Project description
Fresh insights into south-east Asian diplomatic interactions and colonial legacies
For centuries, south-east Asian Sultans have been relegated to the sidelines of colonial history, their contributions overshadowed by European narratives. Yet, these rulers held significant sway over diplomatic relations in the region from 1750 to 1920. Despite their influence, their perspectives and ideas remain largely unexplored in mainstream historical discourse. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the OnSeaT.TraILSPACE project aims to redress this oversight by delving into the archives of Sulu, Johor and Mataram to unravel the complex dynamics between south-east Asian rulers and European colonial powers. The project uses digitisation and text recognition tech to trace variations in key terms across colonial records.
Objective
This project in global diplomatic and colonial history aims to explain how Southeast Asian Sultans’ ideas and perspectives influenced colonial relations in c. 1750-1920. The project’s comparative method focuses on three courts in maritime Southeast Asia (Sulu, Johor, and Mataram) that offer compelling parallels and divergences in their interaction with European colonial powers. The project analyses specific key terms and phrases in manuscripts written and collected at the courts, that reflect on crucial aspects of rulers’ political priorities, ideas and motivations.
Building on the applicant’s prior research experience, the research innovatively then uses recent advancements in archival digitization and automatic handwritten text recognition technology, which is applied to trace variations and translations of the key terms and phrases in colonial archival records, primarily the rulers’ correspondence and treaties with colonial powers. By automatically identifying and comparing how Southeast Asian terminology reverberated in the archives and knowledge production of the British, Dutch and Spanish colonial empires in Southeast Asia, the project uncovers the potential influences of local ideas on processes and practices of diplomatic interaction, treaty-making and, thus, on the vocabulary and legal frameworks of European colonial empires.
In doing so, the project challenges established paradigms that prioritize European colonial frameworks as the sources of political organization in colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia. It contributes to growing strands of global history that reveal the influence of non-European actors, practices and knowledge within global frameworks. This encourages more polyvocal and less Eurocentric perspectives in public debate and history writing to clarify the long-term consequences of colonialism and its impact on international relations and current socio-political fabrics, identities and conflicts in and beyond Southeast Asia.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
35195 Vaxjo
Sweden
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.