The upcoming Fulbright conference “Issues in Southeast Studies: Society, Environment and Culture” will be a rare chance for the Indonesian public to join a discussion with top American scholars from various fields of study who are currently doing research in the 10 ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste.

The audience, for instance, will be able to hear anthropologist Dr. James Hoesterey of Emory University (Atlanta) present his research on “Diplomacy, Soft Power, and the Making of ‘Moderate Islam’ in Indonesia.” In a panel on History, Religion, and Rights, at which noted Indonesian scholar Prof. Dr. Azyumardi Azra will be the discussant, Hoesterey will address how Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been actively promoting moderate Islam as a soft-power strategy in public diplomacy. Hoesterey asks whether “moderate Islam” is an idea not politically constructed only by Westerners, but also by Muslim diplomats and religious leaders. Hoesterey is the author of the just published Rebranding Islam: Piety, Prosperity and a Self-Help Guru, which analyses the rise and fall of charismatic Indonesian Islamic preacher H. Abdullah Gymnastiar (“Aa Gym”).

In a panel on Public Health, post-graduate student researcher Meghan Arakelian will present an analysis of undernutrition in children in Timor-Leste. Arakelian is a graduate of Colombia University who received a Fulbright grant to carry out her research. She will present an overview of the frequency and effects of child undernutrition in Timor-Leste, a country with one of the highest rates in the world of stunting in children under five. A former US Fulbright scholar to Indonesia, Dr. Gabriel Culbert, Yale University, will be the discussant.

Among the Fulbright-supported biologists currently doing research in the ASEAN region, independent researcher Norman Greenhawk will talk about his work on amphibians in the Philippines. Because of climate change, amphibians are under threat there, as elsewhere, and because a vast majority of species found in the Philippines are found nowhere else, it is urgent to develop effective conservation strategies. “Project Palaka,” a partnership with the University of the Philippines-Los Banos, Avilon Zoo, and the National Museum, is focused on breeding rare amphibians outside their natural habitat. After the completion of his Fulbright grant, Greenhawk will hand responsibility for “Project Palaka” to the partnering agencies. Professor David Owens, an American expert on marine vertebrates and a senior Fulbright researcher now teaching at Mawlamyine University, Myanmar, will give comments on Greenhawk’s and two other papers in the session on Biodiversity.

The conference, which will be held at the Fairmont Hotel, Senayan, March 18-19, 2016, will include parallel panels on Education; History, Religion and Rights; Biodiversity; Disaster Risk Management; Cities/Urban Spaces; Art, Music & Film; Public Health; Business & Labor; and Food Security.

The Fulbright conference is open to the public, up to a limited number of registered participants. Online registration information will be announced on Monday, March 14 2016 on AMINEF Website (www.aminef.or.id) and Facebook page (AMINEF/Fulbright Indonesia).

Illustration: AMINEF Working Lunch 2015