George Quinn

From 2000 to 2008, I was Head of the Southeast Asia Centre in (what was then known as) the Faculty of Asian Studies, College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University in Canberra. In 2006 and 2007 I was Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Asian Studies. I hold a Master of Arts degree from Victoria University of Wellington (1965), a Bachelor of Arts degree (Sarjana Muda) from Gadjah Mada University, Jogjakarta (1974), and a PhD from the University of Sydney (1984).

Until my retirement from fulltime teaching in 2008, I taught Indonesian and Javanese at the ANU, and contributed to courses on Indonesian language, literature and culture, Indonesian religion and politics, and East Timor. As Head of the ANU’s Southeast Asia Centre, I had administrative responsibility for tuition programs in Indonesian, Javanese, Classical Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Lao and Tetum.

My main publications are The Novel in Javanese (1992), The Learners Dictionary of Today’s Indonesian (2001) and (with Ulrich Kozok) The Indonesian Way (2012). Currently I am completing a book on sacred sites and local pilgrimage in Java and Madura, provisionally titled The Hidden Heart of Indonesian Islam. I am also working on an English translation of the Javanese-language novel Ibu (1980) by Poerwadhie Atmodihardjo and completing a textbook for the study of Javanese by English-speaking learners to be titled Sri Ngilang.

I am currently Adjunct Professor and Visiting Fellow in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the ANU. I am continuing to research popular religion in Java, as well as Javanese language and literature.