Research output per year
Research output per year
BA(Comb. Hons), MA(Lond.), PhD(Cantab.)
BS8 1TB
Office: 1.2, 26/27 St. Michael's Park
Phone: +44 (0)117 928 7912
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @sulinlewis
I specialise in twentieth-century history, with a geographical focus in Southeast Asia (especially Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia) and broader pan-Asian, pan-African, and global connections. I have research interests in urban history, civil society and activist networks, gender, migration, decolonisation, and development.
My first monograph, Cities in Motion: urban life and cosmopolitanism in Southeast Asia 1920-1940 (2016) moved 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. We 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 working on a book on transnational histories of socialism in decolonising Southeast Asia. As part of an AHRC-funded project on socialist internationalism, I also co-edited a volume on Socialism, Internationalism, and Development in the Third World: Envisioning Modernity in the Era of Decolonisation with Nana Osei-Opare (now out with Bloomsbury).
I am a member of the editorial board of Past and Present.
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 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 and international histories of decolonisation and the Left.
I have supervised/am currently supervising or co-supervising research students working on Indonesian contributions to Afro-Asian networks, punk in Singapore, multiracial communities in Hong Kong, 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.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal)
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Edited book
Lewis, S. L. (Principal Investigator)
1/09/24 → 31/08/25
Project: Research
Hanna, E. (Co-Principal Investigator), Crane, J. M. (Co-Principal Investigator), Dietzel, A. (Collaborator), King, A. (Collaborator), Pease, A. S. (Collaborator), Angsten Clark, A. K. (Collaborator), Tzemanaki, A. (Principal Investigator), Boussahel, A. (Collaborator), Collins, B. (Principal Investigator), Leithall, B. M. (Collaborator), Bryce, C. C. (Collaborator), Hume, C. (Collaborator), Miti, C. (Collaborator), Lloyd, C. E. M. (Collaborator), Haworth , C. M. A. (Collaborator), Hanaway-Oakley, C. (Collaborator), Rycroft, E. K. (Collaborator), Booth, F. (Collaborator), Huxford, G. (Collaborator), Elliott, H. R. (Collaborator), Family, H. E. (Collaborator), Griffiths, H. M. (Collaborator), Streeter, H. (Collaborator), Tretiak, I. (Collaborator), Espey, J. M. (Collaborator), Guthrie , K. (Collaborator), Sedgman, K. (Collaborator), Renaud, L. M. (Collaborator), Harrison, L. J. (Collaborator), Medland, L. (Collaborator), Grant, L. J. (Collaborator), Fannin, M. (Collaborator), Patchett, M. M. (Collaborator), Graffagnino, M. (Collaborator), Ockendon-Powell, N. (Collaborator), Blakey, R. (Collaborator), Flecker, R. M. (Collaborator), Bush, R. A. L. (Collaborator), Fairchild, S. (Collaborator), Vivian, S. R. (Collaborator), Vachhani, S. J. (Collaborator), Lewis, S. L. (Collaborator), Puri, T. K. (Collaborator), Helliwell, T. (Collaborator), Blanco Gutierrez, V. (Collaborator) & Martineau, W. (Collaborator)
1/01/23 → 31/07/23
Project: Research
Lewis, S. L. (Principal Investigator)
1/06/21 → 30/04/23
Project: Research
Lewis, S. L. (Recipient), 16 Nov 2020
Prize: Prizes, Medals, Awards and Grants
Lewis, S. L. (Recipient), 1 Sept 2024
Prize: Prizes, Medals, Awards and Grants
Lewis, S. L. (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prizes, Medals, Awards and Grants
Bickers, R. (Speaker), Kong, V. (Host), Clayton, D. (Speaker), Lewis, S. L. (Speaker), Potter, S. J. (Speaker) & Chung, Y. (Organiser)
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Public talk, debate, discussion
Lewis, S. L. (Participant)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Lewis, S. L. (Editor)
Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity