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Stephen Atkinson

Stephen Atkinson is a freelance writer, researcher, editor, and occasional musician. He has a PhD in Indonesian media and politics and is a regular columnist and reviewer for English language publications in Indonesia.  He currently lives with his family in Adelaide where he is also a sessional academic in the fields of Australian studies, literature, and film.

Stephen Atkinson reviews 'Visiting the Neighbours: Australians in Asia' by Agnieszka Sobocinska

October 2014, no. 365 01 October 2014
It was timely that halfway through reading this book, I glanced up to see Clive Palmer on Q&A vowing to stand up to ‘the Chinese mongrels’. It was as if a columnist from the Bulletin circa 1895 had risen from the grave to thump a battered tub and warn us about the monster intent on destroying ‘our Australian way of life’. Images like these still lurk in the bedrock of White Australian ... (read more)

Stephen Atkinson reviews 'That Sinking Feeling: Asylum Seekers and the search for the Indonesian Solution' (Quarterly Essay 53) by Paul Toohey

June–July 2014, no. 362 27 May 2014
Do the ends always justify the means? And if the boats really have stopped coming, should we see the death of Reza Berati and the suffering of thousands as the collateral damage of a successful policy? Paul Toohey’s panoramic sweep of this human, ethical, and political terrain begins with a visit to Cisarua, a small resort town in the mountains south of Jakarta that has become a major centre fo ... (read more)