Asians in Africa authorpage

Dr. G. Oonk
Dept. of History (L3-75)
P.O. Box 1738
Erasmus University Rotterdam
3000 DR Rotterdam
Netherlands.

Phone (31) 10-4082496
Fax (31) 10-4089135
E-mail: Oonk@fhk.eur.nl
Website: www.asiansinafrica.com

Education

Ph-D.: 1998	Erasmus Universtiy Rotterdam Advisor: Prof. Dr. H.W. van Schendel Major: South Asian History Minor: World History
MA: 1992	Erasmus University Rotterdam Major field: Non-Western History

Employment

2001-current	Senior Research-Fellow of the Dutch Foundation of Tropical Research. (0,5 fte)
1998-current	Assistant Prof. Non-Western History. (0,5 fte)
1997	ICT project World History (0,2 fte)
1996	Lecturer Non-Western History. (0,5 fte)

Courses Taught

Introduction in Non-Western History
The History of Globalization
Diasporas in World History
Industrialization and de-industrialization in India
History of the Indian Ocean Region 1500-2000
Colonization and de-colonization in South Asia
Technical exchange in world history
Entrepreneurship in world history

PH-D commission: Geert Castryck [Ph-D Juli 2006]

Books Oonk G.
1998	Ondernemers in ontwikkeling. Fabrieken en fabrikanten in de Indiase katoenindustrie, 1850-1930, [Entrepreneurs in Development. Mills and Millowners in the Indian Cotton Textile Industry ( Hilversum 1998) 250 pp.
2004	Asians in East Africa. Images Pictures and Portraits. Sca producties, 60 pp.
Articles and book chapters
	Negotiating Hinduism in East Africa [in preparation]
	Indian Bankrupticies in Zanzibar [in preparation]
	We lost our gift of expression. Loss of the mother tongue among Indians in East Africa, 1880-2000. [In preparation]
2006	South Asians in East Africa (1880-1920) With a Particular Focus on Zanzibar. Towards a historical explanation of economic success of a middlemen minority. Journal of African and Asian Studies, 57-89. South Asians in East Africa. Contribution in The Encyclopaedia of the Indian Diaspora. Edited by P. Reeves, Brij Lal and Rajesh Rai, eds, Singapore: Éditions Didier Millet. ‘After Shaking his hand, start counting your fingers. Trust and Images in Indian business networks, East Africa 1900-2000’, republished in Geoffrey Jones and Dan Wadhwani, in Entrepreneurship and Global Capitalism, Edward Elgar Press.
2005	South Asian Diasporas: the creation of unfinished identities in the modern world, International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter 36 2005, 34.
2005	Asian in Africa: Images histories and portraits, International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter 39 2005, 18. Gujurati Business Communities in East Africa. Success and Failure Stories, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol XL (20), 2077-2082.
2004	The Changing Culture of the Hindu Lohana Community in East Africa, Contemporary Asian Studies , 13 (1) 2004, 7-23.
	After Shaking his hand, start counting your fingers. Trust and Images in Indian business networks, East Africa 1900-2000, Itinerario…
2002	‘Het globaliseringsdebat met of zonder geschiedenis?’ In Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, (1) 2002, 78-92. [Globalization debate with or without history, Journal of History]
2001	‘Motor or Millstone? The Managing Agency System in Bombay and Ahmedabad, 1850-1930, ‘ in the Indian Economic Social History Review 2001 (4) , 419-452.
1999	‘De armoede van Landes over de Rijkdom van India,’ Tijdschrift voor Sociale Geschiedenis ’ 25 (1), 78-87. [The poorness of Landes about the Richness of India]
1998	Bosma, U./ Oonk G. ‘Bombay-Batavia. Parsi and Indo-European variations in mediating 1800- 1947’, in Randeraad, N.(ed.), Mediators between State and Society in Comparative Perspective, Hilversum 1998, 17-40.
Others
2005	www.asiansinafrica.com Small historical video documentary: 13 minutes.
Bookreviews
2002	John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture, Polity Press Cambridge Oxford
1999	Pp vi-238 and Birgit Meyer and Peter Geschiere, Globalization and Identity. Dialects of Flow and Closure, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford and Malden
1999	Pp 338. Review in the Journal of World History 13 (2), 532-537.
	Claude Markovits, The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750-1947. Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama. Cambridge University Press 2000, recensie in Neha-bulletin 16 (2002) 1, 39-40.
	Convicts in the Indian Ocean: Transportation from South Asia to Mauritius, 1815-1853, McMillan 2000, recensie in Contemporary Asian Studies 11 (1), 89-90.
2001	Convicts in the Indian Ocean. Transportation from South Asia to Mauritius, 1815-1853, by Clare Anderson (McMillan Press LTD, London/ New York 2000), review in Contemporary South Asia, 2001 10 (2).
2000	‘Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization’ door A. Appadurai (University of Minnesota Press 1996), recensie in Journal of World History, 11 (1) 2000, 157-159.
	‘Mughal India and Central Asia,’ door Richard C. Foltz (Oxford University Press 1998) in Contemporary South Asia 2000 9 (1), 88.
	‘Indians in Britain. Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity, 1880-1930’ door Shompa Lahiri (Frank Cass Publishers London) recensie in Contemporary South Asia 2000 9 (4) pp, 383-384.
	‘Colonialism in Action: Trade Development and Dependence in Late Colonial India’ door Debdas Banerjee (Londen, Hyberabad Sangam Books) recensie in Contemporary South Asia 2000 9 (3), 369-370
1999	‘Miners and Millhands: Work and Politics in Princely Mysore,’ door Janaki Nair (Thousanad Oaks, New Delhi/ Sage Londen),in Contemporary Asia 8 (3), 399-400.
	‘Indian Traffic. Identities in Question in Colonial and Postcolonial India’, door Parama Roy, (California University press 1998), in Contemporary Asia 8 (2), 260-261.
	‘Maratime Commerce and English Power (Southeast India 1750-1800),’ door S. Arasaratnam (New Delhi, Sterlin 1996) in Contemporary South Asia 8 (2), 223-224.
