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Dyah Pitaloka

Graduate Research Director and Associate Professor, Marketing & Digital Communications

Accepting PhD students

Dyah Pitaloka is Associate Professor in Marketing and Digital Communications at Monash University, Indonesia. She was a Fulbright scholar and holds a PhD in Communications from the University of Oklahoma. Before joining Monash University, Indonesia, Dyah was Senior Lecturer in Digital Communications and Media Studies and Course Director for Bachelor of Digital Media and Communications (BDMC) at Monash University, Malaysia. Dyah has also held academic positions at the National University of Singapore and the University of Sydney, Australia. As an award-winning educator, Dyah received commendations and recognitions from Monash University, Malaysia for her commitment in teaching both undergraduate and master level units.

Dyah’s research interests and expertise fall within the area of communications, digital technology and society. Her research explores issues related to social, cultural, and policy dynamics of digital technology and how these aspects influence individuals and groups’ wellbeing - especially among marginalised communities. She has worked on these topics within the context of Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Australia. Her projects won a number of research grants, including the recent META AR/VR Policy Grant, and research grants from the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Ford Foundation and Wenner-Gren Foundation. She is the Primary Investigator for a research project on 'Regulating Sexual Violence Against Women in Metaverse' - international collaborative research between Monash University Malaysia, Monash University, Indonesia and the University of Atma Jaya Jakarta. Currently, Dyah is also theme lead for Digital Technology & Wellbeing at the Southeast Asia Centre for Digital Technology & Society (SEADS).

As part of a larger community of communication scholars, Dyah and few other colleagues from across the world contribute in developing and promoting disability, communication, and media, as a new research area within the International Communications Association (ICA). Dyah has been working on the topic of digital technology, equity and disability for the past three years, and continues exploring potential collaborations to develop and grow this relatively new area of study/research. Her works on this topic have been widely published in New Media & Society, Big Data & Society, The Communication Review, Social Movement Studies, Information, Communication & Society, Health Communication and Qualitative Health Research.

More information

Rohman, A., & Pitaloka, D. (2024). The Continuum of contexts in social media contents for social movement during a crisis: Insights from Vietnamese disability movements during COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2024.2433493.
Rohman, A., & Pitaloka, D. (2023). Contact tracing apps, nationalism, and users with disability in the Global South: The faith in state and collective objective. Mobile Media & Communication, 11(2), 230– 247. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579231158908.
Rohman, A., & Pitaloka, D. (2023). Disconnected and disabled during the pandemic: Toward more inclusive pandemic response plans in the Global South. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006231207657.
Rohman, A., Pitaloka, D., Erlina, E., Dang, D., & Prastyani, A. (2023). Disability data and its situational and contextual irrationalities in the Global South. Big Data & Society, 10(1), 205395172311605. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231160523
Rohman, A., & Pitaloka, D. (2021). What leads a movement to disband? Frictions within the Kopi Badati movement, Ambon, Indonesia. Social Movement Studies, 20(5), 584–599. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1805308
Pitaloka, D., & Dutta, M J. (2021). Performing songs as healing the trauma of the 1965 anti-Communist killing in Indonesia. In Mark Micale & Hans Pols (Eds.), Traumatic Pasts in Asia; History, Psychiatry, and Trauma from the 1930s to the Presence, New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Pitaloka, D., & Pols, H. (2021). Performing songs and staging theatre performances: Working through the trauma of the 1965/66 Indonesian mass killings. In Peter Leese, Julia B. Köhne, & Jason Crouthamel (Eds.), Languages of Trauma: History, Memory, and Media, Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Pitaloka, D., & Martin, N. (2021). We don’t want to cause public panic: Pandemic Communication of Indonesian Government in Responding to COVID-19. (2021). In Douglas A. Vakoch (Ed.), Coronavirus in International Media.
Tym C, Aldahesh A, An IS, Basheer N, Djenar N, Lewis V, Pitaloka D, Rubino A, Wang W. (2021). Migrant experiences of living with type 2 diabetes in Western Sydney, Australia: a multilingual pilot research project. Public Health Res Pract., 31(2): e3122109.
Rohman, A., & Pitaloka, D. (2020). A blast from the past: Memories, social media, and peace movement. The Communication Review. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2020.1829304.
Rohman, A., & Pitaloka, D. (2020). What leads a movement to disband? Frictions within the Kopi Badati movement, Ambon, Indonesia, Social Movement Studies. DOI: 10.1080/14742837.2020.1805308.
Rohman, A., Pang, N., & Pitaloka, D. (2020). The episodes of a facebook group for information sharing in the Ambon 2011 conflict prevention movement, Indonesia. Information, Communication & Society, 23(4), 539–554. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2018.1521456
Dutta M, Pandi AR, Zapata D, Mahtani R, Falnikar A, Tan N, Thaker J, Pitaloka D, Dutta U, Luk P and Sun K. (2019). Critical Health Communication Method as Embodied Practice of Resistance: Culturally Centering Structural Transformation Through Struggle for Voice. Front. Commun. 4:67. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1805308.
Pitaloka, D. (2018). The Use of Mobile Phones in Rural Javanese Villages: Knowledge Production and Information Exchange Among Poor Women with Diabetes. In Emma Baulch, Jerry Watkins and Amina Tariq (Eds.), mHealth Innovation in Asia: Grassroots Challenges and Practical Interventions, (pp. 49-68). Dordrecht: Springer.
Pitaloka, D., & Dutta, M. (2018). Embodied memories and spaces of healing: Culturally-centering voices of the survivors of 1965 Indonesian mass killings. In Mohan Jyotti Dutta & Dazzelyn Baltazar Zapata (Eds.), Communicating for Social Change: Meaning, Power, and Resistance. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan
Dutta, M., Pitaloka, D., Zapata, D. (2018). Negotiating transgender sex work, health and healing in Singapore: A culture-centered approach. In Jolanta Drzewiecka (Eds.), Global Dialectics in Intercultural Communication: Case Studies. New York: Peter Lang.
Hermansyah, A., Sainsbury, E., Pitaloka, D., & Krass, I. (2018). Prioritising recommendations to advance community pharmacy practice. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2018.02.003
Pitaloka, D., & Hsieh, E. (2015). Health as submission and social responsibilities: Embodied experiences of Javanese women with type II diabetes. Qualitative Health Research, 25(8), 1155-1165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315577607. [5-year IF (2016): 2.036].
Hsieh, E., Pitaloka, D., & Johnson, A. J. (2013). Bilingual health communication: Distinctive needs of providers from five specialties. Health Communication, 28, 557-567. [5-year IF (2016): 1.487].

