Richard Fox

Credentials

PhD, School of Oriental and African Studies
Habil, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

Research Interests

• Asian cultural, media and film studies;
• Religion and public culture in Indonesia;
• Classical and contemporary theories of culture and society;
• Critical issues in language, text and translation;
• Hindu and Buddhist traditions of South and Southeast Asia; 
• Islam and popular culture in Southeast Asia;
• Religion, gender and power.

Biography

I am an anthropologist by training, though my teaching and research tend to cut across traditional disciplinary boundaries—in pursuit of questions pertaining to the historical and ethnographic study of religion, media and performance in South and Southeast Asia. More specifically, my work has primarily focused on Indonesia and the wider Malay region. I also have a longstanding interest in the philosophy of the human sciences. 

Before coming to Victoria, I taught for six years at the Institut für Ethnologie, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, where I was a member of the collaborative research initiative on Material Text Cultures. There I completed the Habilitation in Anthropology. I have also held research and teaching positions at the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Williams College and Universitas Udayana. 

As to academic training, I completed the doctorate in both Anthropology and Religious Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (2002). Prior to this I had taken an MA in Oriental and African Religions (SOAS, 1995), with formal examinations in Sanskrit language, Indian philosophy and Buddhist Studies. My BA was in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1994).

Over the years my work has benefited from membership in a number of professional organizations dedicated to supporting our efforts as scholars and teachers. Recognizing both the personal and institutional importance of these organizations, I have tried to make what small contribution I can—by helping to organize events, serving on committees, and more recently taking on various leadership roles. The latter have included chairing the Indonesia and Timor-Leste Studies committee at AAS (2015-18), co-chairing the Religion in Southeast Asia program unit at the AAR (2014-18), acting as the founding editor of Heidelberg Ethnology (2014-18), and running an initiative to raise the profile of Timor-Leste studies at AAS (2016-present), supported by a generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation

Further information and selected publications are available at berubah.org and on my academia.edu page.

Selected publications
	More Than Words: Transforming Script, Agency and Collective Life in Bali (Cornell University Press, 2018)
	The Materiality and Efficacy of Balinese Letters: Situating Scriptural Practices (Brill, 2017)
	Critical Reflections on Religion and Media in Contemporary Bali (Brill, 2010)
	Entertainment Media in Indonesia (Routledge, 2008)

Selected Articles

• The Imitation of Life: First Reflections on McDaniel’s Architects of Buddhist Leisure, Heidelberg Ethnology. 5: 13-6. (2017).
• Religion, Media and Cultural Studies, In King, R. (ed.) Religion, Theory, Critique: Classic and Contemporary Approaches and Methodologies. New York: Columbia University Press. Pages 335-47. 2017.
• Histoires des lettres et de leur Peuple, Le Banian, pp.38-55. June 2017.
• Of Family, Futures and Fear in a Balinese Ward: Some Preliminary Thoughts Toward a New Project, Jurnal Kajian Bali. 2017. 7(1): 213-48.
• The Meaning of Life… or, How to Do Things with Letters, In Fox, R. & A. Hornbacher (eds.). The Materiality and Efficacy of Balinese Letters: Situating Scriptural Practice. Leiden: Brill. 2016.
• Postscript, In Fox, R. & A. Hornbacher (eds.). The Materiality and Efficacy of Balinese Letters: Situating Scriptural Practice. Leiden: Brill. 2016.
• Of Family, Futures and Fear in a Balinese Ward: Some Preliminary Thoughts Toward a New Project, Second symposium on How Indonesians Argue. Deddington, Oxfordshire 25-26th. July 2016.
• Affordanz, With Panagiotopoulos, D. & C. Tsouparopoulou). In Ott, M.R., R. Sauer & T. Meier (eds.) Materiale Textkulturen. Konzepte – Materialien – Praktiken. Berlin etc: de Gruyter, 2015.
• Why do Balinese Make Offerings? On Religion, Teleology and Complexity, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 171/1 (2015): 29-55.
• Tradition as Argument: Paratactic Reasoning, Total Crisis and the Failure of Critique in Contemporary Bali, Symposium on How Indonesians Argue, Oxford. June 2015.
• Om Swasty-Alaikum… Interpreting Religio-Ethnic Humor on the Balinese Stage, Archipel: Études interdisciplinarires sur le monde insulindien. 2013.
• Entry for Indonesian Hinduism, Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Leiden: Brill. 2013.
• Rival Styles of Writing, Rival Styles of Practical Reasoning, Working Paper for Materiale Textkulturen: Materialität und Präsenz des Geschriebenen in non-typographischen Gesellschaften. 2013.
• Ngelidin Sétra, Nepukin Sema? Thoughts on Language and Writing in Contemporary Bali, Jurnal Kajian Bali. 2(2): 21-48. 2012.
• Getting the Story Straight? Some Untimely Thoughts on History, Literature & the Performing Arts in Bali, Jurnal Kajian Bali. 2011. 1(1).
• Why Media Matter: Religion and the Recent History of ‘the Balinese’, History of Religions. 2010. 41(4): 354-92.
• Religion, Media and Cultural Studies, Martin Marty Center’s Religion and Culture Web Forum, May 2009. (A pre-publication version of a chapter to appear in Theory/Critique/Religion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches. Richard King (ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. Forthcoming.)
• Strong and Weak Media? On the Representation of ‘Terorisme’ in Contemporary Indonesia, Modern Asian Studies. 40/4 (2006): 993-1052.
• Afterword, Entertainment Media in Indonesia. Edited with Mark Hobart. New York and London: Routledge. 2008. (Reprinted from Asian Journal of Communication. 16/4 [2006]: 432-8.)
• Visions of Terror: On the Use of Images in Mass-Mediated Representations of the 2002 Bali Bombings, Media and Political Violence. Annabelle Sreberny et al. (eds.) Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Pp. 211-45. 2007.
• Plus ça change… Recent Developments in Old Javanese Studies and Their Implications for the Study of Religion in Contemporary Bali, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 161/1 (2005): 63-97.
• Substantial Transmissions: A Presuppositional Analysis of ‘The Old Javanese Text’ as an Object of Knowledge, and Its Implications for the Study of Religion in Bali, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 159/1 (2003): 65-107.

Courses

PAAS 400: Advanced Research Seminar
PAAS 495 (A02)/520: New Styles of Romantic Intimacy (poster)

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