Mr. Stannard is Associate Professor of Journalism at Western Washington University. He has worked in Asia, North America and the Middle East for more than twelve years as a journalist — and for more than twenty years as a university educator and administrator.
Unlike most American Fulbrighters I received my grant after I was already in Indonesia. I’d taken unpaid leave from my post in Western Washington University in Bellingham to do some research here and was told that I fulfilled the primary qualifications for a Fulbright-funded teaching post at the University of Indonesia.
For one thing, I already spoke Indonesian after working in Jakarta as a correspondent for UPI in the early and mid-six-ties. And I’d already done some curriculum development work at Western Washington. My role at Ul was to firm up their journalism program in the areas of reporting, writing and editing. During my three semesters there I taught a feature-writing course to undergraduates and also advised some graduated students. We also started putting together the first laboratory newspaper the school had ever had — though we didn’t print it. We posted it on the wall.
Now I’m back in Jakarta again, this time as consultant with the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute. Our dual mission there has been to establish a masters-level program to prepare university graduates in other fields for careers in journalism and also to be of service to working journalists through seminars and short-term courses.
I originally thought I might specialize in China, since I was born there and had an early interest. But in the late forties the doors were clanging shut in mainland China and I didn’t relish the idea of spending a decade or two reading magazines while sitting around in Hong Kong. Then I happened to become intrigued with Indonesia through an undergraduate course at the University of Washington. And the rest just sort of fell into place after that!
