AIFIS Board Member, Andrew Weintraub (Professor, Department of Music, University of Pittsburgh) selected as one of three recipients of the 2024 CAORC-NEH Research Fellowship, for his project entitled:
“Years of Living Musically: Affective Politics and Indonesian Populism, 1950-65.”
Abstract: Despite its significant contributions to Indonesian nationalism, arts education, and international diplomacy – all concerns of Indonesia today – little is known about the Indonesian left-wing cultural movement LEKRA (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat, the Institute of People’s Culture) that existed from 1950 to 1965. LEKRA was one of six mass organizations affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia, PKI), the third largest in the world and a legal party at the time. The PKI and LEKRA were banned after an abortive coup d’etat on September 30, 1965 (G30S) that led to the mass killings of between 500,000 and 1 million people and the elimination of the left in Indonesia under second-president Suharto. As a CAORC-NEH Fellow, I will complete the research for my third sole-authored book. In this project, I will focus on music as a key tool for analyzing the affective relationships that linked LEKRA with civil society and progressive politics in Indonesia from 1950 to 1965. I aim to show how LEKRA’s stated values – anti-colonialism, anti-feudalism, self-reliance, agrarian reform, labor rights, redistribution of wealth, and collective ownership – led to the creation of particular forms of music and, conversely, how music framed LEKRA’s values and goals, shaped power relations, and was instrumental in developing political strategies. As Indonesians themselves have begun to reassess this pivotal moment in history, my research adds the missing yet critical dimension of sound and affect to the erased cultural history of left-wing nationalism in Indonesia.
CAORC-NEH fellowships support advanced research in the humanities and provides the opportunity for scholars to spend significant time in one country with a participating Overseas Research Center as a base. AIFIS will serve as the overseas base for Andrew’s research. The awards for this year's cohort range from $20,000 - $25,000 each. The program is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) under the Fellowship Programs at Independent Research Institutions (FPIRI).