Professor Robert Cribb
Areas of expertise
- Asian History 210302
- Government And Politics Of Asia And The Pacific 160606
- Professional Ethics (Incl. Police And Research Ethics) 220107
- Other Law And Legal Studies 1899
- History And Philosophy Of Science (Incl. Non Historical Philosophy Of Science) 220206
Research interests
Robert Cribb's research interests focus mainly on Indonesia, though he has some interest in other parts of Southeast Asia (especially Malaysia and Burma/Myanmar) and in Inner Asia. The themes of his research are: mass violence and crime; national identity; environmental politics; and historical geography. Current research projects include: the origins of massacre in Indonesia; 'Puppet states revisited: Empire and Sovereign Subordination in Modern Asia' (with Li Narangoa); and War crimes and the Japanese Military, 1941 - 1945 (with Sandra Wilson).
Biography
Robert Cribb grew up in Brisbane, Australia, and spent much time as a child wandering the bush and the Barrier Reef with his botanist parents. After completing his undergraduate studies in Asian History at the University of Queensland, he took his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, with a thesis on Jakarta during the Indonesian revolution, 1945-1949. After graduating, he taught at Griffith University and the University of Queensland (both in Brisbane) and as guest lecturer at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. He held research positions at the Australian National University, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, where he was also director for two years. He re-joined the Australian National University at the beginning of 2003.
Researcher's projects
The origins of massacre in Indonesia. Examines the deep and shallow roots of the 1945 and 1965 massacres in Indonesia.
Puppet states revisited (with Li Narangoa). Examines the concept of puppet states as it has been used in international studies and suggests ways it can be stripped of its judgemental aspects and used as an analytical term.
War crimes and the Japanese Military, 1941 - 1945 (with Sandra Wilson). Asks why the Japanese military committed the crimes for which so many were tried.
Publications
- Cribb, R 2020, ''Conventional War Crimes': The International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Ill-Treatment of Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees', in V E Dittrich, K von Lingen, P Osten & J Makraiova (ed.), The Tokyo Tribunal: Perspectives on Law, History and Memory, Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher, Brussels, pp. 177-199.
- Cribb, R 2019, 'Nature Conservation and Its Bedfellows: The Polictics of Preserving Nature', in Helen James (ed.), Population, Development, and The Environment: Challenges to Achieving the Sustainable development goals in the Asia Pacific, Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore, pp. 21-34.
- Cribb, R 2018, 'Developing a quality ranking for history journals in Australia', History Australia, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 591-611pp.
- Cribb, R 2018, 'Atrocity and the Limits of Historical Guilt', Genocide Studies and Prevention, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 4-9pp.
- Cribb, R 2018, 'The life and trial of Cho Un-kuk, Korean war criminal', Critical Asian Studies, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 329-352pp.
- Cribb, R 2017, 'Convict Exile and Penal Settlement in Colonial Indonesia', Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, vol. 18, no. 3.
- Wilson, S & Cribb, R 2018, 'Japan's colonial empire', in Sven Saaler and Christopher W.A. Szpilman (ed.), Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese History, Routledge, London, London & New York, pp. 77-91.
- Cribb, R, Delpiano, P & Perello, J, eds, 2018, Asia and the Pacific during the Cold War, Fondo de Cultura Economica, Chile.
- Cribb, R & Von Lingen, K 2017, 'War Crimes Trials in Asia: Collaboration and Complicity in the Aftermath of War', in Kerstin von Lingen (ed.), Debating Collaboration and Complicity in War Crimes Trials in Asia 1945-1956, Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland, pp. 1-18.
- Cribb, R 2017, 'ASEAN, rise and decline: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [Auge y declinación de la Asociación de Naciones del Sudeste Asiático] ', in Pedro Iacobelli D, Robert Cribb, Juan Luis Perello E (ed.), Asia y el Pacifico durante la Guerra Fria (Asia and the Pacific during the Cold War), Fondo de Cultura Economica, Chile, pp. 135-148pp.
