Dr Ariel Heryanto
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Indonesian Studies Room 206 Tel: + 61 3 8344 0153 |
Background
Ariel Heryanto is the author of State Terrorism And Political Identity In Indonesia: Fatally Belonging (Routledge, 2006), co-editor of Popular Culture in Indonesia; Fluid Identities in Post-Authoritarian Politics (Routledge, 2008), and Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia; comparing Indonesia and Malaysia (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). He is currently a member of the Human Ethic Research Sub-Committee, The University of Melbourne. Before joining the University of Melbourne he taught in Indonesia and Singapore. His first two university degrees are in Education. He received his Master of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, USA in Asian Studies, and his Doctorate of Philosophy from Monash University, Australia in Anthropology. While in Indonesia, his country of birth, he was active in literary and theatrical production. He has been writing opinion columns (now over 600 in total) for major newspapers and magazines in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.
Research Interests
Ariel's main interest has revolved around issues of cultural signifying practices, especially the everyday politics of identity and representation. He is interested in the study of semantic history (key words), discourse analysis, media, popular culture, ethnicity, nationality, hybridity, and diasporas. Scholarly comments by others on his earlier work on languages in human history can be found in “Thoughts On Reading Heryanto”. Although Indonesia is the country he knows best, he is keen on comparative studies especially among the neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. As evident in his previous works, his favourite thinkers include (alphabetically) Mikhail Bakhtin, Jean Baudrillard, Pierre Bourdieu, Antonio Gramsci, Ivan Illich, Joel Kahn, YB Mangunwijaya, Achile Mbembe, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Putu Wijaya, and Raymond Williams.
Research in Progress
Pop Cultures in Indonesia: a New Asian Politics of Pleasures and Identity