Merle Calvin Ricklefs (17 July 1943 – 29 December 2019) was an American-born Australian scholar of the history and current affairs of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

.Anthony Reid, 'Merle Calvin Ricklefs, AM July 17, 1943 - December 29, 2019',
Emeritus
' (The Australian National University Emeritus Faculty e-magazine), 11 (8), September 2020. Ricklefs was born in

Fort Dodge, Iowa Fort Dodge is a city in and the county seat of Webster County, Iowa, United States, along the Des Moines River. The population was 24,871 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, a decrease from 25,136 in 2000 United States Census, 2000. F ...

, on 17 July 1943 and died on 29 December 2019, aged 76. Ricklefs received his Ph.D. with his dissertation titled "Jogjakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi (1749-1792)" from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1973, under the supervision of O. W. Wolters. He held positions at the

School of Oriental and African Studies The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area ...

All Souls College All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

, the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

. He retired from the professorship of Southeast Asian history at the

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

. He was emeritus professor of history at both the Australian National University and Monash University.

Academic career

Ricklef's publications focused on the history of Mataram, Kartasura, Yogyakarta, Surakarta (locations in

Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...

). He also regularly updated his history of Indonesia, ''A History of Modern Indonesia, ca. 1300 to the present''.

Honours and awards

In 1989, Ricklefs was elected a fellow of the

Australian Academy of the Humanities The Australian Academy of the Humanities was established by Royal Charter in 1969 to advance scholarship and public interest in the humanities in Australia. It operates as an independent not-for-profit organisation partly funded by the Australi ...

. The Government of Australia awarded him in 2001 the Centenary Medal for "service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of Indonesia". In June 2017, Ricklefs was made a member of the Order of Australia.

Civil and human rights activity

In the early 1980s Ricklefs became deeply involved in education for indigenous Australians, acting as the driving force behind and co-founding the Monash Orientation Scheme for Aborigines, the first bridging program for Aboriginal people in an Australian university. This aimed to prepare Aboriginal students, who suffered from great educational disadvantage, for university study. The scheme was a runaway success and by the time Ricklefs left Monash in 1993 it had been responsible for roughly doubling the number of Aboriginal university graduates. Ricklefs was also involved in the 1980s 'immigration debate' in Australia, which was sparked when his counterpart at the University of Melbourne,

Geoffrey Blainey Geoffrey Norman Blainey, (born 11 March 1930) is an Australian historian, academic, best selling author and commentator. Blainey is noted for his authoritative texts on the economic and social history of Australia, including ''The Tyranny of ...

, argued that Australia should limit Asian immigration.

Publications

;Sole-authored books * ''Jogjakarta under Sultan Mangkubumi, 1749–1792: A history of the division of Java''. New York:

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 1974. ** ''Yogyakarta di bawah Sultan Mangkubumi, 1749-1792'': Sejarah pembagian Jawa. Transl. Hartono Hadikusumo & E. Setiyawati Alkhatab. Ed. Revianto Budi Santosa. (Revised Indonesian edition of Jogjakarta under Sultan

Mangkubumi ''Mangkubhumi'' (; ; Jawi: ) is a term for prime minister which was historically used in kingdoms in Java, Sumatra and Borneo during Hindu–Buddhist civilizations in Nusantara.ISBN 978-979-407-410-7 Elsewhere, ''Mangkubhumi'' is also referred ...

.) * ''Modern Javanese historical tradition: A study of an original Kartasura chronicle and related materials''. London:

, 1978. * ''A history of modern Indonesia, ca. 1300 to the present''. Basingstoke:

Macmillan Press Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

, 1993. * ''War, culture and economy in Java, 1677–1726: Asian and European imperialism in the early Kartasura period''. Sydney: Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with

Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...

, 1993. * ''The seen and unseen worlds in Java, 1726–49'': History, literature and Islam in the court of Pakubuwana II. New South Wales: Asian Studies Association of Australia in association with Allen & Unwin and

University of Hawaii Press A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, 1998. * ''Mystic Synthesis in Java: A History of Islamization from the Fourteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries''.

EastBridge Eastbridge is a village in the English county of Suffolk. It is located approximately north of Leiston, from the North Sea in the parish of Theberton, immediately south of the Minsmere RSPB reserve. It borders the Minsmere River which cuts t ...

, 2006. * ''Polarizing Javanese Society: Islamic and Other Visions (c. 1830–1930)''. University of Hawaii Press, 2007. * ''Islamisation and Its Opponents in Java: A Political, Social, Cultural and Religious History, C. 1930 to the Present''. University of Hawaii Press, 2012. * ''Soul Catcher: Java’s Fiery Prince Mangkunagara I, 1726-95''.

NUS Press NUS Press is an academic press in Singapore. It traces its origins to the Singapore University Press, which the University of Singapore established in 1971 as its publishing arm. The press specialises in books and journals that deal with topics ...

, 2018. ;Co-authored book * ''Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain: A catalogue of manuscripts in Indonesian languages in British public collections'' by M. C. Ricklefs and P. Voorhoeve. London Oriental Bibliographies, vol. 5. * ''Indonesian manuscripts in Great Britain: A catalogue of manuscripts in Indonesian languages in British public collections; New edition with addenda et corrigenda'' by M.C. Ricklefs, P. Voorhoeve† and Annabel Teh Gallop. Jakarta: ;Co-authored and edited books ;Edited and translated book * ''Pantheism and monism in Javanese suluk literature: Islamic and Indian mysticism in an Indonesian setting''

References

External links

Homepage at National University of SingaporeBiography at Australian Academy of HumanitiesBiography at University of Melbourne Law School
* Cornell University notable alumni
Professor Gareth Evans speech launching Islamisation and its OpponentsAustralian Academy of Humanities Vale Merle Calvin Ricklefs AM FAHA 1943-2019KITLV In Memoriam Professor Merle C. Ricklefs (1943-2019)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricklefs, M. C. 1943 births 2019 deaths Historians of Southeast Asia Cornell University alumni Academic staff of the National University of Singapore Javanists Academics of SOAS University of London Academic staff of Monash University Academic staff of the Australian National University Academic staff of the University of Melbourne Australian historians Indonesianists Members of the Order of Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities History Today people American emigrants to Australia People from Fort Dodge, Iowa Writers from Iowa 20th-century American male writers 21st-century Australian male writers 20th-century Australian male writers Historians of Indonesia