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

AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies

Michigan State University is pleased to co-host the inaugural AIFIS-MSU Conference on Indonesian Studies, in collaboration with the American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS). The virtual event will be held from June 23 - 26, 2021.

The Program Committee welcomes proposals for panels, roundtables, and individual paper presentations on history, culture, anthropology, sociology, language, and arts related to Indonesia, and research advancing understandings of the ways that historical, sociocultural, economic, and political contexts shape contemporary and historical issues in Indonesia.

Submission Deadline: 31 March 2021 (11:59 pm EDT)

Types of Proposal Submission

Paper Presentation - Regular Session (Individual Submission)

Individuals may submit abstracts for paper presentations. The Conference organizers will form panels based on accepted abstracts submitted. The panel sessions are 90 minutes long with a maximum of 4 live paper presentations (15 minute each), followed by a discussion. A session chair will moderate and monitor time. Presenters are encouraged to volunteer as session chairs for the panel in which they are presenting. Paper presentation submission includes an abstract of up to 300 words. Each person may only submit one individual paper abstract.

Paper Presentation - Flip-Session (Individual Submission)

The organizers will similarly form panels for flip-sessions based on accepted proposals submitted by individuals. Presenters whose proposals have been accepted into a flip-session panel must submit a pre-recorded presentation prior to the conference (as a link to the recording on a cloud storage or a personal online media channel). The length of the presentation should be between 15 to 20 minutes. Flip-sessions during the conference dates are 30 minutes long consisting of a discussion among the audience and the presenters, with the assumption that session participants have watched the pre-recorded presentations prior to attending the session. All presenters in a flip-session panel are highly encouraged to watch pre-recorded presentations of their fellow panelists prior to the session. The organizers may assign session hosts to moderate the discussion, but welcome suggestions from presenters of individuals to serve as hosts. Paper presentation submission for flip-sessions includes an abstract of up to 300 words. Each person may only submit one individual paper abstract.

Panel Session (Group Submission)

A group of presenters may propose a panel session of 3 or 4 presentations based on work that share a set of common themes, issues, or research questions. The panel sessions are 90 minutes long. The panel organizers must identify a session chair and a discussant (who must also register for the conference) in the proposal submission. The organizers encourage panel submissions to demonstrate diversity in terms of gender and institution. We especially welcome panels with presenters from different countries. Panel session submission includes a panel abstract of up to 500 words, and individual paper abstracts of up to 300 words.

Refereed Roundtable Session (Group Submission)

Round-table sessions are intended to foster connections and substantive exchanges among a community of researchers and practitioners on a collaborative project, or a particular issue with implications on research and policy. The roundtable sessions are 90 minutes long and feature up to 4 presentations on the roundtable topic, as such the presentations do not have individual separate titles. Roundtable organizers should identify a session chair who will moderate the discussion. The roundtable session submission includes a brief description of the intended discussion for the roundtable of up to 500 words, and a preliminary list of invited participants (including name, affiliation, and contact information, who must also register for the conference). 

Click below button to submit your abstract!

For any inquiries, please contact us through:

• conference@aifis.org (AIFIS)

• asiansc@msu.edu (MSU Asian Studies Center)