Tara’s research explores encounters and exchanges between Europe and Asia between c.1500 and c.1700, and Southeast Asia as a site of contact, intercultural exchange and conflict. She teaches on the rise of the Malay sultanates and the increase of international trade, the growth of portcities, war and diplomacy, and how the fallout of the seizure of Melaka by the Portuguese created subsequent tensions with rival sultanates on Java. She is also interested in European colonialism within Asia and the spread of Christianity by the Portuguese and later the Dutch, and the ways in which Christianity became indigenised in different places. Dr Alberts undertook her undergraduate degree, Masters and PhD at the University of Cambridge followed by a Research Fellowship at Jesus College, Cambridge.