Professor James J. Laskin is a physical therapist and exercise physiologist from the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA. Dr. Laskin is on Sabbatical for the 2017-18 academic year and was awarded an ASEAN Fulbright Research Award to work in Thailand and Laos.

As part of his Fulbright award, he took advantage of a Fulbright Regional Travel Award to visit Indonesia in December 2017. During this trip James spend time in both Jakarta and Yogyakarta. Earlier in August, he visited the Big Durian for a Fulbright workshop.

In this second visit to Jakarta, Dr. Laskin participated in a number of unique events. At the ASEAN Secretariat, Dr. Laskin was an invited speaker at the ASEAN Seminar on the Promotion of Paralympic Movement towards ASEAN Community 2025 where he spoke on the topic of physical activity and its role in health and quality of life he also participated in the ASEAN Youth Gathering and JENESYS Mini Reunion 2017. These two events were hosted by the ASEAN Secretariat, Education Youth & Sports Division. At these sessions James was able to share his research on the habitual physical activity of Thai school-aged children as well as his most recent work looking the quality of life, physical activity and health of elderly Laos.

Dr. Laskin also provided a morning seminar on “Nutrition and Physical Education” for the Physical Education graduate students from the Universitas Negeri Jakarta, which was organized by Dr. Suzie Sudarman, Head of the American Studies Center, Universitas Indonesia.

The second half of Dr. Laskin’s visit to the Island of Java was hosted by Dr. Siswantoyo, Office of Institute for Research and Community Service, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. During his time there James met with many faculty, presented a workshop to faculty to help them improve their manuscript writing skills for western journals, developed a plan/proposal to investigate the efficacy and physiological basis of a traditional Javanese breath-holding style of exercise and prepare the ground work for a preparation course for UNY physical education students to sit for the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Certification in Strength and Conditioning Specialist exam.

Dr. Laskin appreciates and thanks all of those who made this trip possible including the support of ASEAN Fulbright program and the Fulbright Regional Travel program.