1998	‘Small Industries, Big Ambitions’, door P. Gorter (Cambridge 1997) recensie in The Indian Economic and Social History Review 35 (2), pp216-219.
	‘Asian Entrepreneurial Minorities’, door C. Dobbin (Curzon 1996) recensie in Contemporary South Asia, 7 (2) , 217-218.
1996	Haan, A./ Oonk G. ‘The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India: Business Strategies and the Working Classes in Bombay, 1900- 1940’, door R. Chandavarkar (OUP 1995), recensie in The Journal of Entrepreneurship in India, (2) 1996, 136-138.
Conference presentation [Selection of]
2005	Negotiating Hinduism in East Africa. Indian Ocean World Conference, UCLA Los Angeles. [Invitation Prof. Dr. Edward E. Alpers] April 2005. Indian Bankrupticies in Zanzibar [London School of Economics, invitation, Dr. Gareth Austin]. Januari 2005. We lost our gift of Expression. Loss of the Mother Tongue among Indian Migrants in East Africa, presented at the South Asian Diasporas conference Rotterdam, 23-24 June.
2003	Characterizing the Changing Culture of an Asian Business Elite in East Africa, 1880-2000. Pa per presented at the Association for Asian Studies Conference, New York , 27-30 march 2003.
2002	Indians in Creolisation in East Africa. Paper presented at the ‘Creolisation and Globalisation conference, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 21-23 March 2002.
2000	Industrialization in India. Three patterns. Paper presented at Entrepreneurship and Institutions Conference, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Invited Presentations [Selection of]
2006	Changing Gujurati culture in Zanzibar, invited by the Gujarat Association/ Soas, London. Chairing the session: Religion and Migration (19-5) The African origins of Jazz, Studium Generale on the occasion of the North Sea Jazz Festival Rotterdam (18-6)
2005	January: Indian Bankrupticies in Zanzibar, invited by Gareth Austin London School of Economics/ editor African History. 23 Januari. Negotiating Hinduism in East Africa. Indian Ocean World Conference, Invited by Prof. Dr. Ned Alpers. 15-16 april 2005.
2003	Globalization and History from a non-western perspective: University of Dar es Salaam. Invited by Dr. Yusuf Lawi.
2003	Characterizing the Changing Culture of an Asian Business Elite in East Africa, 1880-2000. Paper presented at the Association for Asian Studies Conference, New York , 27-30 march 2003.
2002	Indians in Creolisation in East Africa. Paper presented at the ‘Creolisation and Globalisation conference, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 21-23 March 2002.
2001	The changing Culture of Asians in East Africa. National Museum of Nairobi, invited by Dr. S Somjee.
Awards and Honours
2001	Research grant for 4 years (0,5 fte) Dutch Foundation for Tropical Research (WOTRO)
1994	Posthumus diploma [social science researcher]
1992	Research grant for 4 years (Ph-D, full time) Dutch Foundation for Tropical Research (WOTRO)
Long term research abroad
2002-3	12 months fieldwork and archival research in East Africa, especially, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Nairobi and Mombasa.
2001	3 months fieldwork Dar es Salaam; 6 weeks archival research in London [Colonial Office, Kew; and the Indian Office Library]
1992-3	14 months fieldwork and archival research in Bombay, Ahmedabad, New Delhi and Calcutta.
Management experience
2005-06	Member of the Organizing Committee of the 19th European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies, Leiden 2006.
2005	Organise an two-days international conferencence: South Asians in Diaspora. Financed by the International Institute of Asian Studies and Erasmus University, Trustfonds. Together with Prof. Dr. H. Schult-Nordtholt.
2004-current	Active member of the ‘faculteitsraad’.
2002-current	Member of the Exchange Committee, which evaluates financial request of students for research and / or studies abroad.
2001-02	Supervising the ‘Asians in Africa’ team. Four MA students who managed to raise funds for their fieldwork in Uganda, Kenya, Mauritius and Tanganyika, 2001-2002. All of the completed their thesis –under my guidance- with 8 [very good] or more within the scheduled timeframe.
2002	Organizing one panel within the International Workshop the ‘Creolisation and Globalisation conference, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 21-23 March 2002. Organizer Prof. Dr. A. van Stpriaan-Luïscius.
1998-2001	Member of de OPCIE, which evaluates our course programms.
2001	Creating and implementing a new teaching traject ‘World History’ including subjects like Migration and Multiculturality; Non-Western regions in world history, Group cultures, and Globalization and World History. In this project teachers from various disciplines in our faculty have to work together in order to develop an integrated teaching programme.
1998-04	Active member of the ‘Interfaculty research group’ Business History. We organised half-yearly meetings. Occasionally with international guests
1996	Organizing an International Workshop in Calcutta: Labour and Industries. Together with Dr. A. de Haan.
1999 2000	Conference, Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Affiliated to:
1992- current	The History Department of the University of Gujarat, Ahmedabad, India. [Prof. Dr. M.M. Mehta]
1994- current	Member of the World History Association [Hawai].
2002-03	Lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Globalisation and History.
2003-current	History of the Indian Ocean World program. Ned Alpers, UCLA California USA.
2004-current	Member of the Organizing Committee of the European Conference of Modern South Asian Studies. [Leiden]
2005-current	The Gujarat Studies Association (GSA), London. An academic network aimed specifically at the study and research of Gujarat and Gujaratis.