Perdana Roswaldy
Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator, Sustainability
Perdana "Pepe" Roswaldy is an Assistant Professor in Master of Sustainabilty program at Monash University, Indonesia. Pepe is an Arryman Scholar and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University.
Pepe’s dissertation, "Profiting off the Future Loss: Land Speculation & Brokerage in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Plantations," investigates the persistence of Indonesia’s oil palm plantation economy through the lens of human geography & asset economy. Pepe also works on community rebuilding in the aftermath of a land conflict. Their work has been published on Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia, International Quarterly for Asian Studies, & Journal of Agrarian Change. Pepe also engages in public-facing scholarship and extends their research output through creative means, including zines, documentary movies, & creative non-fiction.
Pepe pursues both theoretical and practical contributions in their research. Along with their informants and fellow palm oil researchers, Pepe co-founded Sawit Womxn Educational Group (SWEG), a learning hub for women plantation workers and political ecologists. An environmental sociologist, Pepe’s core research has focused on how socio-economic changes and spatial alterations interact & influence each other. Pepe is trained in qualitative methods, specifically ethnography & interviews. They also incorporate ecography (specifically water & soil sampling) and Geographical Information System (GIS) to enrich the qualitative data. Currently, Pepe is working towards a manuscript on land resettlement programs across Southeast Asia.
More information
- Roswaldy, P. "Women Workers and Body Politics in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Plantations." Plant Perspective (Forthcoming 2026).
- Roswaldy, P. "Plantation Imaginarium: Futures and Afterlives of Palm Oil Plantations in Indonesia." In Political Ecologies of Futurity: Storytelling Plantation Afterlives, Climate Erasure, and Socioecological Justice, by Alex Moulton & Dylan Harris (Eds). Lexington Books. Forthcoming (August 2025).
- Roswaldy, P. "Mending the Broken Clock: Gender and Socioecological Changes in Post-Conflict North Sumatra." Journal of Agrarian Change. Online first (April 2025). https:// doi.org/10.1111/joac.70017. In a process of translation into Indonesia, published in an ontology of Indonesia’s rural labor, published by Insist Press.
- Roswaldy, P. "Now I’m Constantly Sick: Environmental Degradation and the Impact on Toba Women’s Health After Land Conflict." International Quarterly for Asian Studies. Vol 55(4):3. https://doi.org/10.11588/iqas.2024.3.25685. Translated into Indonesian. "Tiada Jalan Kembali: Perubahan Kesejahteraan Perempuan Adat Toba Pasca Konflik." Politik Marjinalisasi Jokowi (Jokowi’s Marginalization Politics) 2025. Edited by Amanda Tho Seeth and Jafar Surya Menggolo, Marjin Kiri.
- Roswaldy, P. "Queering Ecology: Three Investigations from Indigenous Women in Post-Conflict North Sumatra," Antropologi Indonesia: Vol. 44(2), 2023. https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/jai/vol44/iss2/6
- Political ecology
- Just transition
- Development and agrarian studies
- Environmental policy
- Post-conflict socio-ecology
- Nature- and community-based solutions for sustainability
- Land Deals Politics Initiative Small Research Grants ($3,000), the International Institute for Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam (2023)
- History and Political Economy Project Research Grant at the Arrighi Center for Global Studies, John Hopkins University ($3,000) (2023)
- The Buffett Institute’s Dissertation Travel Grant, Northwestern University ($4,800) (2023)
- American-Indonesian Cultural & Educational Foundation, ($3,000) for PhD dissertation project: How Much Land Does a State Need? The Resurgence of Plantations in Indonesia (2022)
- Kellog’s Dispute Resolution & Research Center, Northwestern University, ($4,038) for MA thesis (2019)
- "The Very People on the Ground, at the Heart of These Carbon-Emitting Agribusiness, are Often Invisible." Palm Oil Workers and Decarbonization in Indonesia. Interview with Sawit Women’s Educational Group for Commodity Frontiers. 2025
- "Unearthing Production: Roundtable Discussions with Chris Abdul Hakim Martinez, Perdana "Pepe Roswaldy," and Peter Vale." History of Political Economy Project. 2025
- "Green Gold: Indonesia’s Palm Oil & Plantation Economy" Phenomenal World. 2025
- Comparative Research on Gender & Reparations in Southeast Asia: Aceh, Indonesia. Analytical Report for Asia Justice & Rights. 2023
- "Dissolving Empire" Trajectories: ASA Comparative Historical Sociology Newsletter, Vl. 33(1). 2022
- Tropic Fever (an hour documentary movie on colonial plantations), collaboration with Mahardika Yudha & Robin Hartanto Honggare. 2021
- Available on Cinelogue.
- Selected for the 65th International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film (September 2022) – category Long Documentary & Animated Film
- Nominated for the Silver Dove prize for Long Documentary
- International Critics Award - FIPRESCI
- Prize for Interreligious Jury
- Arryman Scholarship Award
- Northwestern Legal Studies Graduate Fellow & Assistantship
- Northwestern Writing Place Fellow