Dr. Grace Cheng is a recipient of the Fulbright Specialist Program, participated in a project at the Center for Human Rights, Multiculturalism and Migration (CHRM2) at the University of Jember, East Java.

Dr. Cheng has a background in Southeast Asian Studies and participated in a program at Gadja Mada University a few years ago, but this experience as a Fulbright Specialist greatly enhanced her understanding of Indonesia greatly. One component of her activities at CHRM2 (Center for Human Rights, Multiculturalism and Migration) at the University of Jember was consulting on research projects. She observed the Center’s research project on protecting the cultural rights of indigenous minorities in East Java, accompanying the team on a field visit to one community and the local government agency with jurisdiction of the region. On the last evening of her project, they were invited to visit an adat village where one of the researchers had worked.

Those visits threw into relief the great diversity of the country as well as its history and unique landscapes. The experience also deepened her appreciation of the human rights issues that scholars at the CHRM2 are concerned about. Given her experiences in other countries, she was able to offer additional perspectives. Therefore, these occasions provided opportunities for her to engage in extensive exchanges with Indonesian scholars and students.

In addition, she met numerous members of the University faculty and students through her guest lectures, small-group meetings, podcast recordings, and writing workshops. All of these were invaluable for exchanging insights and challenging each other on a range of topics and questions about research methodology, etc.

Following numerous conversations during the course of her project, the faculty of CHRM2 and Dr. Cheng decided to develop a collaborative research project concerned with the rights of indigenous peoples to their traditional lands and culture. They consulted with their various contacts and invited a number of scholars with expertise in this area to join the project, so they conceived this multi-year research project for a funding application to BRIN, Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency.

Dr. Cheng is committed to exploring other project schemes that both the Centre and her home institution can work together on to maintain our collaboration in the future.