2023-2025 Research Talent Accelerator (RTA) - This grant intends to support motivated mid-career academics with becoming future research leaders by accelerating their career progression.
2024 Incubator Grant ‘Building Policy Networks for Regulating Digital Tech in Southeast Asia” - Dr Stefan Baechtold (MUM), Dr Quinton Temby (Monash Indonesia), A/Prof Emma Baulch (MUM), Dr Dyah Pitaloka (MUM).
2023-2026 MUM Future Centre - Southeast Asia Research Centre for Digital Technologies & Society (SEADS) – A/Prof Emma Baulch, Dr Dyah Pitaloka, Dr Stefan Baechtold.
2022-2023 Regulating Sexual Violence Against Women in Metaverse: An Interdisciplinary Diagnosis of Indonesia and Malaysia - Monash University Malaysia, META AR/VR Policy Research, PI: Dr Dyah Pitaloka.
2021/20022 Fostering Mental Health through social media during COVID-19 Pandemic, DFAT Australia-Indonesia Institute Grant – PI: Prof Hans Pols (The University of Sydney) Co-investigator: A/Prof Nicola Hancook (The University of Sydney), Dr Dyah Pitaloka (Monash University Malaysia), Dr Tyas Suci (Atmajaya University Jakarta), Mental Health Community Partners in Indonesia.
2021/2022 Modelling vaccine-related information to create hybrid information hubs for people with disabilities in Vietnam and Indonesia, Vaccine Confidence Fund, The Alliance (Facebook & Merck & Co.) – PI: Dr Abdul Rohman (RMIT Vietnam), Co-investigators: Dr Dyah Pitaloka (MUM), Dr Erlyn Erlina (Gadjah Mada University), Dr Dang Duy (RMIT Vietnam), Ade Prastyani, MD (Gadjah Mada University.
2020/2021 Well-being in a Time of Social Distancing: Indonesian Domestic Workers in Singapore and Hong Kong, The Social Science Research Council Rapid-Response Grants on COVID 19 and The Wenner-Gren Foundation, PI: Dr Dyah Pitaloka.
2020/2021 The (dis)connecting effects of digital platforms and the digital resilience of differently able communities during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia and Vietnam, The Social Science Research Council Just Tech COVID-19 Rapid Response Grants and Ford Foundation, PI: Dr Abdul Rohman, Co-Investigator: Dr Dyah Pitaloka.