Events

CHAIRPERSON

Assoc Prof Michael Feener, Asia Research Institute and Department of History, National University of Singapore.

ABSTRACT

In this talk I discuss how the humanitarian rehabilitation and reconstruction investments following the tsunami and the post-conflict reintegration programs after the Helsinki peace agreement have produced a diverse array of new “humanitarian subjects” in Aceh. I begin with a review of two contrasting short essays written by young Acehnese intellectuals that were published during the urgent early years of humanitarian intervention in Aceh. The writers take us back to the utter catastrophe of tsunami but do not neglect to acknowledge how Aceh’s history of separatist conflict has had an impact on recovery efforts. Their narratives set up representative endpoints in a range of outcomes produced by Acehnese civil society’s encounter with humanitarianism. At one end of the spectrum we have individuals that some in the humanitarian industry—and in local parlance—have labeled “champions.” At the other end of the spectrum we have civil society activists committed to efforts that expose and disrupt hierarchy. Based upon a series of ethnographic interviews conducted in 2012, I fill in this broad spectrum of outcomes with the life histories and recollections of a group of informants who have been active participants in Aceh’s civil society during and after the so-called “NGO era.” After decades of isolation due to Aceh’s conflict, I consider the extent to which Acehnese civil society’s revival during the humanitarian years also enabled a larger social reintegration with the Indonesian nation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jesse Hession Grayman recently completed his PhD in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The title of his dissertation is “Humanitarian Encounters in Post-Conflict Aceh, Indonesia” based on five years of fieldwork in Aceh working with four different international humanitarian and development organizations involved in post-conflict recovery. Prior to his PhD, Jesse also received a Master of Arts in Southeast Asian Studies and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. .

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Mr Jonathan Lee via email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg