On Rising Fear, Anxiety, and Producing the “Other” in Indonesia

On Rising Fear, Anxiety, and Producing the “Other” in Indonesia

 

VIEW CONFERENCE SUMMARY HERE >>

Spring Dialogue and 19th Northeastern Conference (NEC) on Indonesia, April 12-13, 2018 – Yale University
 

Guest speakers, Jemma Purdey, Bedjo Untung and Teri Caraway with conference organizers

THEME   |  YIF DIALOGUE  |  CONFERENCE


Friday April 12 - YIF SPRING DIALOGUE
Perspectives on the Theme:

Dr. Jemma Purdey
Faculty of Arts and the Australia Indonesia Centre, Monash University, Australia

Dr. Teri L. Caraway
College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, USA


Saturday, April 13THE 19th NORTHEASTERN CONFERENCE (NEC) ON INDONESIA

Featured Speaker:

Bedjo Untung
Chairman of YPKP 65 (Indonesian Institute for the Sutdy of the 1965/66 Massacre) in Indonesia; prominent activist, and the recipient of the 7th Truth Foundation  Human Rights Award (2017)

Presenters:

Cobina Gillitt, State University of New York, Purchase College, USA

Matthew Isaac Cohen, University of London, UK

Muhammad Afdillah, Hartford Seminary, USA

Tadkzia Nurshafira, Universitas Gadjah Mada, ID

Rizky Alif Alvian, University of Queensland, AU


THEME

In the throes of Jakarta’s gubernatorial election campaign of 2017, mass opposition arose against then-governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, for his alleged blasphemy against the Quran. Ahok’s subsequent election loss and arrest carried uncomfortable echoes of the past. The animosity directed towards the Christian and ethnically Chinese governor sparked fears that Indonesia’s ethnic and social tensions were dangerously resurgent.  Indeed, the creation of a distinct “Other” against whom to direct societal anxieties has taken various forms in Indonesia, including the portrayal of the ethnic Chinese as unscrupulous opportunists, the depiction of communism as the source of all social ills, and more recently, the panic over LGBT populations being a supposed source of moral decay. 

The Yale Indonesia Forum (YIF) seeks to address the issues of rising fear and anxiety, marginalization, and otherization in Indonesia from diverse disciplinary and methodological perspectives. How have categories of proper Indonesianness been historically constructed, and whom have they excluded? What are the historic and contemporary sources of societal anxiety in Indonesia? What new opportunities for and challenges to mutual understanding have emerged since the rise of human rights discourses? Are there clear victim-perpetrator binaries when it comes to otherization, and in what ways do targets of marginalization stake their claims to belonging? Can we predict what social categories will be the next targets?

The Northeastern Conference on Indonesia, held in conjunction with the Cornell Indonesian Association, will take place on Saturday April 13th, 2019, at Yale University. On Friday, April 12, 2019, there will be an interactive YIF Spring Dialogue that will feature scholars who have researched and written extensively on Indonesia, as well as practitioners who have engaged with the theme of the conference. Presenters are encouraged to join the Dialogue.                                  


The Northeastern Conference (NEC) on Indonesia is an initiative of the Yale Indonesia Forum (YIF) and the Cornell Indonesia Student Association (CIA).  The 19th Northeastern Conference in New Haven is organized by the Yale Indonesia Forum and funded by the Council on Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS) at Yale University.