Political Science Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This thesis would have not been possible without help and support from a lot of people. In this part of my writing I allow myself to follow a chronological order, or "order of appearance", as in film credit titles. First, is, of course, my Chair supervisor, Professor Ariel Heryanto, who believed in the importance of my research since our first meeting in Jakarta in 2011 and who supported me all the way through. I am enormously grateful to Ariel for giving me freedom to question, explore, challenge and argue. I am deeply thankful for the Endeavour Postgraduate Awards that generously sponsored my research and made our life in Australia a wonderful experience. My special thanks goes to my best friends, Annushka, who always saw the best in me, and Rachel Routley who helped me and my family in so many different ways, from encouraging me to apply for a PhD degree to picking us up from the airport when we first landed in Canberra. I am deeply grateful to Professor Brij Lal and Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki for their warm welcome, and gentle and sincere support, especially during the first and last years of my PhD. My very special thanks goes to the best office mate I could ever imagine, Professor Craig Reynolds. Craig was my main mentor, who always found the nicest ways to remind me that I was not only a researcher but also a mother, a wife, and a Russian, the identities that can be easily forgotten during the long PhD journey. I would also like to thank Dr Ronit Ricci, the only role model in my life, for showing me the beauty and elegance of academic work. Last but not least, I thank Professor James Fox for encouraging words and practical suggestions about my fieldwork, Dr Emma Baulch for insightful comments, Dr Meera Ashar for invaluable conversations, and Professor Robert Cribb and Professor Ken George for great academic discussions and the respect they pay to young scholars. Of course, my fieldwork would not have been possible without generous support from the Sindhi community members and media practitioners, who welcomed me into their complex world, and let me observe, participate and ask questions. I am particularly thankful to my friend Ricky and his beautiful mother who paid respect to my work and ii believed in its importance. And I am very grateful to my friend Tatiana Koshina, who helped me stay luxuriously safe and productively sane. My deep gratitude goes to my dearest PhD buddies, Meghan Downes and Evi Eliyanah, for sharing sad and happy moments (as well as food and bed) in various parts of the world and across Australia. I am also grateful to the University of Freiburg, and Professor Judith Schlehe and her PhD students (and my friends), Eva-Maria Sandkühler, Paritosha Kobbe and Mirjam Lücking, for a very enriching experience of transnational collaborative research. The Research Skills Centre at the Australian National University has played an important role in my writing and I would like to thank the organisers of the Thesis Boot Camp for the given opportunity. My special thanks goes to the administrator of the School of Culture, History and Language, Jo Bushby, as well as the School editor, Maxine McArthur. I also highly appreciate the comments of two anonymous reviewers of my article (to be published in 2017) for The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies,