PRESIDENT (from 2022)

Dr Natali Pearson is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, where she researches maritime heritage in Southeast Asia and is affiliated with the discipline of Archaeology. As Curriculum Coordinator at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, Natali has coordinated and co-led 12 multidisciplinary field schools to Southeast Asia, including to Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Singapore and Thailand.

She is an Expert Member of the ICOMOS International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management, Councillor of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology and host of the internationally syndicated SSEAC Stories podcast.

Natali is a proud alumna of the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (2000) and the Asialink Leaders Program (2009). She first visited Indonesia in 1997, when she participated in the Program Intensif Bahasa dan Budaya Indonesia in Salatiga. Her book, Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck, is published by University of Hawai‘i Press and NUS Press.

More about Natali on the University of Sydney website.

DEPUTY PRESIDENT

Dr Jeremy J. Kingsley is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean (International) at the Western Sydney University School of Law.

He is a transnational law scholar and anthropologist. His academic work is published in both public affairs and academic journals. His book, Religious Authority and Local Governance in Eastern Indonesia, was recently published by Melbourne University Press.

He is currently working on a research project on ‘Inter-Asian Legalities’, funded by the Social Science Research Council (US) and the National University of Singapore, and is a member of the InterAsia Partnership (Arab Council for the Social Sciences, Secretariat).

Jeremy is also foundation editor of the Asia Law and Society Series, Melbourne University Press. He is a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project on contract enforcement in Indonesia.

More about Jeremy.

TREASURER

Dr Elly (Ellen) Kent is a lecturer in Indonesian studies at the Australian National University. She has worked as researcher, writer, translator, artist, educator and intercultural professional in Indonesia and Australia.

Elly is the author of Artists and the People: Ideologies of Indonesian Art (2022) NUS Press, and co-editor (with Virginia Hooker and Caroline Turner) of Living Art: Indonesian Artists Engage Politics, Society and History (2023) ANU Press.

Elly’s research focuses on contemporary and historical art, design and cultural practices in Southeast Asia, and especially in Indonesia. She is interested in the intersection between social change, politics and art practice.

More about Elly.

GRANTS AND PRIZES OFFICER

Dr Monika Winarnita is an Indonesian Studies Lecturer at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne and is currently the University’s Convener of the Indonesia Forum (2023-2024).

Her PhD thesis in Anthropology (ANU 2014, Honorable Mentioned Sir Raymond Firth Thesis prize) ‘Dancing the Feminine: Gender and Identity Performances by Indonesian Migrant Women’ (Liverpool University Press UK 2016) was awarded Monograph of Distinction (chosen out of 80 titles) by the University of Victoria BC Canada in 2017 during her Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship.

She is a nominated Fellow in the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and teaches in all language levels of Indonesian Studies. Monika’s publications and research interests include: ethnography of the Indonesian and Malay diaspora, gender and cultural performance, as well as digital lives and precarious work.

University of Melbourne profile.

SECRETARY

Dr Elisabeth Kramer is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, a Scientia Fellow and an ARC DECRA Fellow (2023).

Elisabeth’s current research focuses primarily on tobacco policy and politics, and therapeutic opioid use. Working collaboratively with scholars in Indonesia, she has current projects with University of Indonesia, Airlangga University, University of Jember, Udayana University and Hasanuddin University. Elisabeth’s PhD research on corruption and electoral campaigning formed the basis for her first book The Candidate’s Dilemma (Cornell University Press, 2022).

Elisabeth is also a co-host of the Talking Indonesia Podcast and sits on the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) Reference Group.

POSTGRADUATE REPRESENTATIVE

Tamara is undertaking her PhD at University of Sydney on community-led approaches to refugee protection in Southeast Asia, focusing on social inclusion of sexual and gender minorities.

Tamara has been studying Indonesian language and culture since secondary school and is an alumna of the ACICIS exchange program to Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta.

She has worked in Indonesia on bilateral capacity building programs and local human rights advocacy, and since moving to Australia has continued research partnerships with several non-governmental organisations.

She is currently a Senior Research Consultant at the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures working on development effectiveness, gender equity, social inclusion and climate change resilience.

More about Tamara

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT EDITOR

Billy Adison Aditijanto is a bilingual digital journalist based in Melbourne, having been born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Alongside his current post as a Research Assistant at the University of Melbourne’s Indonesia Forum and Residential Tutor at Lisa Bellear House, Billy is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Perantau, and the host of its flagship program The Perantau Podcast, where he explores the lived experiences of Melbourne’s Indonesian diaspora.

Billy is a recipient of the 2023 Faculty of Arts Dean’s Honours List having completed a Master of Global Media Communication from The University of Melbourne in 2023. He previously completed a Bachelor of Arts in Media & Communications and Asian Studies from The University of Melbourne, with a particular interest in Indonesian sociopolitics and media systems.

More about Billy.

DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT EDITOR

Victoria Winata is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne in Indonesian Studies. She has been the recipient of several scholarships and awards: the Melbourne Access Scholarship (2022), the Kiauw Lim Memorial Award (2023), and the Rosemary Merlo Prize (2022).

Victoria previously interned at the University of Melbourne's Indonesia Forum, while also accepted to the ACICIS Journalism Professional Practicum 2025 cohort to undertake a journalism placement in Jakarta.

Victoria is also active in the creative arts, where she was the recipient of the La Mama Award for an Emerging Artist in 2022 through her debut play, Dear Sun, Love Joy, and later wrote and starred in MAY 1998. Victoria’s creative writing and non-fiction pieces have been published in Inside Indonesia, Cordite Poetry Review, Voiceworks, and Farrago Magazine.

More about Victoria.

PRESIDENT 2015-2022

Lecturer in Southeast Asian Politics
Asia Research Centre Fellow

School of Business and Governance
Murdoch University

VICE PRESIDENT 2015-2022

Lecturer in Asian Studies and Indonesian Language

School of the Humanities
University of Tasmania

PRESIDENT 2010-2015

Senior Lecturer in Faculty of Law

Associate at the Centre for Law, Islam and Society
Monash University

PRESIDENT 2005-2010

Professor of Southeast Asian Studies

The University of Sydney

PRESIDENT 2002-2005

Professor of Asian History

The Australian National University

FOUNDING PRESIDENT 2000-2002

Adjunct Appointment, Monash Intercultural Lab.

Monash University