Since its inception, Monash University has placed a priority on maintaining strong ties with Indonesia and we have a strong history of engagement.
Starting with the earliest Colombo plan scholars in the 1960’s, more recently being an inaugural partner in the Australia Indonesia Centre, and via the establishment of the Monash Indonesia Representative Office.
Building on these links, we have established the Monash Herb Feith Indonesian Engagement Centre.
The Centre is named to honour our proud connection to Herb Feith. Arriving in Australia as a refugee in 1939 and at Monash from 1968 through to his retirement in 1990, Herb was known both as an outstanding scholar and an engaged activist.
His early years volunteering as an Indonesian civil servant lead to the establishment of the Australian Volunteers International. He led international research on Indonesian politics for several decades, and during his time at Monash was one of the founders of the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies.
He was also known, in Australia and overseas, as a compassionate and intensely moral person who felt himself compelled to speak and act against abuses and injustice.
Throughout his life he was always ready to devote himself to important causes involving ideas of democracy and human rights.
The new Centre recognising the amazing legacy of the Herb Feith Foundation and the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, and continues the University’s and the Faculty’s commitment to engaging with Indonesia.
The Monash Herb Feith Indonesian Engagement Centre will be a dynamic and contemporary platform for Monash researchers engaging with Indonesia.
It will deliver a vibrant schools outreach program, will support the learning of Bahasa Indonesia, will foster university partnerships and will engage with our growing cohort of Indonesia alumni.
The Centre will be headed up by Prof Ariel Heryanto, Herb Feith Professor for the Study of Indonesia.
