street, The Diplomat, The Jakarta Post, and Jawa Pos. He is frequently interviewed by the Australian and international electronic and print media on Islam and Islamism and on political developments in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia.

His biography of Abdurrahman Wahid (2002, Abdurrahman Wahid, Muslim Democrat, Indonesian President: A View From The Inside, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press & UNSW Press) was published in 2002 and written from a privileged vantage point inside the presidential palace during an eventful period of democratic transition.  His book Indonesia’s Struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and the Soul of Islam, was published in 2004 by UNSW Press (and in 2005 by the University of Singapore Press). 

He is currently working on two other book projects: Progressive Islamic Thought in Indonesia and Turkey; and: Islam’s Other Nation: A Fresh Look at Indonesia.

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