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Dr Jacqui Baker
PhD Comparative Politics, MSc Social Anthropology, BA (Politics), BAS (Indonesian)
Lecturer in Southeast Asian Studies
About me
I am a political economist who studies the politics of law, policing and crime, primarily in Indonesia and Southeast Asia, but also increasingly in Australia. I have particular interests in democratization and policing, corruption and anti-corruption and environmental crime. I work across a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, including ethnography, elite interviewing, regression analysis and social network analysis.
I have also worked or provided consultancy services on political, legal or police issues for numerous international organisations including East Timor’s Commission for Truth, Reception and Reconciliation, The Asia Foundation, the European Union, Amnesty International, International IDEA, United National Office for Drugs and Crime, DFAT and U4 Anti-Corruption Commission.
I hold a PhD in Comparative Government and an MSc in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics as well as Bachelor of Arts and Asian Studies degrees from the Australian National University.
Teaching area
POL202 Policing the politics of counterterrorism
POL228 Democracy, Dictatorship and Capitalism
SWM640 Corruption, Anti-Corruption and its Discontents
Research areas
- Indonesian Politics and Society
- Corruption and Illegal Economies
- Coercive State Institutions
- Politics of Law
- Democracy and Democratization
Current projects
- Currently I am working on a number of research projects.
1) A monograph on policing and police reform in Indonesia in the post-New Order period.
2) Mapping corrupt networks that lead to deforestation, using social network analysis. This work has been done in collaboration with the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Commission and U4 Anti-Corruption.
3) Understanding the dynamics in police shootings, including patterns of torture and extrajudicial execution.
Awards and grants
2012 ABC Radio National 360 Documentaries
2011 UOW University Small Grant Award
2011 NSW Law Society Public Purpose Fund
2009 Australian Friends of LSE Award
2006 Central Research Travel Grant, University of London,
2003 Sir General John Monash Award, providing AU$150,000 over three years towards a Ph.D.
2002 Ann Bates Prize for Indonesian Studies
2002 Federation of University Women Prize – ACT
2001 Distinguished Students’ Award, ANU Chancellor
Events and speaking engagements
- “Eat Pray Mourn” Ubud Writers Festival, Bali, 1-5 October
- “The Indonesian Election 2014″, 29 July, Australian Strategic Policy Initiative (ASPI)
- “Transnational Crime in the Pacific” School of International, Strategic and Political Studies, ANU, 12 May
- “Monash Made Us a Nation”, 22 May, Monash Commemorative Service, Knox Grammar
- “Police Accountability”, 2014, Advanced Police Academy (PTIK), Indonesian National Police. Jakarta, Indonesia. 9 April
- “Indonesia Mon Amour: On the Ethics of Loving a Serial Killer” Causindy (Conference for Australian and Indonesian Youth), 19 October.
- “The Police”, Australia’s Aid to Indonesia: Understanding the Context, Ausaid, 1 August.
- “Making Eat Pray Mourn: Towards Radio Documentary as Aural Ethnography” CAPSTRANS, University of Wollongong, May 22.
- “The Parman Economy: Post-Authoritarian Shifts in the Security Economy” Indonesia Studies Group, Australian National University. December 12.
- “The Parman Economy: Post-Authoritarian Shifts in the Security Economy” KITLV. November 15.
- “Democratisation from Military-Authoritarian Rule and the Rise of the Police” Advanced Police Academy (PTIK), Indonesian National Police. Jakarta, Indonesia. 3 February.
- “From Casino Protectionism to the Economy of Law: Post Authoritarian Transformations in the Illicit Revenue Source of the Indonesian Police” Asian Studies, Murdoch University, Fremantle. 6 October.
- “The Reform of the Police in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia” Indonesia Forum Meeting, Chatham House, London. 8 March.
- “The Devil’s Money is Eaten by His Lessor Demons: Towards an Anthropology of ‘Dirty Money’ Australian Anthropological Society, Australian National University, 6 November.
- “Police and the Politics of Disgust” Dangerous Ideas, College of Asia Pacific, Australian National University, 4 November.
- “Eat Pray Mourn: Towards Radio Documentary as Aural Ethnography”, Radio Conference University of Bedfordshire. July 10.
- “Illicit State Financing and the Fiscal Sociology of the Southeast Asian State” European Southeast Asian Studies, Lisbon. July 3
- “Methods for the Study of Modern Tubers: “Spaces of Nonexistence” and Indonesian Police Corruption’ “Spaces of Non-existence” Methodology Workshop. University of Amsterdam & Murdoch University, Jakarta. 23-24 June.
- “Comparing Police Dysfunction” Comparing Asian Police Workshop. Centre for Excellence in Policing, Australian National University, Canberra. 27-28 July.
- “From Casino Protectionism to the Economy of Law: Post Authoritarian Transformations in the Illicit Revenue Source of the Indonesian Police”, 2010, 3rd GERN (Post) Colonial Policing Workshop. Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Leiden. 16-17 September.
