Projects per year
Personal profile
Research interests
Office: 1.2, 26/27 St. Michael's Park
Phone: +44 (0)117 928 7912
Email: sulin.lewis@bristol.ac.uk
Twitter: @sulinlewis
I specialise in global and transnational history in the twentieth century, and have research interests in urban history, civil society and activist networks, gender, migration, decolonisation, and development in the twentieth century. My geographical focus is mainly Southeast Asia (especially Burma, Malaysia, and Indonesia) as a vantage point for examining broader pan-Asian, Afro-Asian, and global connections.
My first monograph, Cities in Motion: urban life and cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia 1920-1940 (2016) sought to move away from a nation-based and ethnic nationalist reading of colonial-era Southeast Asia by examining the cosmopolitan port-city as a site of experimentation and cross-cultural interaction in the built environment, civic associations, print media, education, and popular culture, with a focus on Penang, Rangoon, and Bangkok. It won the Urban History Association Prize for Best Book (Non-North America, 2015-2016).
I was the PI on a collaborative research project on Afro-Asian Networks in the Early Cold War funded by the AHRC (co-led with Carolien Stolte, Leiden). The project examined the broad participation of activists, socialists, artists, and writers in the Afro-Asian solidarity movements of the broader Bandung era and pioneered an innovative collaborative research methodology that encouraged scholarly collaboration from the point of archival inquiry to the writing-up process. We also produced an edited collection, The Lives of Cold War Afro-Asianism (Leiden University, 2022).
I am currently an AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellow working on a project on Socialist Internationalism in the Afro-Asian World.
I am a member of the editorial board of Past and Present and was on the Board of Directors of the Global Urban History project.
Biography
I completed my MA at the School of Oriental and African Studies and my PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2010. I was a Past and Present Post-Doctoral Fellow at the IHR (2010-2011) and Mellon post-doctoral fellow at the University of California Berkeley (2011-2013). I was Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Birmingham from 2013-2014.
Between degrees, I worked on and managed community-driven development projects for the World Bank and International Organization for Migration in Indonesia, where I developed an interest in the history of local civil society organizations and grassroots social movements in Southeast Asia.
Research Supervision
I would be interested in supervising students who wish to work on any topic relating to my research interests. I also welcome proposals relating to global/transnational connections in Asia and the political, social, intellectual, and cultural history of Southeast Asia between c. 1800 and the present. I supervise and have co-supervised students working on Indonesian contributions to Afro-Asian networks, multiracial communities in Asian port-cities, the emergence of the suit in post-war Hong Kong; Chinese students in 1920s Paris, and post-war rehabilitation and humanitarianism in China.
Teaching
I have designed and taught courses on Colonial Radicals, Modern Girls and New Women, Decolonization, Global Cities, the History of Modern Southeast Asia, and on Global Development. I am the unit convenor for a team-taught unit on Asia in Global Perspective.
Structured keywords and research groupings
- Decolonisation
- Migration Mobilities Bristol
- Urban Research Cluster
- Centre for Black Humanities
- Centre for Environmental Humanities
Keywords
- Gender & sexuality
- Gender and Imperialism
- Southeast Asia
- Inter-cultural exchange
- Civil Society
- urban
- Cosmopolitanism
- Global History
- cities
- Intellectual History
- Colonialism
- Post-Colonialism
- Socialism
- Humanitarianism
- Myanmar
- Indonesia
- Malaysia
- Decolonisation
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 4 Finished
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Does Motherhood Need Mitigating? A Collective Examination of Parenting and Academic Practice
Hanna, E., Crane, J. M., Dietzel, A., King, A., Pease, A. S., Angsten Clark, A. K., Tzemanaki, A., Boussahel, A., Collins, B., Leithall, B. M., Bryce, C. C., Hume, C., Miti, C., Lloyd, C. E. M., Haworth , C. M. A., Hanaway-Oakley, C., Rycroft, E. K., Booth, F., Huxford, G., Elliott, H. R., Family, H. E., Griffiths, H. M., Streeter, H., Tretiak, I., Espey, J. M., Guthrie , K., Sedgman, K., Renaud, L. M., Harrison, L. J., Medland, L., Grant, L. J., Fannin, M., Patchett, M. M., Graffagnino, M. N., Ockendon-Powell, N., Blakey, R., Flecker, R. M., Bush, R. A. L., Fairchild, S., Vivian, S. R., Vachhani, S. J., Lewis, S. L., Puri, T. K., Helliwell, T., Blanco Gutierrez, V. & Martineau, W.
1/01/23 → 31/07/23
Project: Research
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Socialist Internationalism and Activist Lineages in the Afro-Asian World, 1950-present
1/06/21 → 30/04/23
Project: Research
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Research output
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Women, Hospitality, and the Intimate Politics of International Socialism
Lewis, S. L., 24 Apr 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Past and Present. 262, 1, 39 p., gtad006.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access -
“Developing” Intellectuals in Cold War Burma: The Production of The Atlantic's 1958 Country Supplement
Lewis, S. L., 28 Jul 2023, Rockefeller Archive Centre. 16 p. (Rockefeller Archive Centre Research Report)Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report
Open Access -
The Lives of Cold War Afro-Asianism
Lewis, S. L. & Stolte, C., 1 Oct 2022, Leiden: Leiden University Press. 339 p. (Global Connections: Routes and Roots; vol. 4)Research output: Book/Report › Edited book
Prizes
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AHRC Early Career Leadership Fellowship
Lewis, Su Lin (Recipient), 16 Nov 2020
Prize: Prizes, Medals, Awards and Grants
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Urban History Association Award for Best Book 2015-2016 (Non-North America)
Lewis, Su Lin (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prizes, Medals, Awards and Grants
Activities
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Other Bandungs seminar series
Su Lin Lewis (Participant)
19 Nov 2020 → 1 Jun 2021Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
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Past and Present (Journal)
Su Lin Lewis (Editor)
1 Mar 2020 → …Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity
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Global Urban History Project (External organisation)
Su Lin Lewis (Advisor)
12 Jun 2018 → 21 Sept 2022Activity: Membership types › Membership of external research organisation