Professor Ariel Heryanto awarded Emeritus Professor and concludes Directorship at Herb Feith Centre
We are proud to announce that after three years of invaluable contributions to Monash University and the community at large, Professor Ariel Heryanto has been awarded the University’s highest honour – the title Emeritus Professor. He will also be concluding his term as Director of the Monash Herb Feith Indonesian Engagement Centre.
Professor Heryanto was appointed Director in 2018 and in just twelve months, the Centre’s pace of advancements is a testament to Professor Heryanto’s energy, standing and commitment. In this role, his leadership greatly enhanced both Monash University and the Faculty of Arts’ engagement and links with Indonesia, and led high-profile initiatives that included:
- The Herb Feith Dialogues featuring H.E. Dr Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesia’s Minister of Finance (held in Jakarta), Professor Arskal Salim, Head of the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Directorate for Higher Islamic Education (DIKTIS) and Dewi Lestari, award winning author-singer-songwriter.
- The Monash Indonesian Seminar Series (MISS) in collaboration with the Louis Matheson Library hosting monthly seminars on issues and research topics including Islam, media and the environment, film, women in leadership.
- The Herb Feith Centre International Conference ‘Chinese Indonesians: Identities and Histories’ attended by over 100 delegates including the public, PhD students and academic leaders from across a wide variety of disciplines.
- The Australian Embassy’s 70th anniversary celebration of diplomatic relations between Australia-Indonesia in Jakarta and Makassar, where Professor Heryanto was invited to be keynote speaker.
Professor Heryanto was instrumental in the establishment of the Centre in 2017, in the position of Herb Feith Professor for the Study of Indonesia. As an established and internationally recognised humanities scholar and Arts alumnus, his long-standing contribution to the international scholarly community covered politics of identity; trans-regional collaborations for building a post-Cold War Asian studies; and innovative dialogues between area studies and the “new humanities”.
Since the beginning, Professor Heryanto led collaborative activities with key international partners, including ‘Writing and Publishing Workshop’ with the Ministry of Religious Affairs; ‘Public Voice and Media Engagement’ research and training in collaboration with Tempo Institut and Indonesia’s National Press Council, sponsored by the Knowledge Sector Initiative/Research Triangle Institute and DFAT; ‘Indonesian Public Intellectuals Visiting Fellowship’ sponsored by the Ford Foundation and ‘Celebrating Everyday Life in Australia-Indonesia’ with the Australia-Indonesia Centre.
We look forward to hearing more about his ongoing work at Monash and his current ARC research: ‘The politics of (un)forgetting: Indonesia’s nativist decolonisation’ (2020-2022)."
While Professor Heryanto will be greatly missed at the Centre, we are pleased to announce that Professor Julian Millie will take on the role of Acting Director of the Monash Herb Feith Centre, prior to the announcement of the Centre’s successor.