Indonesian  and Southeast Asian politics; democratisation; social movements, nationalism and ethnic conflict; patronage and clientelism.

Edward Aspinall is a specialist of the politics of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. His interest in the study of politics, especially Southeast Asian politics, began when he lived in Malang, East Java, as a teenager. After studying Indonesian language and politics at high school and university, he completed his PhD at the ANU in 2000 on the topic of opposition movements and democratisation in Indonesia. After that, he researched a range of topics related to Indonesian democratisation and civil society, especially the separatist conflict in Aceh. His current research interests include ongoing research on Indonesian national politics. In particular, he is engaged as an Australian Research Council Future Fellow in a study on the role of ethnicity in everyday politics in Indonesia. He is also part of a multi-country study on 'money politics' in Southeast Asia, looking at the role of patronage, vote buying, clientelism and related phenomena.

Career Highlights Lecturer in Southeast Asian Studies, University of Sydney, 2003-2005; Lecturer in Indonesian studies, University of New South Wales, 1997-2001; Coordinating Editor of Inside Indonesia; Co-Winner of of the Asian Studies Association of Australia's Mid-career Researcher Prize for Excellence in Asian Studies (2010) for Islam and Nation; Member of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; Co-Editor of the Southeast Asia Publication Series for the Asian Studies Association of Australia. Awarded a Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council (2012).