ITA FATIA NADIA
Founder, National Commission on Violence Against Women, Indonesia
Ita Fatia Nadia an activist scholar, feminist historian, researcher, and writer. She is one of the founders of the National Commission on Violence Against Women. She is also a board member of Amnesty International Indonesia and chair of the Center for Women's History and Archives in Indonesia. Her research focuses on the leftist women's movement in Indonesia. She now writes a book about the Indonesian leftist women's movement within the international solidarity movement.
Together with her husband Hersri Setiawan, a writer and poet who was Indonesia's representative in the Afro-Asian Writers Bureau in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 1960 to 1965, she is collecting archives and documentation of Hersri's role as a facilitator of the Afro-Asian writers' movement in Africa and Asia against colonialism in 1960-1965. Hersri Setiawan was a political prisoner of Suharto's authoritarian government and was sent to forced labour camp on Buru Island for 10 years.
VANNESSA HEARMAN, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
Dr. Vannessa Hearman is a senior lecturer in history at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. She is the author of an award-winning monograph, Unmarked Graves: Death and Survival in the Anti-Communist Violence in East Java, Indonesia (Singapore: NUS Press, 2018), a study of the 1965-66 anti-communist violence in Indonesia, published in Indonesian by Footnote Press. Dr Hearman has published her research on Cold War Indonesia, Afro-Asianism, the Indonesian Left, Indonesian exiles, and transnational activism by Indonesians in books and academic journals. Her research on East Timorese migration to Australia, the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, and art in post-conflict Timor-Leste has been supported by the Australian Research Council and other grants. Her second monograph focuses on East Timorese clandestine activists and refugees in Australia (Melbourne University Publishing, 2026).
FARISH A. NOOR, Ph.D.
Professor, Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia
Dr. Farish A. Noor is presently a Professor of Politics and Political History at the Faculty of Social Science (FOSS), Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII). He has taught at several universities in Southeast Asia and Europe, and his recent works include The Visuals of Empire (Leiden University Press, 2025); Peta dan Kekuasaan (Lestari Hikmah, Kuala Lumpur: 2025); The Long Shadow of the 19th Century: Critical Essays on Colonial Orientalism in Southeast Asia (Matahari Books, 2021), Menuju Jurang Pemisah: Ras, Kuasa, dan Kekerasan Kolonial di Hindia Belanda, 1808-1830 (With Peter Carey, Gramedia Publishers, 2021); Data-Collecting in 19th Century Colonial Southeast Asia: Framing the Other (Amsterdam University Press, 2020); America’s Encounters with Southeast Asia 1800-1900: Before the Pivot (Amsterdam University Press, 2018); The Discursive Construction of Southeast Asia in the Discourse of 19th Century Colonial-Capitalism (Amsterdam University Press, 2016); and The Malaysian Islamic Party 1951-2013: Islamism in a Mottled Nation (Amsterdam University Press, 2014).
WILDAN SENA UTAMA, Ph.D.
Lecturer, History Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Wildan Sena Utama is a scholar of modern international and transnational history, with an interest in the history of the connections between Indonesia and the Afro-Asian world in the 20th century. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Department of History, University of Bristol in 2023, researching on the involvement of Indonesians in Afro-Asian movements in the 1950s-1960s to demonstrate that South-South Solidarity was central to the history of national independence, anti-imperialism, and decolonial worldmaking. He got his BA in history from Universitas Gadjah Mada and MA in Colonial and Global History from Leiden University.
Dr. Utama was involved as an associate researcher in Asia in the collaborative research project Afro-Asian Networks in the Early of Cold War (2015-2018) led by University of Bristol (Su Lin Lewis) and Leiden University (Carolien Stolte). He is a member of the Editorial Board of Lembaran Sejarah, Candrasangkala: Jurnal Pendidikan Sejarah. Besides academic writing, he writes columns for several Indonesian media, such as tirto.id, historia.id, detik.com, beritagar.id, Media Indonesia, Sinar Harapan, Seputar Indonesia, The Jakarta Post and Kompas. His first book, Konferensi Asia-Afrika 1955: Asal Usual Intelektual dan Warisannya bagi Gerakan Global Antiimperialisme (Marjin Kiri, 2017), examines the global history of the Bandung Conference and its legacy in international politics. Read more.
PROFESSOR SYED FARID ALATAS, Ph.D.
Professor, National University of Singapore
Professor Syed Farid Alatas, Ph.D. is the foremost and most eloquent theorist, practitioner, and proponent of autonomous social science traditions in Southeast Asia. He currently teaches as a professor at the Department of Sociology of the National University of Singapore as well as being affiliated with the Department of Malay Studies and the University Scholars Programme of the same university. He has widely published in areas such as the philosophy and sociology of social science, social theory, the state and practice of the social sciences, the teaching of classical sociology, the sociology of Islam, classical Islamic thought, the study of Muslim revival, intra-Muslim sectarianism, and inter-religious dialogue.
His published books include: Democracy and Authoritarianism: The Rise of the Post-Colonial State in Indonesia and Malaysia (1997); Alternative Discourses in Asian Social Science: Responses to Eurocentrism (2006); An Islamic Commitment to Inter-Religious Dialogue (2008); Ibn Khaldun (2013); Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology (2014); and, Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon (with Vineeta Sinha) (2017). His highly influential books and writings have been translated into Indonesian, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, French, and Spanish.
HILMAR FARID
Senior Fellow, Georgetown University
Hilmar Farid is a historian, cultural activist, and public intellectual whose work bridges scholarship, policy, and grassroots movements. He has long been active in intellectual networks such as Inter-Asia Cultural Studies and ARENA, advancing critical debates on decolonization, culture, and social justice in Southeast Asia. From 2016 to 2024, he served as Director General of Culture in Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture, where he championed cultural heritage, creative industries, and public history, while promoting community-based approaches to cultural life. He is currently teaching at the Graduate School of the Jakarta Institute of the Arts and is a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University, continuing to position culture as a vital arena for democracy, historical justice, and sustainable futures.
MAXWELL RONALD "MAX" LANE
Senior Visiting Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute
Dr. Max Lane is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute as well as an Academic Visitor at the Asia Institute of the University of Melbourne. Dr. Lane is the author of Indonesia Out of Exile: How Pramoedya’s Buru Quartet Killed a Dictatorship (2023), Indonesia and Not: Anecdotes Scattered (2023), and Saudara Berdiri di Pihak Yang Mana: Politik Seni Subversif Rendra (2024). He has also written Unfinished Nation: Indonesia Before and After Suharto (2008), Catastrophe in Indonesia (2010), Decentralization and Its Discontents: An Essay on Class, Political Agency and National Perspective in Indonesian Politics (2014), Introduction to the Politics of the Indonesian Union Movement (2019). He is a translator of Indonesian literary works by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, including This Earth of Mankind and its sequels, Arok of Java and The Chinese in Indonesia, and also works by the poet-playwright Rendra, including the play The Struggle of the Naga Tribe.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS
The international conference is organized by the Asian Center, University of the Philippines; the Center for International Studies, University of the Philippines; and the De La Salle University Southeast Asia Research Center and Hub.
For inquiries, please contact the conference secretariat at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
