Recording of "Coronavirus Multispecies Reading Group - 'Chasing Targets in a Pandemic' (Global Public Health)"

I was delighted to be invited - with two of my co-authors Amalia Puri Handayani and Sandeep Nanwani - to speak at the Coronavirus Multispecies Reading Group on our article in Global Public Health - “Chasing Targets in a Pandemic“ about our research about the experiences of HIV outreach workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, hosted by Rachel Vaughn and Eben Kirskey.

Access the details of the group (including a Dropbox link and link to the Zoom meeting) here: https://adi.deakin.edu.au/coronavirus-multispecies-reading-group

A link to the Open Acess article, authored by Benjamin Hegarty, Amalia Handayani, Sandeep Nanwani, and Ignatius Pratporaharjo is here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17441692.2021.1980599

Roundtable at AAS 2021 - Theory as reproduction 2: reflections on the history and the contemporary practices of doing feminist anthropology in Australia.

Building on the history of feminist anthropology roundtable in 2019, this roundtable invites emerging feminist anthropologists to join the conversation with established scholars to reflect on the history and contemporary practices of doing feminist anthropology in Australia.

In the 2019 roundtable, “Theory as Reproduction,” five established feminist anthropologists reflected on their own experiences during fieldwork and in the university. Informed by feminist perspectives, the panel served as an opportunity – in a format that combined oral history – to take stock of the gender relations that animate the reproduction of anthropological knowledge. Looking “through the maternal line,” the work of remembering what anthropology has been honed our attention on the inequalities that are sustained through knowledge practices in the present. Despite many changes, tracking the history and future of a feminist tradition in Australian anthropology remains a vital mode of interrogating the exclusions that our knowledge practices entail.

Two years on, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have further transformed the university as a site for contestations over gender and power. As feminist scholars have observed, the pandemic exacerbated gendered patterns of inclusion and exclusion in the production of knowledge. How might anthropological knowledge, starting with a focus on knowledge practices within anthropology, establish critical vocabularies with which to address the present moment? Building on the 2019 roundtable and The Familiar Strange two-part podcast based on it, this roundtable invites emerging feminist anthropologists to join the conversation with established scholars to continue the discussion on the work of producing theory and the labour involved in its reproduction through the maternal line.

https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/aas2021/p/10802

Panel at American Anthropological Assocation: Bureaucratic Images, Visualizing Citizenship

Session Date and Time:

11/19/2021

4:15 PM-6:00 PM

Session Title: Bureaucratic Images, Visualizing Citizenship

Session Type: Virtual Presentation

Session Abstract

In lay and academic discourse, bureaucracy almost seems coterminous with the production and circulation of paper, writing, and type. Indeed, the flows of bureaucratic paperwork and documentation weigh heavy, but how are other media and material forms implicated in bureaucratic relationships and encounters? This panel considers the photographic portrait as an enduring bureaucratic technology across different histories and geographies. How are people’s likenesses key for modes of social recognition, and in particular, claims of citizenship? Bureaucracy and its demands for identification importantly shaped photography and mobility by demanding certain kinds of images such as passport photos. Papers in the panel focus on the political work of photographic portraits in the context of migration, borders and belonging. In examining how photographic portraits are tied to statist forms of recognition and modes of claiming citizenship, the panel seeks to advance an understanding of the shifting aesthetics and modes of production and circulation of bureaucratic picture-making cultures as tied to possibilities for cross-border mobility. In attending to bureaucratic picture-making cultures from glass plates policing the emigration of Armenian families in the Ottoman Empire to the circulation of digital memes of Pakistani Hindu girls as part of refugee-migrant claims to Indian citizenship, we contend with the visual captures and affective resonances of bureaucracy that exceed its written expressions.

Participants:

Zeynep Gursel, Organizer;Chair;Paper Presenter

Romm Lewkowicz, Paper Presenter

Benjamin Hegarty, Paper Presenter

Karen Strassler, Paper Discussant

Ethiraj Dattatreyan, Paper Presenter

Natasha Raheja, Organizer;Paper Presenter

Reviewed by: Society for Visual Anthropology

Keynote at Spring Encounters - Queer, feminist, and other critical theories: new lenses for urban spaces

I am delighted to be giving a keynote presentation at the 19th October Spring Encounters conference - on “Queer, feminist, and other critical theories: new lenses for urban spaces.”

