Faculty of Arts Indonesia Initiative
The Faculty of Arts Indonesia Initiative is a three year visiting scholar program which aims to further enhance teaching and research relationships with colleagues in Indonesia. The initiative, led by Dr Kate McGregor, Dr Edwin Jurriens and Professor Thomas Reuter will fund three visiting scholars per year for three years from Indonesian universities and will provide opportunities for increased engagement.
The Faculty of Arts Indonesia Initiative is a three year visiting scholar program which aims to further enhance teaching and research relationships with colleagues in Indonesia. The initiative, led by Dr Kate McGregor, Dr Edwin Jurriens and Professor Thomas Reuter will fund three visiting scholars per year for three years from Indonesian universities and will provide opportunities for increased engagement.
The program will also augment the Reconciliation and Cultural Recovery Program funded through DFAT which will see ten fellows from Indonesia and Timor-Leste hosted by the University of Melbourne in the second half of 2014, with an aim to develop leadership, address regional development priorities, and strengthen partnerships between Australian and regional-based organisations.
Indonesia Initiative call for nominations
The Indonesia Initiative welcomes proposals for Indonesia scholars with strong research profiles based at an Indonesian university to visit the Faculty of Arts for three weeks in 2016 during teaching time. The aims of the Indonesia Initiative are to increase research and teaching collaboration with Indonesian scholars and universities and to enhance staff and student mobility. Nominations can come from a range of Indonesian universities.
The nominator needs to make a case for a match with our staff, teaching and research interests and must commit to assisting with the scholars' visit. Preference will be given to Indonesian scholars in disciplines / schools not yet represented in 2014 and 2015 rounds and to new nominators. Visitors whose research / teaching matches multiple disciplines are encouraged.
No promises should be made on initial contact with scholars but they should be available and have the support of their university to make the visit in semester one or two in 2016. Funding will cover airfares, accommodation, in house meals and a modest allowance. Hani will assist in coordinating the visits and some related events. We aim to host three visitors in 2016. Profiles of recent/upcoming visitors can be seen below.
If you would like to nominate a scholar, please email Hani Yulindrasari a CV for the nominated person, together with a list of proposed teaching and research activities that they could engage in and potential research synergies across the Faculty.
Nomination closing date: Thursday 20 August, 2015
The initiative is being coordinated by Associate Professor Kate McGregor, Dr Edwin Jurriens and Professor Thomas Reuter and any questions can be directed to them.
2015 Visiting Scholars
Dr Najib Azca is a lecturer in the department of Sociology and Vice-Dean for Research et al in Fisipol at UGM. He also holds a position as researcher in the UGM Center for Security and Peace Studies.
He completed a research MA at the ANU (2003) on communal conflict in Ambon, and then a PhD at the University of Amsterdam (2011) on the biographies of foreign fighters who had returned to Indonesia. More recently he has been conducting and publishing research on young people, radicalisation and the resolution of violence.
He is chairperson of two Indonesia-wide academic associations related to his research: the Asosiasi Program Studi Sosiologi se-Indonesia (the Indonesian Association of Graduate Programs in Sociology) and Asosiasi Studi Kepemudaan Indonesia (Indonesia Youth Studies Association).
In addition to his significant publications in Bahasa, Dr. Najib Azca was joint author in 2012 of After the Communal War: Understanding and Addressing Post-Conflict Violence in Eastern Indonesia (CSPS), and has been author of research chapters including "Communal Violence in Indonesia and the Role of Foreign and Domestic Networks" (Conflict, Community and Criminality in Southeast Asia and Australia, eds. Arnaud de Borchgrave, Thomas Sanderson & David Gordon, Washington, CSIS, 2009), and refereed articles such as "In between military and militia; the dynamics of the security forces in the communal conflict in Ambon" (Asian Journal of Social Sciences, 34, 3, 2006).
Eka Srimulyani is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, The Islamic State University of Ar-Raniry, Banda Aceh Indonesia. She is also senior researcher and secretary of managing board at ICAIOS (International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies). The ICAIOS centre is owned by three public universities in Aceh, namely University of Syiah Kuala, Islamic State University of Ar-Raniry and University of Malikul Saleh.
Eka offers valuable opportunities to developing linkages with scholars and academic institutions beyond the metropole. Aceh is an important regional area and one nominated by the Australian government as meriting significant aid and development. It is identified as an important focus for peace and security in the region, given its dual emergencies over past decades - 3/4 the thirty year conflict between the Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka - GAM) and the devastating earthquake and tsunami of 2004. It is the focus of political, social and material reconstruction, and is a province of serious economic disadvantage. Aceh introduced a version of sharia law in 2009 after it gained autonomy in 2005. The laws have particular relevance for women and the opportunity offered by collaboration with academics from Aceh has potential to bring important local and contextual knowledge to bear on Indonesian research.
Within this context Eka's major fields of research deal with two of the most significant in Indonesia today - Islam and Muslim Women. A major research project on women in educational institutions in Indonesia, (pesantren), and the significance of their role in shape gender relations in Indonesian Muslim communities is published as a monograph - Women from Traditional Islamic Educational Institutions in Indonesia: Negotiating Public Spaces, which is "destined to become a classic in the study of Indonesian Islam" (Robert Hefner, Boston University).
Her research also focuses on women and development, particularly issues of microcredit and empowerment, women and politics in Aceh, Islam, democracy and governance.
I Nyoman Darma Putra teaches Indonesian literature in the Faculty of Arts and Culture at Udayana University in Bali. He obtained his master degree from the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at University of Sydney (1994) and his PhD from School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Queensland (2003).
From 2007 to 2009 he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, and for three months in 2010 he was a research fellow at Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), Leiden. During these fellowship, he publihsed a book entitled A literary mirror: Balinese reflections on modernity and identity in the twentieth century (Leiden: KITLV/Brill, 2011). With Michael Hitchcock, Darma published a book entitled Tourism, Development and Terrorism in Bali (UK, Ashgate, 2007). Some materials for this book were collected when he worked as a researcher and producer for the Jakarta buerau of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC TV/Radio, 2002-2006).
Darma had a collaborative research project with A/Professor Helen Creese from The Universit of Queesland, funded by the ARC for three years (2010-2012). The project was entitled "Textual traditions, identity and cultural production in contemporary Bali." Based on this project, he and Helen Creese have published two articles in international journals including in Indonesia and the Malay World and The Journal of Hindu Studies. For two months in 2012, Darma had a fellowship at The Cross Cultural Centre Ascona (Centro Incontri Umani Ascona), Switzerland.
His research interest includes literature (in Indonesian and Balinese language), culture, and tourism in Bali. In 2014, he was appointed as head of the Masters Program in Tourism Studies, Postgraduate Studies Program, Udayana University. He is the editor of Jurnal Kajian Bali (Journal for Bali Studies) and member of the editorial borad for JUMPA (Journal for Tourism Studies), both published by Udayana University. Recently he edited a poetry collection on Denpasar titled Dendang Denpasar Nyiur Sanur (The Song of Denpasar and of Sanur, 2013) and the short stories collection on Denpasar entitled Denpasar Kota Persimpangan Sanur Tetap Ramai (Denpasar as the City of Intersection and Sanur Remain Busy, 2015).