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Lecture | Global Histories of Knowledge Seminar

When science meets practice: knowledge production and the Indonesian leftist scientists in times of decolonization

Date
Friday 13 December 2024
Time
Serie
Global Histories of Knowledge 2024 - 2025
Address
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden
Room
2.60

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an examination on the role of science in Indonesian social movement in the period of decolonization (1945-1960s). Taking the case study of Indonesian Peasants’ Front (Barisan Tani Indonesia-BTI), I follow the history of BTI’s amateur scientists - those who did not have any professional titles but were solving agrarian problems in the field through their innovations. By examining these scientists’ profiles, innovations, and relation to political power, I conclude that agricultural science became part of Indonesia’s peasants’ movement in its early independence period, pushing the claim that knowledge production should also be in the hands of peasants.

Speaker

Grace Leksana is an assistant professor in History & Art History Department, Utrecht University. She is the author of Memory culture of the anti Leftist violence in Indonesia: Embedded Remembering (2023).

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