2023 Conference REcap:


AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies 2023

July 11 - 15, 2023 (Virtual) 

In its third iteration in 2023, the AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies continues to highlight and celebrate the growing and evolving academic study of Indonesia. The conference aims to expand research dissemination and collaboration by connecting Indonesian scholars with international colleagues in a bilingual and virtual format.

This year’s conference theme, “The Promises and Dilemmas of Indonesia,” seeks to inspire reflection on Indonesia’s successes, discontents, and efforts to rework, reinterpret, and negotiate all aspects of civic, legal, and cultural living, against and in light of Indonesia’s internal fractures and frictions and its important profile and positionality globally and in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference seeks to explore and investigate a broad range of topics, including kebangsaan, in its diverse and competing meanings, adat and law, gender and race, environment and climate change, business, politics, and religion, and Indonesia’s place in the world. Indonesia continues to grapple with internal tensions and regresses as she also reaps the rewards of developmental leaps and resilience amidst global uncertainties and adverse challenges from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, shifting geopolitical relations, and economic volatility.

The Conference Program Committee selected a multidimensional theme for our conference, one which is at once capacious enough to welcome and allow for an array of scholars working in/on/from Indonesia to reflect the specificity of Indonesian Studies in our current global climate. We encourage scholars to present research and reflections on the ways scholars of Indonesia historicize the country’s past, navigate current times, and explore imaginative futures and possibilities, all while contributing to the richness of the community’s collective legal and ethical-epistemological frameworks.

  • The deadline for abstract submission passed on April 17. The committee will notify selected participants after May 17.

  • Registration is required for all participants. We have intentionally kept the cost of the conference low to aid in greater access, but will welcome anyone regardless of finances. Please contact the organizers directly to discuss need based access to the conference.

Learn more at our MSU Asian Studies Center partner site, or contact us at conference@aifis.org or asiansc@msu.edu 


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