Historian at Yale
Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia (Cornell UP, 2020) | Second book on and reclamation in British Empire (under review) | Currently writing on history of petroleum in Indonesia https://debris.substack.com
Fadzilah Yahaya
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Cool photo I found of French Algerian soldiers c. 1904 in Tianjin
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18th century "cat contract" (納貓兒契式; based on a Yuan-dynasty original), laying out the cat's duties and responsibilities: tirelessly guarding the grain, repelling the "mousey bandits" (鼠賊), not messing with the livestock, not stealing numnums "of any kind whatsoever" (不得偷盜食諸般).
Legal historians: please consider applying for the ASLH Virtual Working Group program for AY2026-27. These are themed (last year: consent, environmental, radical legal advocacy)+could be for a 2nd book ms group. Proposals due June 30, 2026: aslh.net/virtual-work... @aslegalhist.bsky.social
The publication of The Albatross File: Inside Separation is very welcome for those with an interest in the Singapore story—though less for the hitherto secret documents it reproduces and more for the hitherto secret oral histories.
Read now: mekongreview.com/kee...
New collection of primary sources on environmental history of China from @columbiaup.bsky.social out in December 2026!
Selections translated from 8 (!!!) different languages for #envhist, #energyhist, and #histstm classes on China, East Asia, and the global.
#aghist #animalstudies #plantstudies
Raymond Kennedy, Yale professor of sociology, wrote memoranda for the OSS during the war and went on to found the Council on Southeast Asian Studies, the first area-studies program at Yale. American expertise on the region was largely a wartime making. debris.substack.com/p/wartime-be...
Untrodden Field
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Before Japan surrendered, American aid was already paying for the British, French and Dutch to retake their colonies in Asia. My new Substack post is now up!
Post-War Field Formation: Southeast Asia
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For anyone who published a book, article, or digital project on legal history between Jan.2025 and Dec.2026: you should apply to be featured in the ASLH's virtual event series for next yr--"Making Connections: New Works in Legal History, 2026-27." Due June 30, 2026: aslh.net/virtual-book... (1/2)
Amongst the papers of Austrian-American chemist Hugh Rechnitzer I found this photo. On the back Rechnitzer wrote
“At Tongku. French Algerians out for a walk. Russian guard over ammunition. German sa...
ASLH Themed Virtual Legal History Workshop Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2026 The ASLH invites applications for Themed Virtual Legal History Workshops. The goal of the Themed Virtual LHWs is to ...
China has a vast written history that records the countless ways people have observed, transformed, and preserved their environments over the centuries. This... | CUP
Making Connections: New Works in Legal History Series Sponsored by the American Society for Legal History Deadline for Applications: June 30, 2026 The ASLH Making Connections: New Works in Legal Histo...
