The Rise Of Indonesian Studies In American Universities(1950-1967)

Area studies involves a country’s systematic knowledge production for other civilization regions or countries that are different from its own historical and cultural traditions.The United States is a typical representative of area studies in the Western world.During the Cold War,the American government,universities,foundations and a large number of scholars formed an intellectual community and jointly developed a systematic understanding of certain geographic or cultural units abroad to meet the needs of the U.S.increasing participation in international affairs.After World War II,in order to attract the newly independent Indonesia to join the Western capitalist camp,the U.S.foreign policy makers urgently needed to expand the intellectual base of Indonesia,and private foundations also actively provided funds for this.From the 1950s to the mid-1960s,the U.S.relied on universities to carry out Indonesian studies,mainly including Cornell University’s“Modern Indonesia Project”,the MIT Center for International Studies’ Indonesia subproject,Indonesian Studies in Yale University’s Southeast Asian Studies Program,and the University of Berkeley,California and the University of Wisconsin-Madison had higher education cooperation projects with the University of Indonesia and Gadjah Mada University respectively.In American universities’ Indonesian studies projects,scholars not only conducted field surveys,collect literature,translated and index resources,and published research results,but also produced,disseminated,and reproduced knowledge by building a curriculum system and improving the talent training mechanism.The rise of Indonesian studies in American universities at the beginning of the Cold War was a product of the intertwining of academia and the Cold War,with research themes focusing on the economic and political fields of modern Indonesia,and also focusing on collaboration with local Indonesian scholars in the research process,mostly using interdisciplinary research methods centered on fieldwork and heavily influenced by modernization theoretical paradigms.On the one hand,the Indonesian studies activities of American universities have cultivated a large number of Indonesian scholars,laying a foundation for international Indonesian studies,and on the other hand,they have strengthened the connection between the intellectual elites of the U.S.and Indonesia,and built a knowledge network between them.It is true that this knowledge exchange network is unequal,and it also reflects the color of American knowledge production and discourse hegemony.If the horizon of history is broadened,as part of area studies,Indonesian studies in American universities belong to an important development stage in the extension of the knowledge context of Oriental studies that has continued to this day in the modern West.Indonesian studies during the Cold War focused on the study of modern economic and political issues,emphasizing interdisciplinary cooperation and integration.This is undoubtedly a transcendence of Oriental studies in the Western world,and of course it ultimately serves the national interests of the U.S.