Meet Daniel Owen, PhD Student from UC Berkeley, who spent the summer of 2025 traveling across Java to document the lives, work, and social commitments of Indonesian poets whose voices shaped a period of profound cultural and political change. Supported by AIFIS, Daniel’s field research contributed to his doctoral dissertation, “A Book Hungry for Meaning: Indonesian Poetry and Social Change at the End of the Twentieth Century,” which examines how poetry in Indonesia from the 1980s through the 2000s functioned not only as artistic expression but as a deeply social and politically engaged practice.
During his time in the field, Daniel conducted oral history interviews with poets, publishers, and cultural activists in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Solo, and Tasikmalaya. Through these conversations, he explored how literary communities formed, how poems circulated through publications and public readings, and how poetry served as a means of responding to and shaping Indonesia’s late New Order and early post-Reformasi social realities. These firsthand accounts added depth and nuance to existing literary histories, revealing poetry as a powerful site of dialogue, critique, and collective imagination.
Daniel’s project addresses a notable gap in scholarship. While other cultural forms such as visual art, novels, theater, and journalism from this period have been widely studied, poetry and poets have received far less sustained attention. By situating poems alongside the lived experiences of their creators and the institutions that supported them, this research offers a richer understanding of literature’s role in interpreting social change.
The research was made possible through the support of AIFIS-CAORC fellowship and the generosity of Daniel’s research counterpart, Ibu Henny Suharyati, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Cultural Sciences at Universitas Pakuan in Bogor. Through her guidance, Daniel connected with local literature scholars whose collaboration was instrumental to the project. The fieldwork concluded with a public panel discussion, “Sejarah, Kekuasaan, Sastra,” held in Bogor and co-sponsored by several local cultural organizations, creating a space for scholars, students, and community members to reflect together on the enduring relationship between literature, history, and power in Indonesia.
Notes from the Field like Daniel’s reflect AIFIS’s commitment to fostering meaningful, on-the-ground research and supporting scholars whose work deepens cross-cultural understanding and preserves vital intellectual histories.
