This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
As part of his yearlong residency as Fulbright Scholar at Lafayette, Indonesian cultural anthropologist Paschalis Maria Laksono will be holding a brown bag lecture April 5 on Asian social movements.
Sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Development, the discussion, entitled “Contextualizing Social Movements across Asia: Actor’s Recollection,” will begin at 12 p.m. in the Interfaith Chapel.
Laksono was brought in as a Fulbright Scholar to help enhance Lafayette’s Asian studies program. In the fall, he taught Anthropology of Politics and he is currently teaching Magic, Science and Religion. Besides numerous lectures throughout the Lehigh Valley, he is also helping several Lafayette departments develop curricula on Southeast Asia.
Tomorrow’s lecture will trace the various kinds of social movements in Asia that have furthered justice and dignity for those who were a part of the transformations. Laksono will discuss the research of the Indonesian Society for Social Transformation (INSIST). As part of an ongoing project, INSIST has interviewed 13 key participants in movements in China, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Laksono’s interest in anthropology has come from the multicultural dimension of his homeland, which was colonized in the past and is composed of hundreds of ethnic groups. He also believes that his work at Lafayette is closely related to what he was doing at home.
“The multicultural dimension of Lafayette is also very close to what I’m doing in Indonesia,” he says. “I’m in the middle of preparing a scholarship for graduate students who want to study cultures other than their own. The idea is to open up their minds to become more inclusive rather than exclusive.”
Since 1983, Laksono has been a lecturer in the department of anthropology at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He serves on the editorial boards of Cakalele: Maluku Research Journal, published by Center for Southeast Asian Studies of University of Hawaii at Manoa, and Wacana, published by INSIST Press of Yogyakarta.