CAORC Announces 2024 CAORC-NEH Research Fellows

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).

Area Studies Reconfigured and Revitalized: Lessons For and From Indonesian Studies

Join AIFIS on 9 July 2024 for a public roundtable discussion, "Area Studies Reconfigured and Revitalized: Lessons For and From Indonesian Studies." Presented in-conjunction with the AAS-in-Asia conference hosted by Universitas Gajah Mada, this roundtable event is free and open to the public.
Reserve your seat at www.tinyurl.com/aasinasiaroundtable

Notes from the field: Christian Lentz

Notes from the field: Christian Lentz, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
Topic: Reconfiguring Southeast Asia.

During his multiple field trips to Indonesia, Prof. Christian C. Lentz, AIFIS-CAORC Fellow 2023, utilized the National Archives in Jakarta, went to Sukabumi, West Java for a site visit, and visited the Museum of Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung. Prof. Lentz research is to examine the connections between Indonesia and two Vietnams from the year 1945 to 1975.

To learn more about research permitting procedures in Indonesia, please check our website or email aifis@aifis.org

The Future of the Study of Religion in Indonesia: Opportunities and Challenges

As part of the collaboration, ICRS will host a side event for the conference on July 8, 2024, at the Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada. The event is a public talk with the theme “The Future of the Study of Religion in Indonesia: Opportunities and Challenges.” The invited speakers are Greg Fealy (Australian National University), Robert Hefner (Boston University), Nelly van Doorn-Harder (Valparaiso University), and Lena Larsen (University of Oslo). The event will include dinner and performance from 5:30-8:00 p.m. If you will be in Yogya, please join us (RSVP here: s.id/talkshow).