40th Anniversary of Southeast Asian Program

Celebrating the 40th year of Southeast Asian Studies Program Anniversary, Ohio University’s held unique 40-year history in Southeast Asia focus on “40 Years of Engagement with Southeast Asia” conference. The conference celebrated Ohio University’s national prominence in the field of Southeast Asian Studies and recognize contributors to the program’s growth and success.

Laurie Sears, Professor of History and Director of the Southeast Asia Center at the University of Washington, gave the keynote address - “Twenty-first Century Area Studies: Between Cosmopolitanism and Diaspora” - on Friday, March 7 at 3:00pm in Walter Hall 145.

A dinner for conference guests followed in the Ping Center Lounge, hosted by the Southeast Asian Studies Association (SEASA), with special guests President Emeriti Dr. Charles Ping and Dr. Vernon Alden.

Roundtable discussions was the format of the conference sessions on Saturday, March 8 which inviting SEA alumni to present their experience after graduation. (source: http://www.internationalstudies.ohio.edu)

Here is panelist profiles:

the 40 Years of Engagement with Southeast Asia

LIFE AFTER SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES

9:30-11:00 – Multicultural Center Multipurpose Room

Alumni Panelist Profiles

Meta Astuti meta_mks@yahoo.com – Class of 2003
Meta is now a lecturer in the Hasanuddin University (UNHAS) Japanese Studies Program and head of the Japanese Culture Research Center. She teaches Japanese language including writing, grammar and etc… and also teaching cross cultural studies such in Japanese studies, Japan-Indonesia relations and Japanese sociology. On occasion, she has also taught East Asian History and Southeast Asian History for the UNHAS History Department. Meta has a keen interest in Japanese language teaching methods and has presented a paper at the Southeast Asian Summit on the Japanese Language Education in Bandung in 2006 and at the International Seminar for Japanese Education in 2007. Her first book Apakah Mereka Mata-Mata: Orang Jepang di Indonesia 1868-1942 (Are they Spies? Japanese in Indonesia 1868-1942) was recently published by Ombak Publisher in January 2008. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13624&id=541248049 She has also published participatory maps - Green map of Buton Castle and Trail map of Buton Castle - in 2004 in collaboration with The Japan Foundation in Jakarta and the Royal Netherlands Embassy. She is currently actively involved in ASPBJI (Association of Japanese Teacher in Indonesia) as head of South Sulawesi chapter, PPIJ (Japan-Indonesia Friendship Association) as Secretary of South Sulawesi chapter, PERSADA (Japanese Alumni Association) as an active committee member, and BPPI (Indonesian Heritage Society) as a council member.

Michael Byron BYRON@Juniata.Edu – Class of 1987
Michael is Associate Professor of Education in the Education Department at Juniata College in Huntingdon, PA. He teaches a Social Studies methodology course for elementary education majors and supervises elementary and early childhood student teachers. He is the Certification Officer for the Education Department and also serves as the Title II Program Representative.

Heather Slough Catton hcatton@sfasu.edu – Class of 1996
Currently, Heather is the Assistant Director of Research and Sponsored Programs at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. This is the 'grants office' where faculty and staff come for help in writing proposals and managing their externally funded projects - research, etc. She has been in this position for six years. Prior to her current position, she worked for an international public health NGO in Washington, DC (PSI) where she was the new business development manager (proposal/grant writing) and an associate program manager for West and Central Africa programs (she also has a degree in French).

Amelia Hapsari cahapsari@yahoo.com – Class of 2005 (Telecommunications)
After graduating from OU, Amelia took some time to do a freelance job with the International Organization for Migration, which was training the Indonesian National Police about Human Rights and Community Policing. She worked with them for about 3 months as a course reporter. Her task was to record the dynamics of the training, create a report, and make necessary suggestions to improve the training. Since then, she has been working for China Radio International for 2 and 1/2 years. Her task is to polish Indonesian language news and to create radio features about China and Indonesian-China relations that are suitable for an Indonesian audience. The experience in China has been very interesting because it is a state-media apparatus of Chinese government.