Further details are available below. Thank you to APR for the kind invitation!

“Run by Alliance for Praxis Research (APR), one of our intentions is to nurture transdisciplinary collaborations across faculties, research programs and labs, as academics are often confronted with the challenges to break through disciplinary and institutional silos. That is significant for students and early careers, particularly when coming from overseas, who are not familiar with universities’ organisation of research centres and local networks of scholars - especially in Melbourne, where several leading universities are located but improvements on their interconnections are still much needed.

As a way to encourage more vibrant exchanges and collaborative knowledge production between fellows with related research interests, The Alliance (or APR) is organising and promoting the 2021 Spring Encounters, a space for HDRs and ECRs to network through a series of presentations led by a panel where HDRs can present and discuss their research with a broader audience. It is an HDR-led event for HDR candidates, hosted by Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) and facilitated by Monash Graduate Association (MGA).”

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/2021-spring-encounters-tickets-163318246271

Bahasa Indonesia - Indonesian Essay [Penjangkauan LSL dalam Program HIV selama Pandemi COVID-19: Kerja Esensial]

By Amalia Puri Handayani, Ignatius Praptoraharjo , Sandeep Nanwani, Benjamin Hegarty

Setahun lalu (2020), kami melakukan studi dengan melihat pengalaman salah satu organisasi penjangkauan HIV berbasis komunitas selama awal pandemi COVID-19. Kami menemukan, ketika pandemi, penjangkau diposisikan secara ambigu antara sebagai “pekerja kesehataan” dan “pekerja berbasis komunitas”. Donor internasional lebih menekankan solusi teknis dan farmasi (seperti tes mandiri (self-testing), pengantaran obat, platform daring, dukungan kesehatan mental). Inovasi ditujukan bagi dampingan alih-alih mempertimbangkan kenyataan kerja penjangkau sebagai bagian dari pekerja kesehatan. Peran mereka menjadi lebih luas dalam kesehatan masyarakat selama pandemic. Pada saat yang sama, lembaga donor harus mengikuti kebijakan pemerintah untuk mengurangi kunjungan ke layanan kesehatan ketika pandemi, terlihat dari kebijakan mengurangi biaya transportasi bagi petugas penjangkau. Dengan keterbatasan dukungan finansial dan tanpa perubahan praktik kerja yang substansial, penjangkau sebagai petugas lapangan tidak tinggal diam, apalagi ketika melihat komunitas membutuhkan pertolongan dalam mengakses layanan HIV. Alhasil, penjangkau masuk dalam garda depan yang menghadapi risiko tinggi terpapar COVID-19.

https://pph.atmajaya.ac.id/berita/artikel/penjangkauan-lsl-dalam-program-hiv-selama-pandemi-covid-19-kerja-esensial/

Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Conference Plenary Session

I am an invited plenary speaker in the ‘Trans Lives in the Pandemic Age’ session at the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Conference held virtually at the National University of Singapore, 28-30 July 2021.

http://culturalstudies.asia/iacs-conference/main-iacss-conference-2021/

PPH Atma Jaya University Seminar Series - The Cascade of Care as a Data Model

This paper sets up the context in which the Cascade of Care is applied to HIV prevention in the Indonesian context. The Cascade of Care, hence forth referred to as the cascade, is a component of the broader Continuum of Care which is focused on the process from being at risk of HIV through to HIV prevention.  

This paper first outlines the cascade as a data model, which is a core component of providing policy makers and funders a high level picture of progress towards HIV prevention. The paper considers the implications of the 90/90/90 approach to HIV prevention - “90% of all persons living with HIV (PLHIV) are aware of their HIV status, 90% of all people who know their status are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), and 90% of those on ART are virally suppressed”. 

