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Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR) AISSR

Prof. dr. H.W. (Willem) van Schendel

Professor in Modern Asian History
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Moving Matters: People, Goods, Power and Ideas
Photographer: onbekend
Visiting address
  • Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
  • Room number: B5.18
Postal address
  • Postbus 15509
    1001 NA Amsterdam
Contact details
Social media
  • Profile

    Willem van Schendel works in the fields of anthropology and history of Asia. He was Professor of Comparative History at Erasmus University Rotterdam, from 1990 to 1996, and then became Professor of Modern Asian History at the University of Amsterdam. Simultaneously he was appointed at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. His research interests include borderlands, more-than-human history, labour history, indigo production, indigeneity, and photography. His publications deal with South and Southeast Asia, with a special focus on Bangladesh and the Eastern Himalayas.

    Expertise and research fields 

    • History 
    • Anthropology
    • More-than-human studies
    • Asian studies
    • Borderlands

    Other links

    Moving matters programme group

  • Publications

    2023

    2022

    • Cederlöf, G., & van Schendel, W. (Eds.) (2022). Flows and Frictions in Trans-Himalayan Spaces: Histories of Networking and Border Crossing. Amsterdam University Press.
    • Pachuau, J. L. K., & van Schendel, W. (2022). Entangled Lives: Human-Animal-Plant Histories of the Eastern Himalayan Triangle. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009215480 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2022). Framing Spaces between India and China. In D. Smyer Yü, & K. Dean (Eds.), Yunnan-Burma-Bengal Corridor Geographies: Protean Edging of Habitats and Empires (pp. 29-45). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003094364-3 [details]
    • van Schendel, W., & Cederlöf, G. (2022). Flows and Frictions in Trans-Himalayan Spaces: An Introduction. In G. Cederlöf, & W. van Schendel (Eds.), Flows and Frictions in Trans-Himalayan Spaces: Histories of Networking and Border Crossing (pp. 11-25). Amsterdam University Press.

    2021

    2020

    2019

    • van Schendel, W. (2019). Stretching Labour Historiography: Pointers from South Asia. In M. van der Linden (Ed.), The Global History of Work: Critical Readings. - Vol. 1: Work and Workers in Context (pp. 62-89). (Critical and Primary Sources). Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859006002677 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2019). Visual Narratives of Troubled Times - Mizoram (India) between 1966 and 1986. In L. Pachuau, & R. Vanlalruati Ralte (Eds.), Revisiting Rambuai (pp. 242-272). LBS Publications/Government Aizawl College.

    2018

    • van Schendel, W. (2018). Afterword: Contested, Vertical, Fragmenting: De-partitioning 'Northeast India' Studies. In M. Vandenhelsken, M. Barkataki-Ruscheweyh, & B. G. Karlsson (Eds.), Geographies of Difference: Explorations in Northeast Indian Studies (pp. 272-288). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315110295-16 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2018). Beyond Labor History’s Comfort Zone? Labor Regimes in Northeast India, from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century. In U. Bosma, & K. Hofmeester (Eds.), The Lifework of a Labor Historian: Essays in Honor of Marcel van der Linden (pp. 174-207). (Studies in Global Social History; Vol. 35). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004386617_010 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2018). 认知地理和无知地理——在东南亚的跳跃规模. In D. Smeyer Yu, S. Faxiang, & L. Yunxia (Eds.), 环喜马拉雅区域研究编译文集二——佐米亚、边疆与跨界 (pp. 47-74). Academy Press.

    2017

    • van Schendel, W. (2017). Embedding Agricultural Commodities: An Introduction. In W. van Schendel (Ed.), Embedding Agricultural Commodities: Using Historical Evidence, 1840s–1940s (pp. 1-10). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315579122 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2017). Staying Embedded: The Rocky Existence of an Indigo Maker in Bengal. In W. van Schendel (Ed.), Embedding Agricultural Commodities: Using Historical Evidence, 1840s–1940s (pp. 11-29). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315579122 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2017). jiaohu kongjian : bianjie, feifa liudong he lingtu guojia ruhe xiang kou. In D. Yu, L. Yunxia, & Z. Li (Eds.), Huan Ximalaya quyu yanjiu bianyi wenji. 1: Huanjing, shengji yu wenhua (pp. 183-206). Xue yuan chubanshi. [details]

    2016

    2015

    • Pachuau, J. L. K., & van Schendel, W. (2015). The camera as witness: a social history of Mizoram, North East India. Cambridge University Press. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2015). A War Within a War: Mizo rebels and the Bangladesh liberation struggle. Modern Asian Studies, 50(1), 75-117. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X15000104 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2015). Spatial moments: Chittagong in four scenes. In E. Tagliacozzo, H. F. Siu, & P. C. Perdue (Eds.), Asia inside out: connected places (pp. 98-127). Harvard University Press. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2015). What is agrarian labour? Contrasting indigo production in colonial India and Indonesia. International Review of Social History, 60(1), 73-95. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859015000012 [details]