- “The Economy of Police Torture” United Kingdom Southeast Asian Studies Association Annual Conference, Swansea. 10 September.
- “Power and Envy in the Reorganisation of the Coercive Apparatus in Indonesia” Military-Police Relations Panel, European Research Group on Military and Society (ERGOMAS), Stockholm. 22-26 June.
- “Power and Longing in the Reorganisation of the Coercive Apparatus in Indonesia” Workshop: The Rise of the Rescue Industry, Remaking Police and Military, Gender and Empire for Human Security Interventions. Bristol University, Bristol. 10 March.
Professional and community service
- President of the Indonesia Council.
- National Reference Group member for the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesia Studies (ACICIS)
- John Monash Fellow
- Elected member of Academic Council.
- Australia Indonesia Awards
Doctoral and masters supervisions
- Trissia Widjaya: The political economy of Chinese/Japanese infrastructure financing in Indonesia
- Jessia Manulong: The politics of lawyering in Indonesia
- Brian Doce: The political economy of halal certification regulation in Thailand and the Philippines
Publications
Chapters
- Baker, J., (2015),Professionalism without reform: The security sector under Yudhoyono,In: The Yudhoyono Presidency, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pages 114 to 135.
Journals
- Baker, J., (2021), The sun shines brighter in the police state, City & Society, 33, 1, pages -.
- Baker, J., (2015), The Rhizome State: Democratizing Indonesia's Off-Budget Economy, Critical Asian Studies, 47, 2, pages 309 - 336.
- Baker, J., Milne, S., (2015), Dirty Money States: Illicit Economies and the State in Southeast Asia, Critical Asian Studies, 47, 2, pages 151 - 176.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6586-8842
Other publications:
2014
- ‘Will Indonesia Be Great?’ Inside Story, 4 December
- ‘Indonesia Police’s Virginity Tests Fits a Pattern of Flagrant Rights Abuses’ The Conversation 1 December
- ‘Stand by your man’ New Mandala 14 July
- ‘Our mismanaged relationship with Indonesia’ Canberra Times 3 June
- ‘A letter to my PhD student after her upgrade’ 28 May
- ‘The Decline of the Demokrats’, 2014, SBS News online, 7 April 2014
- ‘After Justice’ Inside Indonesia 114 Oct-Dec
- ‘Crime and Punishment in Jakarta’ ABC Radio National 360 Documentaries, 7 April
- ‘Indonesia and Australia: What Makes Neighbours Good Friends?’, 2012, East Asia Forum, 17 August
- ‘Look within for transnational criminals’ The Conversation, 25 June
- “Bribes and Bullets: Police Corruption Linked to Violence at World’s Biggest Mine”, The Conversation, 18 November 2011.
- “Ketika Suap dan Peluru Beradu”, 2011, Tempo, 4 November, (in Bahasa Indonesia).
- “Arrested Development”, 2010, Van Zorge Report Vol X, September.
2008
- “A Sibling Rivalry”, 2008, Inside Indonesia, No. 93 Aug-October edition
- 13. ‘Education Reform in Indonesia’, 2003, Gatra Special Edition, November (In Bahasa Indonesia).
- ‘Laskar Jihad’, 2001, Inside Indonesia Nov-Jan edition,
Other Media
- Schonhardt, Sarah. ‘Could Indonesia’s Jokowi Take a Lesson from Obama? 2014. Wall Street Journal. October 13. http://blogs.wsj.com/searealtime/2014/10/13/could-indonesias-jokowi-take-a-lesson-from-obama/
- Speaker on Hack, Triple J. 24 July 2014.
- Vit, Jonathon, 2014, Jokowi Widodo is Indonesia’s Reformist President Elect Vice. 23 July. http://www.vice.com/read/joko-widodo-is-indonesias-reformist-president-elect
- Indonesian Election Coverage. ABC 24. 3 July.
- Sagita D & Pearl, H, 2014, Presidential Candidates offer More But Not Enough to Sway Swing Voters’ The Jakarta Globe. 16 June. http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/presidential-candidates-offer-enough-sway-swing-voters
- Fitzgerald, Stephen, 2013 “New perspectives on Indonesian massacres”, The Australian, April 16. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/new-perspectives-on-indonesian-massacres/story-e6frg8pf-1226621062543
- Saturday Extra with Geraldine Doogue, 30 March 2013, http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/indonesia-series/459756
- Bachelard, Michael, 2012, ‘Blind eye to bikies in paradise’, December 15, Sydney Morning Herald, http://www.smh.com.au/national/blind-eye-to-bikies-in-paradise-20121214-2besq.html
- ‘Polisi Brutal, Masyarakat Gugat’, Hukum dan Keadilan, Radio 68H, 23 January 2012. (Invited expert on national talkback radio in Indonesia on police human rights abuses).
- ‘Australia Targets “flourishing” Environmental Crime’, 2011, ABC The World Today. 23 September. http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3324074.htm, rebroadcast on Asia Calling 1 October 2011.