The paper then considers two main components required to supply data to the cascade. First, monitoring and evaluation which emphasises that data should be used to drive decisions is examined. Second, surveillance and survey is considered which are the tools by which this data is collected. Throughout the paper, consideration is given to the purpose of the cascade and how the cascade shapes conceptualisation of these key terms. This paper provides a critique of how the cascade provides the appearance of a standard of HIV treatment and the broader implications of this. 

Presentation at AusSTS Workshop in Melbourne - "The Cascade of Care"

With colleagues from the University of Melbourne, Priyanka Pillai and Kristal Spreadborough, I’ll be presenting at the AusSTS workshop in Melbourne held on 24 and 25 June. Details of the workshop are available here: https://scienceandsocietynetwork.deakin.edu.au/call-for-applications-aussts-2021-situated-practice-a-multi-sited-workshop/

The paper is based on some recent work that I’ve been doing as part of an interdisciplinary team about HIV data and its uses in global health, looking at one manifestation - the “cascade of care” (a.k.a. and sometimes overlapping with what is called the continuum of care). I am hoping the workshop can offer an opportunity some emergent themes on governmentality through data in global health regimes, building on my completed book manuscript on the globalisation of concepts for gender and sexual diversity in Indonesia.

The title and abstract is below - if you are in Melbourne, I hope to see you at this fantastic workshop!

Title: Seeing like a cascade - global HIV data and public health governance in Indonesia 

Keywords:  data, public health, HIV, cascade, Indonesia

Abstract: The “cascade of care” is a widely used tool in measuring national and international progress towards HIV testing and treatment goals. Since 2014, these goals have been to achieve 90% of HIV+ people know their status, 90% of people who know their status on treatment, and 90% of people on treatment are virally suppressed. Thus, these targets serve as a catalyst to rapidly and as widely as possible roll out anti-retroviral treatment with the ultimate aim being to end AIDS in the near future. The “cascade” individualises “treatment” and “prevention,” and simplifies the complexities of accessing life-long treatment into a biomedical and pharmaceutical model. Yet a less widely acknowledged aspect of the “cascade” in international HIV programs is the fact that it is accompanied by and indeed necessitates the expansion of systems of collecting, storing and analysing data. We argue that the cascade is not only a method concerned with clinical treatment but has led to the prioritisation of data-driven models which draw “surveillance” (data about the state of the epidemic) together with “monitoring and evaluation” (data about programs). Focusing on SIHA, the Indonesian Ministry of Health Information System for HIV/AIDS developed in 2012, this paper analyses various visualisations of the “cascade” and the data infrastructures that underpin it. We use these visualisations to understand both flows of data in and between actors and the categories that they use in the process. In contextualising how national Indonesian data infrastructures “see like a cascade” we seek to clarify what public health governance does and for whom. 

Authors:

Benjamin Hegarty is an interdisciplinary gender and sexuality studies scholar and McKenzie Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

Priyanka Pillai has a background in bioinformatics and computer science and works as an academic specialist at the University of Melbourne. 

Kristal Spreadborough is a Research Data Specialist at the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform. Kristal’s research interests cut across the fields of data, digital and data ethics, music, psychology and semiotics.

Cultural Studies Association Conference Panel

I am presenting at the Cultural Studies Association (USA) on Saturday 12:00-1:00pm CST, 12 June 2021.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18HEW_27VDtM16T-CtSQkqi6ZSH8nTQ_nRAT15qp1G8c/edit#

The Force of Images: Digital Media, Bodies, and Data in Southeast Asia

Chair: Benjamin Hegarty, The University of Melbourne

Respondent: Tom Boellstorff, University of California Irvine

Indonesian Youth Protesting for/with Social Media

Annisa Beta, The University of Melbourne

Violent Visibilities: Campus Sexual Misconduct Facilitated by Technology in Singapore

Michelle H. S. Ho, National University of Singapore

The Biosocial Body: Data and Visibility Among MSM in Indonesian HIV Programs

Benjamin Hegarty, The University of Melbourne

This panel considers the force of images in shaping the meanings attached to bodies and embodiment in contemporary Southeast Asia. Throughout the region, political upheaval, contestation and technological developments related to the digital are producing new relationships between bodies and the meanings attached to their representation. In this environment, moral harms are transformed into physiological risk in new ways, resulting in emergent forms of exclusion and claims for inclusion. This is transforming both the possibilities and the modes through which claims to autonomy and representation unfold. In an era of new appropriation and force of images what kinds of political mobilisation are possible? What “boundary objects” act as an interface between them? What new models for critical engagement with “data” as and with visual culture can we consider? And how do these operate in and between Asian contexts with specific political cultures rooted in visual culture and appearances, frequently tied to the body and its appearances?

