Waking Up to Indonesia

Hosted by: AIIA VIC

The event will start on: Wednesday, 09 June 2010 5:30 PM

And will end on: Wednesday, 09 June 2010 7:00 PM

At Dyason House

124 Jolimont Road East , Melbourne Victoria

03 9654 7271     admin.vic@aiia.asn.au

Posted by: national   

Professor Greg Barton, Monash University

Wednesday 9 June, 2010
5.30pm – 7.00pm
Dyason House
124 Jolimont Road, East Melbourne

After a highly successful state visit to Australia by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and a provocative new report by the Lowy Institute’s Fergus Hanson ('Indonesia and Australia: Time for a Set Change') that appears to have shaped Mr Yudhoyono’s address to the Australian Parliament, it is time to re-examine our perceptions of Indonesia.  Both Yudhoyono and Hanson argue that Australians are living with an out-dated narrative of our nearest big neighbour.  This address will examine the nature of Indonesia’s democratic transition over the past dozen years and what we should expect in the future.  It strikes a cautiously optimistic note about prospects for economic growth, political and social stability, the containing of radical Islamist extremism, and deepening bilateral relations.

Dr Greg Barton joined Monash University as the Herb Feith Research Professor for the Study of Indonesia in 2007.  Before this appointment he worked at the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Honolulu and at Deakin University.  He is the acting director of the Centre for Islam and the Modern World and Deputy UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations – Asia Pacific.  For the past 20years, Prof. Barton has been active in inter-faith dialogue initiatives and has a deep commitment to building understanding of Islam and Muslim society.  The central axis of his research interests is the way in which religious thought, individual believers and religious communities respond to modernity and to the modern nation state.  He also has a strong general interest in comparative international politics. 

In 2010 Prof. Barton started work on an ARC Linkage project on Radicalisation and De-Radicalisation in Australia with VicPol, AFP and the Victorian government and a related project on ‘The Making and Unmaking of Indonesian Mujahidin’, as well as two ARC projects looking at elites in Indonesia, and at neo-traditional Islam in that country.  His biography 'Abdurrahman Wahid, Muslim Democrat, Indonesian President: a view from the inside', was published in 2002.  His study of the Indonesian terrorist movement – ‘Indonesia’s Struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and the Soul of Islam’, was published in 2004.  He is currently working on two other book projects - 'Islam’s Other Nation: Faith in a Democratic Indonesia', with Black Inc.; and 'Progressive Islamic Thought and Social Movements in Indonesia and Turkey'.  He is a regular contributor to national and international media on Indonesia, Islam and international affairs.

Event Flyer

Tickets payable at the door :

• Members                       $15
• Non-Members                 $25
• Student Members             $8
• Student Non-Members     $12