    2014

    2013

    • van Schendel, W. (2013). Making the Most of 'Sensitive' Borders. In D. N. Gellner (Ed.), Borderland lives in northern South Asia (pp. 266-271). Duke University Press. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2013). Party over State. In M. Guhathakurta, & W. van Schendel (Eds.), The Bangladesh reader: history, culture, politics (pp. 288-290). (The world readers). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822395676-082 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2013). The Pakistan Experiment and the Language Issue. In M. Guhathakurta, & W. van Schendel (Eds.), The Bangladesh reader: history, culture, politics (pp. 177-183). (The world readers). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822395676-053 [details]

    2012

    • Ford, M., Lyons, L., & van Schendel, W. (2012). Labour migration and human trafficking: an introduction. In M. Ford, L. Lyons, & W. Schendel (Eds.), Labour migration and human trafficking in Southeast Asia: critical perspectives (pp. 1-22). (Routledge contemporary South Asia series; No. 44). Routledge. http://www.willemvanschendel.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Michele-Ford-Lenore-Lyons-and-Willem-van-Schendel-Labour-Migration-and-Human-Trafficking-2012.pdf [details]
    • Kalir, B., Sur, M., & van Schendel, W. (2012). Introduction: mobile practices and regimes of permissiveness. In B. Kalir, & M. Sur (Eds.), Transnational flows and permissive polities: ethnographies of human mobilities in Asia (pp. 11-25). (IIAS publications series; No. 7). Amsterdam University Press. [details]
    • van Schendel, H. W. (2012). Mengjialaguo shi. Dongfang chubian zhongxin. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2012). Espandere la storiografia del lavoro: spunti dall’Asia meridionale. In C. G. De Vito (Ed.), Global labour history: la storia del lavoro al tempo della "globalizzazione" (pp. 71-84). (Frontiere; No. 5). Ombre Corte. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2012). Green plants into blue cakes: working for wages in colonial Bengal’s indigo industry. In M. van der Linden, & L. Lucassen (Eds.), Working on labor: essays in honor of Jan Lucassen (pp. 47-73). (Studies in global social history; No. 9). Brill. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2012). Southeast Asia: an idea whose time has past? Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 168(4), 497-510. http://www.persistent-identifier.nl?identifier=URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-113839 [details]

    2011

    2009

    • van Schendel, W. (2009). A history of Bangladesh. - South Asian ed. Cambridge University Press. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2009). A history of Bangladesh. Cambridge University Press. [details]

    2008

    • van Schendel, W. (2008). Stateless in South Asia: the making of the India-Bangladesh enclaves. In T. Y. Tan, & G. Kudaisya (Eds.), Partition and post-colonial South Asia: a reader. Vol. 3: Identities, geopolitics, reconciliation (pp. 115-147). (Journal of Asian Studies; No. 61/1). Routledge. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415359542 [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2008). The Asianization of indigo: rapid change in a global trade around 1800. In P. Boomgaard, D. Kooiman, & H. Schulte Nordholt (Eds.), Linking destinies: trade, towns and kin in Asian history (pp. 29-49). (Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde; No. 256). KITLV Press. [details]
    • van Schendel, W. (2008). Working through partition: making a living in the Bengal borderlands. In T. Y. Tan, & G. Kudaisya (Eds.), Partition and post-colonial South Asia: a reader. - Vol. 3: identities, geopolitics, reconciliations (pp. 393-421). Routledge. [details]

    2017

    2014

    2013

    • Guhathakurta, M., & van Schendel, W. (2013). The Bangladesh reader: history, culture, politics. (The world readers). Duke University Press. [details]

    2012

    • Ford, M., Lyons, L., & van Schendel, W. (2012). Labour migration and human trafficking in Southeast Asia: critical perspectives. (Routledge contemporary South Asia series; No. 44). Routledge. [details]

    2008

    • Guhathakurta, M., & van Schendel, W. (2008). Memory and amnesia in the South: conflict, violence, trauma. (SEPHIS-CSSSC Occasional Paper Series). Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. [details]

    2014

    • van Schendel, H. W. (Author). (2014). Postcards from the Edge: Mizo Rebels at the Borders of the State. Web publication or website, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. http://www.nehrumemorial.nic.in/

    2013

    • van Schendel, H. W. (2013). 'Bari' naki 'Basha' (in Bengali). Prothom Alo (Fifteen Years’ Anniversary Supplement) (Bangladesh), 3-3.

    2012

    • van Schendel, H. W. (2012). Paper: ‘Partition Exiles in Pakistan and India’. Paper presented at Conference Quo Vadis, Exile Studies? Status and Perspectives. The Challenge of "Globalization", IISG.

