The “brain train” has emerged as a predominant narrative in developmentalist discourse portraying overseas scholars as unencumbered individuals riding the train from developing to developed countries for social and economic mobility. In this article, we problematize the metaphorical use of “brain” to describe overseas scholars as self-serving calculative individuals by approaching the scholars as subjects whose practices are contingent in specific geopolitical constructs and shaped by hierarchies of emotions. We take into account the individual stories of Indonesian scholars who currently work in Western academic institutions and look at the interplay between emotions and notions of citizenship as experienced and practiced by the scholars. The article contends that emotional relationships with the nation, despite notions of deterritorialization of citizenship, is difficult to escape for it endures and retains its presence despite vulnerabilities and struggles the scholar has to deal with. Further, the tenacity of the scholars‟ experiences in the territories they inhabit today not only question the notion of brain train, but also challenges the notions of nation and citizenship imagined and aggressively mobilized by the nation-state.

<p>In most studies on globalization and transnationalism, diaspora is positioned in a conflicting and antagonistic relationship with the nation-state regime. Nevertheless, the global ascendancy of neoliberalism as a market-based mode of governing populations has brought certain changes to the relationship between the diaspora and home countries which call for further research. This essay investigates the implications of neoliberalism for diasporic kinship ties by examining emergent discourses in contemporary Indonesia that constitute an elite-led project on diasporas known as the Indonesian Diaspora Network (IDN) Global. Based on a social constructionist analysis of data gathered from activities, media reporting, and promotional materials associated with IDN Global, this essay argues that neoliberal reconfigurations of Indonesian diasporic identities manifest in two ways: unequal representation between manual workers and professionals and change of rhetoric on kinship ties as a strategic asset. Such findings reveal a more complicated and calculative relationship between the Indonesian diaspora and the Indonesian home country that complicate the valorization of diaspora against national regimes.</p><p> </p>

The extant scholarly discourse on female Disney villains has often asserted the non-feminine identities of these fictional women. The female antagonists of the Disney fairy tales are generally assumed to display qualities that are believed to be too masculine. The term subjectivity is utilized in this paper as the awareness and assertion of one's agency to achieve self-led goals and lifestyles and is an attribute that is deemed by patriarchal societies to be the indicator of masculinity. However, this subjectivity is observable in each of the female Disney villains. This paper specifically examines the animated Disney movies Cinderella (1950) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and compares the narratives pertaining to their antagonists with the myth of Lilith. In so doing, the paper argues that the quality of subjectivity has always been associated with femininity; however, this assertion of the self is still not considered appropriate for women. Just like Lilith, Disney's female characters display a strong sense of subjectivity but are often vilified for the affirmation of their individuality instead of being passive recipients of the vicissitudes of fate. The narratives surrounding the female antagonists of Cinderella and Snow White seem to reinforce the normative patriarchal idea that subjective females are incapable of handling the responsibilities connected to their subject status.

This study sets out to interrogate the historical transformation of culture utilizing batik in Indonesia as an illustration of the relationship between cultural practices, power relations and the logic of neoliberalism. By identifying the critical junctures in Indonesia that effect the formation of meanings attached to batik in the larger reconfiguration of capitalism during the Dutch colonial era and in the present circumstances of late capitalism, this study argues that the hybridity of batik production in the Dutch East Indies, as signified by the emergence of batik Belanda, exemplifies a period when the notion of batik as a mutually empowering form of trans-cultural practices was possible. Analyzing the disposition of batik today, this study further argues that, unlike in the past, trans-cultural practices during the current state-sanctioned deployment of batik as Indonesia’s national cultural heritage becomes only possible through practices of trade and consumption. This cultural formation offers a critique ideology toward the current national and global discourse of batik that reifies unbounded cultural practices as “cultural heritage.”

Among the many international bodies and organizations that have made transitional justice a precondition for cooperation is the European Union (EU), The Union‟s strong advocacy for human rights, democracy and transitional justice during reconciliation of the Western Balkans is one of the factors that led to the bestowal of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize ("The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 to the European Union”). This article will address the role of the EU in creating security within Europe in relation to the transitional justice that is taking place within the Western Balkans. The Union‟s involvement in the reconciliation process of the Western Balkans through the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) will be explored and the Union‟s European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) will also be brought into focus regarding the policy‟s means of evasion in creating a secure European neighbourhood. In order to understand the breadth of transitional justice measures taken by the Union within the Western Balkans, the case of Croatia will be taken into account, as the first country from the area to be accessed into the Union in 2012, and to some extent compared to the process that is taking place in Serbia. This article seeks to bear out how although the ENP has to a degree succeeded in establishing constitutional peace within „Wider Europe‟, the cursoriness of its role in executing transitional justice in the Western Balkans has led to the obstruction of sustainable peace within the region.