This panel addresses these questions across two intersecting domains through which to consider the force of images: “social media” and “data.” Investigating the way that images are generating new forms of political investment and engagement tied to the body, each paper offers insights into emergent political investments in Southeast Asia. Michelle Ho’s paper addresses the generative role that “violent visibilities” — encompassing data gathering and their life in social media — have had in creating new possibilities for mobilizing against sexual harassment on Singaporean campuses. Annisa Beta’s paper reflects on the “jocular” use of images on social media by young people — in the form of memes and photographs — as an influential political vocabulary in Indonesia’s fraught postauthoritarian political landscape. Benjamin Hegarty considers the way that data-driven cultures of transparency in global programs for HIV targeting “men wo have sex with men” intersect with extant cultural meanings tied to the body, requiring new forms of discipline.

In each case, digital media and data do not live “outside” of culture or of the realm of the body, but emerges from and through it. By drawing on data that illustrates examples of the “force of images” against broader patterns of social and political change in Southeast Asia, this panel will offer insights into the intersections between digital media, data and the body. Remaining attuned to the cultural meanings of images not as a representation but a force in the world refuses a teleological view of cultures of data and the digital, instead opening new horizons for political mobilization and critique.

Evans Fellow at the University of Cambridge (2021/22)

I was elected as Evans Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cambridge for the period of 2021/2022. The Fellowship is funded to anthropologists working in Southeast Asia, and includes a stipend for fieldwork and travel to the University of Cambridge.

The project forms part of ongoing research about the influence of sexual morality on HIV data collection in Indonesia which focuses on the category “MSM” (men who have sex with men). The urgency of this topic lies in recent moves by the Indonesian state to enforce marital heterosexuality and a concurrent push to collect more data about HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). The research contributes to medical anthropology and science and technology studies in focusing its attention to the “infrastructures” through which categories are sustained and made as much as to the subjective life worlds of individuals.

https://www.socanth.cam.ac.uk/about-us/funding/research-funding/evans-fund

Conversations in Transgender Studies

I convened a series - Conversations in Transgender Studies - held for four weeks (virtually) at the University of Melbourne between 23 April and 14 May 2021.

https://events.unimelb.edu.au/social-and-political-sciences/event/10297-conversations-in-transgender-studies-work

‘Conversations in Transgender Studies’ is a mini-series of panels held online hosted and supported by the Faculty of Arts Gender Studies Program and the School of Social and Political Sciences. Held across four weeks, the series places academic, community and practitioner voices in dialogue as a way to consider some cross-cutting issues within transgender studies now. Across four weeks the series will address a series of topics and their intersections – work, the law, sport, health – as an opportunity to highlight how social scientific inquiry responds to and engages with voices from the community. The panel series takes advantage of an online format to bring together people in conversation from both around Australia and globally. The series is one part in an ongoing conversation, which will be followed by panels on a range of other critical topics in future. 

Book Launch Discussant for Mosques and Imams: Everyday Islam in Eastern Indonesia

I was in conversation with Kathryn Robinson about the edited book, Mosques and Imams: Everyday Islam in Eastern Indonesia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I34kuCchAN8

Islam is at home in many of the areas of eastern Indonesia, with the early 15th-century Masjid Tua Wapauwe in Northern Maluku arguably the oldest mosque in Indonesia. The studies collected in this volume present a rich introduction to the myriad ways of being Muslim across this diverse archipelago, from Sulawesi to Maluku and Nusa Tenggara Timur, as seen through the role of imams and the institution of the local mosque. The volume is not only unique in its geographic coverage, but also in the way it takes as an organising principle the individuals and institutions that embody Islam in local communities. The book  complements and contributes to broader discussions of contemporary issues in Islam and other contemporary religions, including migration, proselytisation, networks, and changing models of religious authority. 


