Dr Michael Barr

Position/s:Senior Lecturer
International Relations
Phone: +61 8 82012388
Email:
Location: Social Sciences South (310)
Postal address: GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Biography

Michael Barr is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of International Relations and a member of the Flinders Asia Centre Management Committee. An historian by training, he came to Flinders University from The University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology where he held postdoctoral research fellowships.

Honours, awards and grants

Recipient of the 1999 Asian Studies Association of Australia's President's Prize for the best Australian PhD in Asian Studies in 1998.

Key responsibilities

Chair of the Bachelor of International Studies Course Management Committee.
Director of Studies for the Bachelor of International Studies and the International Relations major.

Teaching

Teaching interests

Asian history and society; Asian political economy; the cultural politics of religion and ethnicity, especially in Asia; religious and ethnic nationalism; genocide.

Topic Coordinator:

  • ASST3017  Asia Rising: The Politics of Development in the Asia-Pacific Region
  • ASST7010  Cultural Politics in Modern Asia: Religion and Ethnicity in Nation-Building and Politics
  • ASST9021  Religious and Ethnic Nationalism in Asia
  • INST3002  Perspectives in International Studies
  • INTR2003  Political Economy of the Asia-Pacific Region
  • INTR7009  The Cultural Politics of Religion, Ethnicity and Nationalism
  • INTR9060  The Cultural Politics of Religion, Ethnicity and Nationalism

Research and supervision

Research expertise

  • Historical studies
  • Other education
  • Policy and administration
  • Political science
  • Religious and religious studies
  • Sociology

Research interests

Singapore history and politics; Malaysian history and politics; religion and ethnicity in politics and nationalism.

Supervisory interests

  • Asian religious and ethnic nationalism
  • Constructions of racial and ethnic identities
  • History, Singaporean
  • Malaysia, politics and history
  • Malaysian Islamisation policy
  • Politics, Singaporean
  • Religion and ethnic identity
  • Religion, politics and international relations
  • Singapore history, politics and society

RHD research supervision

Current

Principal supervisor: Malaysia and Singapore Politics (1); Gender and national identity in Malaysia (1); Singapore politics (1); Singapore history (1); Ethnonationalist insurgency Thailand and Aceh (1);

Completion

Associate supervisor: Religion and race in Singapore (1); Ethnicity and politics in Malaysia (1);

Publications

Books
Barr, M.D. and Skrbis, Z. (2008). Constructing Singapore: elitism, ethnicity and the nation-building project. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press.
Barr, M.D. (2002). Cultural politics and Asian values: the tepid war. New York, USA: Routledge.
Book chapters
Barr, M.D. (2013). Turning conservative Muslims into good citizens: new allies in the management of Islam in Singapore after 9/11. In J Camilleri & S Schottmann, ed. Culture, Religion and Conflict in Muslim Southeast Asia. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, pp. 70-87.
Barr, M.D. (2010). Harmony, conformity or timidity?: Singapore's overachievement in the quest for harmony. In Julia Tao, Anthony B.L. Cheung, Martin Painter, Chengyang Li, ed. Governance for Harmony in Asia and Beyond. London, UK: Routledge, pp. 73-102.
Barr, M.D. (2008). Singapore's Catholic social activitsts: alleged Marxist conspirators. In Michael D. Barr and Carl A. Trocki, ed. Paths Not Taken: Political Pluralism in Post-War Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, pp. 228-247.
Barr, M.D. (2008). Confucianism, from above and below. In Jeffrey Haynes, ed. Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics. London, UK and New York, USA: Routledge, pp. 64-78.
Refereed journal articles
Barr, M.D. (2012). The Bonsai under the Banyan Tree: Democracy and Democratisation in Singapore. Democratization. [online]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2012.706606.
Barr, M.D. and Govindasamy, A.R. (2010). The Islamisation of Malaysia: religious nationalism in the service of ethnonationalism. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 64(3), pp.293-311.
Barr, M.D. (2010). Marxists in Singapore? Lee Kuan Yew's Campaign against Catholic Social Justice Activists in the 1980s. Critical Asian Studies, 43(3), pp.335-362.
Barr, M.D. (2008). No island is a man: the enigma of Lee Kuan Yew  's legacy. Harvard Asia Quarterly, 11(2/3), pp.45-56.

