AIFIS is excited to welcome AIFIS-Luce Fellow, Anton "Nino" Novenanto, to the US!

Anton Novenanto, who goes by "Nino" for short, is an AIFIS-Luce fellow currently conducting research in the Department of English at the University of Kansas. His project, “Moral Politics of Victimhood: Cultures of Social Movements in Indonesia’s Mudflow, 2006-Today,” explores various ecological, social, and cultural impacts of technological development in Indonesia, including their modifications, risks, and failures.

As a researcher, Nino has formal training in sociology and anthropology, as well as professional experience in human rights and environmental activism. He completed his BA in sociology at the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia, MA in cultural anthropology and development sociology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and PhD in anthropology at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany.

Nino is also a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Universitas Brawijaya, Indonesia. In 2019, he co-founded EUTENIKA—a society for researchers of politics, ecology, and technology—to network and collaborate with universities, communities, government, and/or private sectors to organize discussions, seminars, trainings, and workshops for publics and academics.

If you would like to wish Nino good luck in his research by contacting him directly, please reach out to aifis@aifis.org.

CAORC MULTI-COUNTRY RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP - Deadline November 16

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) is currently accepting applications for The Multi-Country Research Fellowship! Now in its 28th year, the fellowship enables US scholars to carry out trans-regional and comparative research in countries across the network of Overseas Research Centers (ORCs), as well as other countries.

The Multi-Country Research Fellowship supports advanced research in the humanities, social sciences, and allied natural sciences for US doctoral candidates, who are 'all but dissertation', and scholars who have earned their PhD. Scholars must carry out research in two or more countries outside the US, at least one of which must host a participating ORC. Approximately nine awards of $11,500 will be granted. ​

In Southeast Asia, AIFIS is the Overseas Research Center for Indonesia, the Inya Institute is for Myanmar, and the Center for Khmer Studies is for Cambodia and the Mekong Region.

​Each year the highest ranking Multi-Country Fellowship applicant will receive an additional $1,000 toward travel expenses through the Mary Ellen Lane Multi-Country Travel Award. The award is named after CAORC's founding director, Dr. Mary Ellen Lane.

Minority scholars and scholars from Minority Serving Institutions are encouraged to apply.

Deadline: November 16, 2021.

Apply here.

Questions: fellowships@caorc.org

#CAORCFellowships

"Remedy Shows Up Malady Gives Up," a Livestream Performance of Wayang Shadow Puppetry on Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Don't miss a special wayang kulit premiere performance from Java! Ki Purbo Asmoro will be performing Tamba Teka Lara Lunga (Remedy Shows Up Malady Gives Up). This new wayang story is inspired by a 1920 text that was written by a Javanese puppet master of the day, concerning the Spanish flu pandemic. Tune in and see how Ki Purbo Asmoro weaves the content and perspective from a dhalang during the pandemic 100 years ago with his own thoughts on the current covid-19 pandemic.

Watch Live here: https://youtu.be/JdJ3b-mlZUs

All times on Tuesday 28 Sept:

• 03:00-07:00 in Honolulu

• 06:00-10:00, Pacific Time

• 07:00-11:00, Rocky Mountain Time

• 08:00-noon, CDT

• 09:00-13:00, EDT

• 13:00-17:00, London

• 14:00-18:00, Western Europe

• 20:00-midnight across Java, Thailand, Vietnam

• 21:00-01:00 on Wed, Bali and Singapore

• 22:00-02:00, Japan and South Korea

• 23:00-03:00, Melbourne and Sydney

WatchDoc Receives Prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, 2021

WatchDoc, the Indonesian documentary filmmakers, are among one of the recipients for the 2021 Ramon Magsaysay Award. They won in the category of Emergent Leadership, an award often called the ‘Asian Nobel.’ The selection committee recognized WatchDoc for their “highly principled crusade for an independent media organization, energetic use of investigative journalism, documentary filmmaking, and digital technology in their effort to transform Indonesia’s media landscape, and their commitment to a vision of the people themselves as makers of the media and shapers of their own world” (RMAF board of trustees). 

We at AIFIS would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the entire WatchDoc team as they continue their fantastic work of drawing wider public attention to social, environmental, human rights, and other underreported issues in Indonesia! 

AIFIS has partnered with WatchDoc and the Luce Foundation in the production and distribution of films in the “Indonesian Pluralities” documentary film series (produced by Zainal Abidin Bagir and Bob Hefner). 

See their award page here: https://www.rmaward.asia/awardee/watchdoc

AIFIS/CAORC Support for Afghan Scholars Crisis

As a CAORC affiliate, we at AIFIS want to amplify this important message regarding the current Afghan Scholars Crisis:

CAORC Statement on Afghan Scholars Crisis

August 2021

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers wishes to draw further attention of the scholarly and funding communities to the plight of Afghan scholars and their staffs who continue to be at risk during the important evacuations occurring from Afghanistan. This is a moment of great import to our communities to support refugee scholars as a moral imperative as we did after World War Two for scholars from Western Europe.

We request the scholarly community to urge the U.S. Government and private sector to take the following steps:

1) Ensure that the commercial airport at Kabul remains open for scholars and staff who wish to depart the country.

2) Maintain a robust U.S. Embassy capability to process visas, Fulbright grants, and other U.S. offered opportunities.

3) Require all U.S. Embassies outside Afghanistan to process arriving Afghan visas and asylum requests expeditiously.

4) Work with their own Universities to provide expedited admissions to their programs and to provide “safe haven” to Afghan faculty seeking teaching and research positions.

5) Ensure robust funding for Afghan faculty and students including full scholarships, full fellowships, and relocation expenses.

6) Seek the cooperation of the U.S. Government to reallocate existing unspent program funding directed for Afghanistan efforts overseas to domestic based programs for displaced scholars.

7) Call upon the private donor community to expedite grants to support Afghan scholars and their scholarship in the United States and other countries.

We stand with Afghan scholars at this moment of the “crisis of values” with the Taliban and strongly support open and free scholarship and the rights of all people in academia including educators, human rights advocates, women’s rights advocates, and others who are currently in peril in Afghanistan.

AIFIS Welcomes New Executive Director Megan Hewitt PhD

We are happy to introduce Megan Hewitt PhD as our new Executive Director of AIFIS. Megan brings a diversity of academic, organizational, and creative experience and we are thrilled to have her join the AIFIS community! 

Megan completed her doctoral degree from the Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research and fieldwork in Indonesia include projects on Indonesian literature, performance arts, community-based education, and social movements. In conjunction with her graduate degree, she has eight years teaching experience in comparative Southeast Asian literatures and Indonesian Studies. She is a two-time Fulbright award recipient for research and teaching in Indonesia and has organized several conferences and workshops in collaboration with partners in the US and Indonesia. Megan has also worked as a professional Indonesian translator and consultant for the last six years. Additionally, she created a documentary filmmaking group called AmongOthers Productions with ongoing projects that highlight Indonesian cross-culturalism. In 2021 they produced a 20-minute documentary about a group of Indonesian and San Francisco based mural artists (Bangkit/Arise). Megan is also the lead singer of the Indie duo Antaralain, and performs with a number of ensembles in the SF Bay Area which draw from the arts of Indonesia: Harmonic Drift, Gamelan Sekar Jaya and Purnamasari.

“I am most excited about working to sustain programs that generate greater awareness of Indonesian studies in the US, as well as to facilitate further collaborations between Indonesian and American scholars, artists, and professionals engaged in research in Indonesia. Terima kasih banyak atas kesempatan ini. Ayo kita berkolaborasi!” -Megan