The new ethnographic work presented in each essay here, framed in relation to intersecting themes of religious authority and institutions, will certainly make a substantial contribution to the anthropology of Islam and Muslim societies with considerable resonance beyond the geographic region of its primary focus. It presents an important contribution to the fields of Southeast Asian Studies, Islamic Studies, and the Anthropology of Religion.

Talking Indonesia: transgender women and public space

I spoke with Annisa Beta (The University of Melbourne) about my book, the Made Up State (under review, Cornell University Press), and why the governance of public space in Indonesian cities is so important when thinking about transgender rights.

https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/talking-indonesia-transgender-women-and-public-space/

Twenty-five years of HIV/AIDS responses in Indonesia

I presented at the ANU Indonesia Study Group at the Australian National University on the history of HIV in Indonesia on 21 April 2021.

Twenty-five years of HIV/AIDS responses in Indonesia

This project draws on material from a National Library of Australia Asia Study Grant-funded project on community memory and epidemiological histories of HIV. It addresses the period from the first official health responses to early cases identified in the 1990s to the present day, when an estimated 640,000 people are living with HIV. It draws on Indonesian-language policy documents, activist accounts, medical surveys, media sources and development archives into conversation with ongoing research on community memories of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia. In particular, I elaborate the political entanglement between HIV/AIDS and political organising among some of the gender and sexual minorities most affected by the epidemic. I argue that the history of HIV/AIDS offers an important lens on broader processes of a discourse of transparency that permeates the era of democratic reform since 1998. In particular, it helps to track the emergence of discourses of morality and their transformation into surveillance from the end of the New Order. Perhaps more importantly, the history of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia – as is the case in other parts of the world – highlights impressive forms of community/government/expert engagement mobilised at the intersection of a concern for public health and human rights.

https://crawford.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/18721/twenty-five-years-hivaids-responses-indonesia

The State-Issued ‘Identity Card’ as Visual Medium

I spoke about ‘The State-Issued ‘Identity Card’ as Visual Medium’ at the 2021 Australian National University Anthropology Seminar Series on 19 April 2021.

https://archanth.cass.anu.edu.au/events/series/anthropology-seminar-series-0

In the political environment that followed the authoritarian New Order in Indonesia (approx. ’65-‘98), various minority groups assert that access to bureaucratic forms of citizenship can provide protection from harm. During fieldwork in 2014-15 with transgender women in the cities of Yogyakarta and Jakarta, I found that the Indonesian state-issued identity card (known as the “KTP”) was a surprisingly charged medium for engaging the terms of recognition offered by the state. This paper considers how engagement with the KTP as a semiotic object extends theoretical consideration of the meanings of “bureaucratic documentation” as tied to written forms of communication.

Awarded National Libary of Australia Asia Study Grant

I was awarded a 2021 National Libary of Australia Asia Study grant recipient for a project on Twenty-five years of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia: epidemiological histories and community memories. The project draws on the NLA’s significant Indonesian-language holdings, including policy documents, activist accounts, medical surveys, media sources and archival sources into conversation with an ongoing research project on community memories of HIV/AIDS in Indonesia.

I presented preliminary research that resulted from the fellowship while I was in Canberra at the Australian National University Indonesia Study Group.

https://www.nla.gov.au/asia/grant-recipients/2018-2021

Theory as reproduction: Reflections on the history of doing feminist anthropology in Australia

I co-convened a roundtable with Shiori Shakuto and Carly Schuster on the history of doing feminist anthropology in Australia. It was recorded at the 2019 Australian Anthropological Society Conference in Canberra.

https://thefamiliarstrange.com/2020/12/28/theory-as-reproduction-aas-2019

In this very special collaboration, TFS would like to present a two part roundtable we recorded at 2019’s AAS conference! It’s a shame that we haven’t been able to gather again and talk all things anthropology this year, but we hope that this might be enough to whet your appetite for more things to come in 2021! A big thank you to Dr Benjamin Hegatry, Dr Carly Schuster and Dr Shiori Shakuto for their hard work in putting together this roundtable discussion. We hope you enjoy! 

