Working Thesis Title: Topos: Envisioning the Straits Settlements

Supervisors: Associate Professor Chaitanya Sambrani, Dr Keren Hammerschlag, Dr Yvonne Low (University of Sydney)

My project explores the facts and fictions that underpin visual representations of the natural world in the Straits Settlements. The name was assigned to the British territories of Singapore, Malacca and Penang in 1826, with the smaller territories of Christmas Islands, Cocos-Keeling Islands, Labuan and Dinding added later. Through an analysis of paintings, prints, photographs and other forms of visual culture, Topos explores how colonial-era perspectives on the natural environment framed images of the region, and how these images in turn further shaped conceptions nature and empire. The connections between culture, nature and empire have been the subject of active scholarly attention in recent years. My thesis extends this to the context of the Straits Settlements. It situates the region’s visual records of the natural world in relation to key historical and cultural developments unfolding elsewhere in the British empire.