Yogyakarta, March 3rd 2023─The collaborative class between the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (UGM) and the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute was officially opened in a hybrid manner on Friday (3/3). The class entitled “Analysing Indonesia: Concepts and Issues” was attended by more than 30 students and will last for the next semester. Dr. Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, an academic from the University of Melbourne who is also the coordinator of this course, said that this collaboration was designed with the aim that students from both universities are able to expand their academic networks, especially to exchange ideas. Mudhofir himself is not a foreign name in Indonesian studies. His book entitled “State of Disorder: Privatized Violence and the State in Indonesia” was nominated for the 2022 EUROSEAS Social Science Book Prize.
Apart from Dr. Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, several names of academics from the two universities will teach this course, for example, Dr. Ken Setiawan (senior lecturer from Asia Institute University of Melbourne) and Dr. Tapiheru Joash Elisha Stephen (Lecturer at the Department of Politics and Government UGM). Other names such as Rita Padawangi (academic from the Singapore University of Social Sciences), Randy Nandyatama (a lecturer at the Department of International Relations UGM), and Muchtar Habibi (a lecturer at the Department of Public Policy Management UGM) will also be guest lecturers for this course.
At this inaugural meeting which lasted for about two hours, Mudhofir briefly explained the history of Indonesia from colonialism to the New Order era, as well as various perspectives that can be used to understand Indonesia. Substantively, this class is indeed designed to understand contemporary Indonesia in a multidisciplinary way. The topics that will be discussed during the next semester are very diverse, ranging from democracy, identity and popular culture, Islam and politics, urban development and inequality, capitalism and agrarian change, and human rights, to Indonesian literature. All of these topics will be connected with the establishment of Indonesia as a nation-state.
This collaboration is part of the FISIPOL UGM Global Engagement Office (GEO) collaboration with the University of Melbourne. Later, UGM students who join this class will receive a certificate that can be converted into credit.