- Wilson, S, Cribb, R, Trefalt, B and Aszkielowicz, D, 2017, Japanese War Criminals: The Politics of Justice After the Second World War, New York: Columbia University Press.
- Cribb, R 2017, 'The Characteristics of Transitional Justice', Journal of International Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 114-116.
- Cribb, R 2016, 'Maps and text: creative tension or cognitive dissonance?', in P. Bol (ed.), Historical Atlas: Its concepts and methodologies, Northeast Asian History Foundation, Seoul.
- Playford, P, Cribb, R, Bouma, G et al. 2016, The Life and Times of Dirk Hartog, R L Hitchings, Perth, Western Australia.
- Cribb, R 2016, 'The Burma Trials of Japanese War Criminals, 1946-1947', in Kerstin von Lingen (ed.), War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1945-1956: Justice in Time of Turmoil (World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence), Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland, pp. 117-142.
- Cribb, R & Von Lingen, K 2016, 'War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1946-1956 Justice in Time of Turmoil', in Kerstin von Lingen (ed.), War Crimes Trials in the Wake of Decolonization and Cold War in Asia, 1945-1956: Justice in Time of Turmoil (World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence), Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland, pp. 1-23.
- Chandler, D, Cribb, R & Narangoa, L 2016, End of Empire: 100 Days in 1945 that Changed Asia and the World, NIAS Press, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Cribb, R & Narangoa, L 2016, 'Steppe empires', in John MacKenzie (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Empire, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., United States. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118455074
- Cribb, R 2016, 'Japanese Empire', in John MacKenzie (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Empire, John Wiley & Sons Ltd., United States, pp. 1-13. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118455074
- Cribb, Robert, 2015, Als die Fischer Leichen fingen (When fishermen netted corpses), Die Zeit, 8 October 2015, p. 21.
- Cribb, Robert, 2015, 'How finished business became unfinished: legal, moral and political dimensions of the Class 'B' and 'C' war crimes trials in Asia and the Pacific', in Christina Twomey and Ernest Koh (ed.), The Pacific War: Aftermaths, remembrance and culture, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 91-109.
- Cribb, Robert, 2015, 'The External Rice Trade of the Indonesian Republic, 1946-47', in Alicia Schrikker and Jeroen Touwen (ed.), Promises and Predicaments: Trade and Entrepreneurship in Colonial and Independent Indonesia in the 19th and 20th Centuries, NUS Press - National University of Singapore, Singapore, pp. 181-197.
- Cribb, Robert 2014, 'Film review: The Act of Killing', Critical Asian Studies, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 147-149.
- Cribb, Robert, Gilbert, Helen & Tiffin, Helen, 2014, Wild man from Borneo: a cultural history of the orangutan, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, USA.
- Narangoa, Li, & Cribb, Robert 2014, Historical Atlas of Northeast Asia 1590-2010: Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, Eastern Siberia, Columbia University Press, New York.
- Strange, Carolyn, & Cribb, Robert, 2014, 'Historical perspectives on honour, violence and emotion', in (ed.), Honour, Violence and Emotions in History, Bloomsbury, London, pp. 1-22.
- Strange, Carolyn, Cribb, Robert, & Forth, Christopher, eds, 2014, Honour, Violence and Emotions in History, Bloomsbury, London.
- Cribb, R 2012, 'Timor-Leste: History', in Europea Publications (ed.), The Far East and Australasia 2013, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York and London, pp. 1238-1249.
- Cribb, Robert & Kahin, Audrey R 2012, Kamus Sejarah Indonesia / Historical Dictionary of Indonesia, Komunitas Bambu, Indonesia.
- Cribb, Robert 2012, ''Southeast Asia': A good place to start from', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania), vol. 168, no. 4, pp. 503-505.
- Cribb, Robert, 2012, 'The Past as Threat, the Past as Promise; the Historical Writing of Anthony Reid', in Geoff Wade and Li Tana (ed.), Anthony Reid and the Study of the Southeast Asian Past, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, pp. 31-44.