Roundtable Participants

Christine Helliwell, Emeritus Professor, The Australian National University
Margaret Jolly, Professor of Anthropology, The Australian National University
Martha MacIntyre,Honorary Associate Professor, The University of Melbourne
Francesca Merlan, Professor of Anthropology, The Australian National University
Kalpana Ram, Professor of Anthropology, Macquarie University
Kathryn Robinson, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, The Australian National University

Roundtable Convenors

Benjamin Hegarty, McKenzie Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Caroline Schuster, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, The Australian National University
Shiori Shakuto, Assistant Professor, The University of Tokyo – Tokyo College

Links and Citations 
Reay, Marie. ‘An Innocent in the Garden of Eden’. In Ethnographic Presents: Pioneering Anthropologists in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, edited by Terence E. Hays. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
<https://www.amazon.com/Ethnographic-Presents-Pioneering-Anthropologists-Anthropology/dp/0520077458>

Postgraduate Workshops at the Asian Studies Association of Australia

I presented on two panels for postgraduates on academic publishing for the Asian Studies Association of Australia.

Panel 1
From PhD to Book. Recent experiences in the publishing industry
Tuesday 24 November 2020, 3:00pm-4:30pm (AEST)
Watch a recording of the webinar. Password: zfG7FHRY!=3y

Not all publishing houses are built equally for Asian research. Where should the newly-minted PhD graduate publish their dissertations? How do we write a compelling book publishing proposal? What are the qualities publishers expect to see in the works of would-be-authors in Asian studies? We pose these questions to scholars working in academic book publishing and with personal publishing experience about adapting your PhD thesis into a book and presenting your work to publishing houses.

Moderator: Ms. Carman K. M. Fung (ASAA2020 Postgraduate Representative, PhD candidate in Screen and Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne)
Speakers:
Dr. Nathan Hollier (CEO, Melbourne University Publishing)
Dr. Kevin Carrico (Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies, Monash University)
Dr. Sophie Chao (Postdoctoral Research Associate at the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of Sydney)
Dr. Benjamin Hegarty (Mckenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne)

Panel 2
Photographs and image rights in the publishing world
Wednesday 25 November 2020, 3:00pm-4:30pm (AEST)
Watch a recording of the webinar. Password: qM8A*QzlBklU

Can you use images that you take from an archive? How about an informant who wishes to remain anonymous? What are the ethics of printing photographs from a politically unstable area? Does it matter if the images or photographs in question are produced or taken by the researcher? And when is it appropriate to request for your readers to locate the images on their own? This panel will provide tips from scholars from both visual and non-visual disciplines on how to prepare the images we collect, photograph and personally archive for possible publishing in the future.

Moderator: Ms. Chloe Ho (ASAA2020 Postgraduate Representative, PhD candidate in Screen and Cultural Studies, University of Melbourne)
Speakers:
Dr Claire Roberts (Associate Professor of Art History and ARC Future Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne)
Dr Susie Protschky (Senior Lecturer in History, Monash University)
Dr Benjamin Hegarty (Mckenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne)
Mr Wil Villareal (Liaison Librarian, University of Melbourne)

The Bubble: Pandemic Metaphors

I spoke as part of the Metaphors seminar series, held by the Institute for Postcolonial Studies and the Center for Law, Arts and Humanities at the Australian National University.

