Frans X Koot Editor & Translator

Judith E. Bosnak holds a PhD in Indonesian Literary Studies and Linguistics (Leiden University 2006) with a thesis about Javanese theatre. She has lectured in the field of Southeast Asian Studies in Leiden, in Mexico City and most recently at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. She provides language training to business professionals and diplomats from different parts of the world. She has carried out several seasons of ethnographic fieldwork in Java, Indonesia with a focus on performing arts the cultural politics of disaster. She is currently affiliated with LUCAS, the Leiden University Centre for Arts in Society, where she participates in the NWO research project ‘Voicing the Colony’ (2020–25) in which Dutch and Indonesian travel writing is studied in comparative perspective. Recent publications are: ‘Shaping Barong Dance Drama in Paradise Bali: Oriental Discourse by Miguel Covarrubias and his Networks’, Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas XLII, Núm. Extraordinario, 2020, pp. 69–92; ‘Soap Opera and Muddy Affairs in Indonesia: The Cultural Politics of the Lapindo Mudflow Case (2006–2014)’, Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde, 171–4, 2015, pp. 455–88.

Frans X. Koot studied Dutch and comparative literature (MA Utrecht 1963) and, after having retired from a career in education and publishing, Indonesian languages and cultures, with a specialization in Javanese (MA Leiden, 2001). His interests focus on narrative traditions and conventions in ancient and modern literatures.

The editors published jointly a Dutch translation of The Travels of Purwalelana in 2013.