Religious Studies: Christopher Duncan

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and School of Global Studies
Ph.D., Yale
Arrived at ASU: 2006

Office: ECA 320
Phone: 480-727-0692
E-mail: crduncan@asu.edu
CV: Available upon request

Research Interests

Religion and conflict; collective violence; Islam and Christianity in Indonesia; religious conversion and social change; ethnic minorities and development policy; migration; conservation and natural resources use; and hunter-gatherer studies.

Biography

Christopher R. Duncan (Ph.D., Yale 1998) is assistant professor of religious studies and The School for Global Studies. He is an anthropologist who focuses his research on Indonesia. He has also done research in Vietnam and Burma. Prior to arriving at ASU he held positions as a Visiting Research Fellow at Australian National University as well as at Goldsmiths College, University of London. His current research focuses on communal violence in eastern Indonesia, particularly in the province of North Maluku. He has been looking at the 1999-2000 conflict there focusing on local interpretations of the violence and the experiences of forced migrants. His other (and on-going) research looks at the missionization, resettlement and conversion to Christianity of the Forest Tobelo, a group of forest-dwelling foragers on the island of Halmahera in eastern Indonesia. He also does research on environmental anthropology looking at issues of rural-rural migration and parks-people conflict in Southeast Asia.

Courses Taught

REL 305 - Ritual, Myth and Symbol

REL 480 - Religion and Global Politics

SGS 394 - SGS Capstone: Collective Violence in Indonesia (Fall 2007)

Selected Publications

Forthcoming. “Where Do We Go From Here? The Politics of Ending Displacement in Post-conflict North Maluku.” In Conflict, Violence, and Displacement in Southeast Asia: Patterns, Dynamics, and Experience, edited by E. Hedmann. Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program.

2007. “Mixed Outcomes: The Effects of Regional Autonomy and Decentralization on Ethnic Minorities in Indonesia.” Development and Change 38, 4(2007): 713-735.

"The Other Maluku: Chronologies of Conflict in North Maluku, Eastern Indonesia." Indonesia 80 (October 2005): 53-80.

Editor, Civilizing the Margins: Southeast Asian Government Policies for the Development of Minorities. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.

"Unwelcome Guests: Relations between Internally Displaced Persons and Their Hosts in North Sulawesi." Journal of Refugee Studies 18,1(2005): 25-46.