Show all publications

Books
Barr, M.D. (2009). Lee Kuan Yew?: the beliefs behind the man. 2nd ed. Michael D. Barr, ed. Kuala Lumpur: New Asian Library.
Barr, M.D. and Skrbis, Z. (2008). Constructing Singapore: elitism, ethnicity and the nation-building project. Copenhagen, Denmark: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Press.
Barr, M.D. (2004). Cultural Politics and Asian Values: The tepid war. London and New York: Routledge.
Barr, M.D. (2002). Cultural politics and Asian values: the tepid war. New York, USA: Routledge.
Book chapters
Barr, M.D. (2013). Turning conservative Muslims into good citizens: new allies in the management of Islam in Singapore after 9/11. In J Camilleri & S Schottmann, ed. Culture, Religion and Conflict in Muslim Southeast Asia. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, pp. 70-87.
Barr, M.D. (2010). Harmony, conformity or timidity?: Singapore's overachievement in the quest for harmony. In Julia Tao, Anthony B.L. Cheung, Martin Painter, Chengyang Li, ed. Governance for Harmony in Asia and Beyond. London, UK: Routledge, pp. 73-102.
Barr, M.D. (2008). Singapore's Catholic social activitsts: alleged Marxist conspirators. In Michael D. Barr and Carl A. Trocki, ed. Paths Not Taken: Political Pluralism in Post-War Singapore. Singapore: NUS Press, pp. 228-247.
Barr, M.D. (2008). Confucianism, from above and below. In Jeffrey Haynes, ed. Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics. London, UK and New York, USA: Routledge, pp. 64-78.
Refereed journal articles
Barr, M.D. (2012). The Bonsai under the Banyan Tree: Democracy and Democratisation in Singapore. Democratization. [online]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2012.706606.
Barr, M.D. and Govindasamy, A.R. (2010). The Islamisation of Malaysia: religious nationalism in the service of ethnonationalism. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 64(3), pp.293-311.
Barr, M.D. (2010). Marxists in Singapore? Lee Kuan Yew's Campaign against Catholic Social Justice Activists in the 1980s. Critical Asian Studies, 43(3), pp.335-362.
Barr, M.D. (2008). Singapore: the limits of a technocratic approach to health care. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 38(3), pp.395-416. [online]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00472330802078485.
Barr, M.D. (2008). No island is a man: the enigma of Lee Kuan Yew  's legacy. Harvard Asia Quarterly, 11(2/3), pp.45-56.
Barr, M.D. (2006). Beyond technocracy: the culture of elite governance in Lee Hsien Loong's Singapore. Asian Studies Review, 30(1), pp.1-17. [online]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10357820500537021.
Barr, M.D. and Low, J. (2005). Assimilation as multiracialism: the case of Singapore's Malays. Asian Ethnicity, 6(3), pp.161-182. [online]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14631360500226606.
Barr, M.D. (2001). Medical Savings Accounts in Singapore: A Critical Inquiry. Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law, 26(4), pp.709-726. [online]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/03616878-26-4-709.
Other public research outputs
Barr, M.D. and Trocki, C.A. (2008). Co-editor (History book). Paths not taken: political pluralism in post-war Singapore.
Barr, M.D. and Trocki, C.A. (2002). Index of Political Headlines of Singapore's and Malaya's Vernacular Press: December 1953 to September 1961 (Press index). Paths Not Taken Project: Political Pluralism in Postwar Singapore. [online]. http://www.pathsnottaken.qut.edu.au/pressindex.jsp.

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Professional and community engagement

2012-14: Editor-in-Chief, Asian Studies Review, journal of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA)
2011-12: General Councillor, ASAA
2010: Co-editor (with Dr Liz Morrell) of the Proceedings of the Biennial Conference of the ASAA and member, Organising Committee, 18th Biennial Conference of the ASAA
Ongoing: Member, Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA)

Expertise for media contact

  • Singapore and Malaysia Politics and history

Subject/s

  • Asia
  • International Relations
  • Muslims
  • Politics
  • Religion

Further information

Documents



inspiring achievement