- Cribb, R 2011, 'A System of Exemptions: historicizing state illegality in Indonesia', in Edward Aspinall and Gerry van Klinken (ed.), The State and Illegality in Indonesia, KITLV Press, Leiden, Netherlands, pp. 31-44.
- Cribb, R 2011, 'Introduction: Proceedings of the Transmission of academic values in Asian Studies workshop', in Robert Cribb (ed.), Proceedings of the Transmission of academic values in Asian Studies workshop, Online only, Canberra, pp. Online.
- Cribb, R 2011, 'Avoiding Clemency: The Trial and Transfer of Japanese War Criminals in Indonesia, 1946-1949', Japanese Studies, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 151-170.
- Cribb, R 2010, 'Political Genocides in Postcolonial Asia', in Donald Bloxham & A. Dirk Moses (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 445-65.
- Cribb, R 2010, 'Institutions', in Peter Post, William H Frederick, Iris Heidebrink and Shigeru Sato (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Indonesia in the Pacific War, Koninklijke Brill, Leiden, pp. 102-113.
- Cribb, R 2010, Gangsters and revolutionaries of Jakarta 1945-1949 (Para jago dan kaum revolusioner Jakarta 1945-1949), Mapus Jakarta, Indonesia.
- Cribb, R 2010, 'Legal Pluralism and Criminal Law in the Dutch Colonial order', Indonesia, vol. 90, pp. 47-66.
- Cribb, R 2010, 'The Historical Roots of Indonesia's New Order: Beyond the Colonial Comparison', in Edward Aspinall & Greg Fealy (ed.), Soeharto's New Order and its Legacy: Essays in honour of Harold Crouch, ANU ePress, Canberra Australia, pp. 67-80.
- Cribb, R 2010, 'The incredible shrinking Pancasila: nationalist propaganda and the missing ideological legacy of Suharto', in Thomas Reuter (ed.), The return to constitutional democracy in Indonesia, Monash University Publishing, Monash University, Australia, pp. 65-76.
- Cribb, R 2010, Digital Atlas of Indonesian History, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press, Copenhagen Denmark.
- Narangoa, L & Cribb, R 2010, 'Nations-of-intent: from counterfactual history to counterfactual geography', Journal of Historical Geography, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 276-285.
- Cribb, R 2009, 'Nature conservation and cultural preservation in convergence: Orang Pendek and Papuans in colonial Indonesia', in Stella Borg Barthet (ed.), A Sea of Encounters: Essays Towards a Postcolonial Commonwealth, Editions Rodopi B.V., New York, pp. 223-242.
- Cribb, R 2009, 'National Identity and Exclusion in Indonesia', in S C M Paine (ed.), Nation Building, State Building, and Economic Development: case studies and comparisons, M E Sharpe Inc, New York, pp. 277-289.
- Cribb, R & Coppel, C 2009, 'A genocide that never was: explaining the myth of anti-Chinese massacres in Indonesia, 1965-66', Journal of Genocide Research, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 447-465.
- Cribb, R 2009, 'The Homo Floresiensis Controversy', Kraken: archives of cryptozoology, vol. 2, pp. 29-39.
- Cribb, R 2009, 'The Indonesian Revolution: Archives and Emotion', in Bondan Kanumoyoso, Hilmar Farid, Ivan Aulia Ahsan and M.Fauzi (ed.), Kembara Bahari: Esei Kehormatan 80 Tahun Adrian B. Lapian, Komunitas Bambu, Depok, pp. 367-378.
- Cribb, R 2009, Gangsters and Revolutionaries: The Jakarta People's Militia and the Indonesian Revolution 1945-1949, Equinox Publishing Ltd, Singapore.
- Cribb, R 2009, 'Introduction: Parapolitics, Shadow Governance and Criminal Sovereignty', in Eric Wilson (ed.), Government of the Shadows: Parapolitics and Criminal Sovereignty, Pluto Press, London and New York, pp. 1-9.
- Cribb, R & Ford, M, eds, 2009, Indonesia Beyond the Water's Edge: Managing an Archipelagic State, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore.