A recording is available here: https://ipcs.org.au/recording/pandemic-metaphors/

The mask and the face it covers

During the pandemic, 'the mask' became an accessory (for DIY types), a necessity (for healthcare workers), a hard fought commodity (for well-off countries), and in some parts of the world (the US), the decision to wear it or not, a political statement. Yet the focus on debates as to whether the mask is in fact effective or not in slowing pandemics such as those now upon us miss a vital question. What are the broader meanings of the 'mask'? How does the act of 'masking' reflect or present possibilities for collective action? This presentation considers these questions of the mask as metaphor and as political concept via anthropological engagement with the meanings of ‘the mask’ and related concept of the 'face.' I do so by drawing on fieldwork in Indonesia (2008 to present), a context where, in the words of Benedict Anderson, the face itself might be considered a 'built in mask.' The paper thus investigates the meaning of the face/mask during the pandemic ethnographically. I first define the ethnographic concept of 'dandan' ­— especially as used by Indonesian trans- women — a category for 'making up' through the repeated, daily effort to improve the appearance of the body through application of feminine makeup and clothing. I draw on these sources to consider how we might imagine masks less as signifier of citizenship premised on individual responsibility in the name of life as an absolute value, and more as a means of collective envisioning. Against a backdrop of securitization and intensification of punitive state surveillance, reconsidering the mask anthropologically might help to transform it into a more hopeful metaphor.

Gender, Sexuality, Health: Contemporary Dynamics in Indonesia

This workshop will outline the latest broad insights into the changing dynamics of gender and sexuality, with an emphasis on health, in contemporary Indonesia. The workshop aims to foster a network of researchers interested in gender and sexuality in Indonesia, with a particular focus on collaborative efforts with Indonesian researchers.

Keynote speakers:

• Dr Ignatius Praptoraharjo, Atma Jaya University, Jakarta

• Dr Sandeep Nanwani, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Indonesia

The two keynote speakers will present papers on the contemporary context for undertaking research about sexual and reproductive health in Indonesia.

Eight invited speakers will present short, update-style papers (10 minutes) which aim to generate new insights into the current role of gender and sexuality as it plays out against broader transformations underway in Indonesia. 

Registrations to the day’s presentations is open to all; but especially to PhD students, postgraduates, Indonesian students and community members, and members of the academic community here in Melbourne.

Although morning tea (tea, coffee and snacks) will be provided, unfortunately lunch is not. A wide range of food options are available for purchase within walking distance of the venue.

Confirmed workshop schedule:

1015am-1030am

Benjamin Hegarty, University of Melbourne

Welcome and morning tea (provided)

Keynote speakers

1030am-1050am

Ignatius Praptoraharjo
Atma Jaya University (Jakarta), Centre for HIV Research

Sex and drugs among MSM (men who have sex with men in Indonesia)

1050am-1110am

Sandeep Nanwani
UNFPA (Jakarta)

Speaking HIV: how expert discourses shape everyday silences

1110am-1130pm

Moderator

Discussion

Media and the law

1130am-1140am

Setiyani Marta Dewi
University of Melbourne, Nossal Institute for Global Health

Understanding the opportunities and challenges of the HPV vaccination for school-based adolescent girls in Java, Indonesia

1140am-1150pm

Catherine Smith
Macquarie University, Anthropology

On trust, social capital and the labour of Indonesian midwives

1150pm-1200pm

Ariane Utomo, UoM, School of Geography/Evi Eliyanih, Universitas Negeri Malang

On Halal Love

1200am-1215pm

Moderator

Discussion

1215pm-115pm

Lunch break (self-catered)

Gender and intimacy

115pm-125pm

Monika Winarnita, Deakin University/Gavin Heights, La Trobe University

Talking outside the mainstream: Independent feminist journalism and the discourse on women’s sexual health

125pm-135pm

Ken Setiawan
University of Melbourne, Asia Institute

A State of Surveillance? Freedom of Expression under the Jokowi Presidency

135pm-145pm

Helen Pausacker
University of Melbourne, Melbourne Law School

Regulation of LGBT People by the Law in Indonesia

145pm-200pm

Moderator

Discussion

200pm-230pm

Moderator

Closing remarks

The workshop, and Dr Sandeep Nanwani’s visit, is generously funded by IDeHaRI (The Indonesian Democracy and Human Rights Hallmark Initiative) at the Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne.

Dr Ignatius Praptoraharjo's visit is generously funded by the University of Melbourne Faculty of Arts Indonesia Initiative.