John Morgan johnintorrance@webtv.net – Class of 1977
John is currently a high school social science teacher in California. He has been happily married for 32 years. He and his wife have an apartment in Papar in the Malaysian state of Sabah and travel back and forth to Malaysia often. He speaks Malay and is currently learning Kadazan, a language spoken in North Borneo.

Nurhaya Muchtar ayamuchtar@yahoo.com – Class of 2005 (Communication and Development Studies)
Nurhaya is currently a second year doctoral student of Communication and Information in the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. My concentration is Journalism and Electronic Media. Following her graduation from the Communication and Development Studies program in 1995, she worked for Voice of America in Washington DC prior to pursuing doctoral studies.

Karla Schneider schneidk@ohio.edu – Class of 2002
While in the Southeast Asian Studies graduate program, Karla was a political office intern at the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and conducted field research with Aliran, a human rights NGO based in Penang, Malaysia. She wrote her thesis on the intersection of politics and government with human rights work in Malaysia, specifically focusing on how the creation of SUHAKAM impacted the ability of human rights NGOs to enact change. Karla has worked in the Center for International Studies at Ohio University since graduating in 2002. She was Assistant Director of Southeast Asian Studies from 2002 until spring 2007. As Assistant Director of the program, Karla was responsible for grant management and reporting, organizing conferences and lecture series, representing the program at Title VI and other US Department of Education meetings, and providing general assistance to the program’s students and faculty. Karla is now Assistant Director of the Center for International Studies which entails managing communications and publicity needs for the Center’s five graduate programs, undergraduate program and outreach program, organizing the weekly International Studies Forum series, serving as the Center’s Budget Unit Manager, and acting as the campus coordinator for the PING and MUSKIE fellowship programs. She supervises the Peace Corps Recruiting Office on campus and maintains her connection with Southeast Asia through her role as Coordinator of the Tun Abdul Razak Distinguished Professorship program in affiliation with the Office of the Associate Provost for International Programs and as an international recruiter for Ohio University.

Esther Sianipar juniariana@yahoo.com – Class of 2001
Esther joined the IndoPacific Edelman team as a Sr. Consultant in January 2008 in the government relations, corporate and public affairs. Esther handles crisis management and litigation communication strategy. Prior to joining IndoPacific Edelman, Esther was Specialist Staff on Foreign Affairs for Commission I (Commission of Foreign Affairs, Defense & Security and Informatics & Communication), House of Representatives - Republic of Indonesia (DPR-RI) where her responsibilities included preparing numerous formal political speeches, and political as well as analytical research papers on related government policies, amendments, international and national policies and affairs, networking, and generating stakeholders. Esther has also worked for an international NGO, Johns Hopkins University, Center for Communication Programs of Coalition for Healthy Indonesia (Koalisi untuk Indonesia Sehat, KuIS) based in Jakarta where she was entrusted to develop strategic communication and business plan on public health in Indonesia, generate grants targeted at various stakeholders, philanthropy organizations and business communities and administer advocacy on public health issues. Immediately after graduation, Esther worked for the Program for Southeast Asia Studies at Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ as the Outreach Coordinator where she recruited and advised students, organized media outreach, series of lecturers, conferences, trainings, and workshops and other direct communication and marketing programs.

Nick Zefran nvzefran@aol.com – Class of 1989
Nick currently works for the federal government as Director of Member Services for the National Civilian Community Corps. The program has been described as the domestic Peace Corps, a program for 18-24 year olds who want to give back to communities here in the USA. It's a residential, team based program that responds to disasters, human needs issues, fire fighting and the environment. The MAIA program provided him the impetus to spend 14 years working in the refugee camps of Southeast Asia. He worked in the refugee camps in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Hong Kong from 1979 -1994.