- Cribb, R & Ford, M 2009, 'Indonesia as an Archipelago: Managing the Islands and Managing the Seas', in Robert Cribb and Michele Ford (ed.), Indonesia Beyond the Water's Edge: Managing an Archipelagic State, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, pp. 1-27.
- Cribb, R 2008, 'The Indonesian Massacres', in Samuel Totten & William S Parsons (ed.), Century of Genocide (3rd ed), Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York, pp. 235-262.
- Cribb, R 2008, 'The Seas as a Strategic Resource in Asian History', International conference on Hydrography (Hydro 2007), International Federation of Hydrographic Societies, NSW, pp. 93-97.
- Cribb, R 2008, 'The Brief Genocide of the Eurasians in Indonesia, 1945/1946', in A. Dirk Moses (ed.), Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, New York, pp. 424-439.
- Cribb, R 2008, 'Pak Sartono and Historical Consciousness', in M Nursam, Baskara T Wardaya, S J Asvi Warman Adam (ed.), Sejarah Yang Memihak: Mengenang sartono kartodirdjo, Penerbit Ombak, Yogyakarta, pp. 206-208.
- Cribb, R 2008, 'Book Review: Sukarno and the Indonesian Coup: The Untold Story', Contemporary Southeast Asia, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 332-334.
- Vicziany, M & Cribb, R, eds, 2008, Is this the Asian century? Proceedings of the 17th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, Monash University, Melbourne.
- Cribb, R 2008, Enigmatic mastermind of change, Australian Financial Review.
- Cribb, R 2007, 'Conservation in Colonial Indonesia', Interventions, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 49-61.
- Cribb, R 2007, 'The 1965 Massacres in Indonesia: Issues still unresolved', in Eva Streifeneder and Antje Missbach (ed.), Indonesia - The Presence of the Past: A festschrift in honour of Ingrid Wessel, Regiospectra Verlag, Germany, pp. 41-50.
- Cribb, R 2007, 'Timor-Leste (East Timor): History', in Lynn Daniel (ed.), The Far East and Australasia 2007, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK, pp. 1209-1238.
- Cribb, R 2007, 'Crime, Violence and exclusion in Indonesia (Misdaad, geweld en uitsluiting in Indonesie)', in Els Bogaerts and Remvco Raben (ed.), From the Indies to Indonesia (Van Indie tot Indonesie), Boom Juridische uitgevers, Amsterdam, pp. 31-48.
- Cribb, R & Narangoa, L 2006, 'Constructing Indigenousness in the late Modern World', in Patricia Grimshaw and Russell McGregor (ed.), Collisions of Cultures and Identities: Settlers and Indigenous Peoples, RMIT Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 279-294.
- Cribb, R 2006, 'Crime and Politics in Occupied Jakarta, 1946', in A.B. Lapian et al (ed.), Sejarah dan Peradaban: Persembahan 70 Tahun Prof. Dr. Taufik Abdullah, LIPI Press, Jakarta, Indonesia, pp. 541-553.
- Cribb, R 2006, 'Book review: Three Indonesian Histories', Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 371-376.
- Cribb, R 2006, 'Region, Academic Dynamics, and Promise of Comparitivism. Beyond Studying 'Southeast Asia'?', in Cynthia Chou and Vincent Houben (ed.), Southeast Asian Studies: Debates and New Predictions, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, pp. 45-64.
- Cribb, R 2006, '"A little knowledge is a useful thing": Paradoxes in the Asian Studies Experience in Australia', in Josine Stremmelaar and Paul van der Velde (ed.), What About Asia, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 57-67.
- Cribb, R & Narangoa, L 2006, 'Hiding borders, skewing perspectives and reversing time: possibilities for a new generation of historical atlases', Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia 2006, ed. Adrian Vickers and Margaret Hanlon, Australian National University, Canberra, p. 12.
- Cribb, R 2005, 'Legal pluralism, decentralisation and the roots of violence in Indonesia', in Dewi Fortuna Anwar, Helene Bouvier, Glenn Smith, Roger Tol (ed.), Violent internal conflicts in Asia Pacific: Histories, Political Economies and policies, Yayasan Obor Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia, pp. 41-57.