    Membership / relevant position

    • van Schendel, H. W. (2011). Member, Academic Board, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), KITLV.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (2011). Member, Editorial Board, Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (2011). International Advisory Board, Lahore University of Management Studies, Lahore University, Lahore, Pakistan.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (2010-2011). Member, Editorial committee, Dhaka University Journal of Development Studies, Dhaka University.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (2007-2009). Visiting Professor, Department of History, New York University, New York University.

    Media appearance

    • van Schendel, H. W. (22-03-2012). Zomia: the need to think beyond borders [Radio]. Zomia: the need to think beyond borders.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (01-01-2012). Life Is Still Not Ours: A Story of Chittagong Hill Tracts [Print] Arnab Dewan and Giulia Annibaletti. Life Is Still Not Ours: A Story of Chittagong Hill Tracts.

    Journal editor

    • van Schendel, H. W. (editor) (2011). Pacific Affairs (Journal).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (editor) (2009). Modern Asian Studies (Journal).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (editor) (2009). Critical International Studies (Journal).

    Talk / presentation

    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (27-10-2015). Rethinking Asian Studies: Spaces and Inter-linkages, Invited Lecture at Institute of Geographic Sciences, Free University Berlin, Berlin.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (15-10-2015). Rethinking Asian Studies: Flows, Wars and Conversions, Invited lecture at School of Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (5-10-2015). Khawnglung Run, Invited Lecture at Seminar ‘The Borderlands of Northeast India.’ Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore., Singapore.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (30-9-2015). Bizarre Borders and True Transnationals in Asia, Invited Lecture at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (23-4-2015). New Narratives in Bangladesh Studies, Keynote lecture at Conference ‘Contested Narratives.’ University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (4-3-2015). Rethinking (South) Asian Studies: Spaces and Inter-linkages, Invited lecture at The Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University, Cambridge.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (19-2-2015). Beyond the Continental Straitjacket: Flows and Spaces in Asian Studies, Invited Lecture at Thammasat University, Bangkok.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (4-2-2015). Why Northeast India is not "Remote": Networks and Narratives of Modernity, Conference on ‘Reimagining India's North East: Narratives, Networks and Negotiations,’ Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (26-11-2014). Rethinking Asian Studies: Spaces and Inter-linkages, Invited lecture at University of Peking, Beijing.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (13-11-2014). Valedictory lecture: ‘Shattering the Frame: Flows and Spaces in Asian Studies’, Valedictory lecture at Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (24-10-2014). keynote address: ‘Mapping Quirky Linkages: Asia Beyond the Continental Straitjacket.’, Conference ‘Intra-­Asian Connections: Interactions, Flows, Landscapes’ at University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (23-8-2014). keynote lecture: 'Interconnected Asia', Conference ‘Identity in the Globalized World: Dimensions, Transformations and Challenges’ at Independent University Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (14-4-2014). Forgotten Bengal - the Creation of Pakistan in the East, Conference ‘Pakistan: Creation and Consolidation’ at FC College University, Lahore.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (8-11-2011). Rethinking the Study of History in Mizoram, Keynote lecture; Workshop on ‘Priorities and Challenges of Historical Research in Mizoram’, Department of History, Pachhunga University College, Mizoram University, Aizawl, India.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (1-11-2011). New Approaches to Northeast India History, Invited lecture, Department of Anthropology and Centre of Myanmar Studies, University of Manipur, Imphal, India.
    • van Schendel, H. W. (invited speaker) (16-5-2011). Defragmenting Asian Studies? The Case of North-East India., Invited lecture at University of Stockholm, Stockholm.

    Others

    • van Schendel, H. W. (participant) (17-12-2015 - 20-12-2015). at BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Co-organizer Conference ‘Myanmar and Bangladesh Studies.’ (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (participant) (13-8-2015 - 15-8-2015). Conference ‘Intellectual and Cultural Exchange between Myanmar and Bangladeshi Intellectuals and General Public.’, Yangon, Myanmar. Co-organizer Conference (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (participant) (12-6-2015 - 13-6-2015). at Institute of Public Knowledge, New York University, New York. Dissertation Workshop ‘Inequality and Urbanism in the Global South' (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (participant) (8-12-2014 - 10-12-2014). Conference ‘Activated Borders - Asian Borderlands Research Network’, Hong Kong (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (participant) (11-2-2014). At: India International Centre, New Delhi. Roundtable: ‘Understanding Northeast India Through Images’ (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (organiser) & Harris, C. H. (organiser) (16-11-2013 - 18-11-2013). Conference 'Anomie in Asia', University of Kyoto (Kyoto, Japan). Co-organiser (organising a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (participant) (11-10-2012 - 13-10-2012). Asian Borderlands Research Network Conference ‘Connections, Corridors and Communities’, Singapore (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (participant) (2-9-2011 - 3-9-2011). Organizer Workshop ‘Plants, People and Work: The Social History of Cash Crops in Asia, 18th to 20th Centuries’, Berlin (participating in a conference, workshop, ...).
    • van Schendel, H. W. (other) (2008 - 2009). Member, Editorial Board, Journal ‘Modern Asian Studies’ (other).

    2017

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