Sylvia Tiwon

Associate Professor, Head Graduate Advisor, and Faculty Advisor for GSI Affairs, Department Chair

Office Location: 342B Dwinelle Hall
Office Hours: 


Ph.D.  South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1985
M.A. Stanford University, 1978

Research interests
Sylvia Tiwon teaches literature, gender, oral and cultural studies of Southeast Asia with a focus on Indonesia. Her areas of interest include national and pre-national literatures, oral discourse and mythologies, as well as socio-cultural formations at the national and sub-national levels. She has undertaken fieldwork in a number of cultural regions in the Indonesian archipelago. Her work includes the book, Breaking the Spell: Colonialism and Literary Renaissance in Indonesia (1999), and articles on literature and poetry, on women and the national imaginary, development, post-colonialism and cultural resistance in English and Indonesian. She is a founding member of the Indonesian network Praxis and member of its  Board of Education She is currently completing a book on women in the production of discourse in Indonesia and launching new research on poetry and resistance in Indonesia.

Curriculum Vitae