- Cribb, R 2005, 'Indonesia', in Dinah L. Shelton (ed.), Encyclopedia of genocide and crimes against humanity, MacMillan Reference USA, Detroit, pp. 516-521.
- Cribb, R 2005, 'Timor-Leste (East Timor): History', in Lynn Daniel (ed.), The Far East and Australasia 2006, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, UK, pp. 1201-1219.
- Cribb, R 2005, 'Myanmar (Burma): History', in Lynn Daniel (ed.), The Far East and Australasia 2006, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, UK, pp. 735-751.
- Cribb, R 2005, 'Indonesia: History', in Lynn Daniel (ed.), The Far East and Australasia 2006, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, UK, pp. 360-380.
- Cribb, R 2005, 'Malaysia: History', in Lynn Daniel (ed.), The Far East and Australasia 2006, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, UK, pp. 641-654.
- Cribb, R 2005, 'Circles of Esteem, Standard Works, and Euphoric Couplets: Dynamics of Academic Life in Indonesian Studies', Critical Asian Studies, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 289-304.
- Cribb, R & Narangoa, L 2004, 'Changing Meanings of the Term Indigenous in Pacific Asia', International Journal of the Humanities, vol. 1, pp. 910-917.
- Cribb, R & Narangoa, L 2004, 'Dynamics of Land and Identity in Pacific Asia: Reflections on Attachment to Land', International Journal of the Humanities, vol. 1, pp. 1093-1102.
- Cribb, R & Narangoa, L 2004, 'Orphans of Empire: Divided Peoples, Dilemmas of Identity, and Old Imperial Borders in East and Southeast Asia', Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 164-187.
- Cribb, R & Kahin, A 2004, Historical Dictionary of Indonesia, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., Lanham, Maryland, USA.
- Cribb, R 2004, 'The Indonesia Massacres', in Samuel Totten, William S Parsons and Israel W Charny (ed.), Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (2nd ed), Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York and London, pp. 233-262.
- Cribb, R 2004, 'Ethical regulation and humanities research in Australia: Problems and consequences', Monash Bioethics Review, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 39-57.
- Cribb, R 2004, 'Environmentalism in Indonesian Politics', in Adriann Bedner and Nicole Niessen (ed.), Towards Integrated Environmental Law in Indonesia?, CNWS Publications, Leiden University, The Netherlands, pp. 37-48.
- Cribb, R 2004, 'Case Study 4: The Indonesian Genocide of 1965-1966', in Samuel Totten (ed.), Teaching About Genocide: Issues, Approaches, and Resources, Information Age Publishing Inc, Greenwich, USA, pp. 133-141.
- Narangoa, L & Cribb, R 2003, 'Afterword: Japanese Imperialism and the Politics of Loyalty', in Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb (ed.), Imperial Japan and national identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Routledge Curzon, London and New York, pp. 315-318.
- Narangoa, L & Cribb, R 2003, 'Appendix: Postage Stamps and Japanese Imperialism', in Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb (ed.), Imperial Japan and national identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Routledge Curzon, London and New York, pp. 319-327.
- Cribb, R 2003, Pembantaian PKI di Jawa dan Bali, MataBangsa, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
- Narangoa, L & Cribb, R 2003, 'Introduction: Japan and the Transformation of National Identities in Asia in the Imperial Era', in Li Narangoa and Robert Cribb (ed.), Imperial Japan and national identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Routledge Curzon, London and New York, pp. 1-22.
- Cribb, R 2003, Indisch Identity and Decolonization, pp. p.52.
- Narangoa, L & Cribb, R, eds, 2003, Imperial Japan and National Identities in Asia, 1895-1945, Routledge Curzon, London and New York.
- Cribb, R 2003, 'Genocide in the non-Western world: implications for Holocaust studies', in (ed.), Genocide: cases, comparisons and contemporary debates, Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Copenhagen, pp. 123-140.
- Cribb, R 2002, 'Unresolved Problems in the Indonesian Killings of 1965-1966', Asian Survey, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 550-563.