Indonesian place names like Bali, Java, Spice Islands (Maluku), and Sumatra resonate with exoticism for many Westerners. This historical image has its roots, perhaps, in the country’s great and unique diversity and complexity. The archipelago’s 17,000 islands comprise one of the most diverse countries on the planet – biologically, ethnically, and linguistically. Indonesia is home to at least 600 languages, 300 ethnic groups, one of the three great remaining tropical rainforests, and one of the richest, most biodiverse marine reef systems in the world. Indonesia is a young country, having declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945, but nonetheless is today the world’s largest majority Muslim nation, third largest democracy, fourth largest country by population, and one of the biggest emerging economies. Indonesia continues to grapple with how to hold its bursting diversity together in a single, modernizing nation in a way that also firmly confronts the issues of economic development, climate change, multiculturalism, democratic autonomy, good governance, inequality, and biodiversity conservation. As such, the country is emblematic not simply of its historically exoticized uniqueness, but of the complex global problems we all face in the 21st century. This graduate-level international development and environmental policy field course takes a complex systems approach to the interconnections between Indonesia’s environmental challenges and development strategies with a focus on the interface between local governance systems and global policies, especially in the face of climate change. Understanding that most such challenges involve multiple stakeholders, we study how ground-level problems are mitigated or exacerbated by national and global government policies and where local efforts may better inform policy, paying special attention to indigenous systems and what they can teach us about sustainable development, livelihood security, and climate policy.
Visiting several of the main islands of Indonesia – Bali, Flores, Sumatra, and Java – the course focuses on:
- Indigenous systems of environmental management and understanding such as the complex adaptive subak system of rice terraces, irrigation, and water temples in Bali.
- Forest conservation and its place in climate change mitigation and adaptation, including deforestation and the expansion of oil palm plantations, carbon emissions from forest and peatland burning, wildlife habitat conservation, indigenous and local forest management, and REDD+.
- Coral reefs and marine protected areas in the famed Coral Triangle, which comprises some of the healthiest remaining reefs on the planet.
- Local governance and adaptation measures, the country’s decentralization policy, and democratic development and human rights.
- Discussions with leading government officials, top research experts, local farmers and fishermen, and NGO and IGO leaders, with intensive meetings in Jakarta and Bogor.
Throughout the course, we experience the rich and fascinating nature and culture of Indonesia – the country’s diverse religions and complex communal traditions, stunning music and theater, ancient temples, beautiful landscapes and biodiversity, and wonderful people.
Course faculty
Tom Hilde is a research professor in the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, Associate Director of International Programs, and Senior Fellow in the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). Before coming to UMD, he taught at New York University, directing the Environmental Conservation Program there as well as the Applied Philosophy Group. He has produced books and articles on environmental and international development policy and philosophy; climate change adaptation; food systems and land use change; international agreements; human rights; and sustainability and complex adaptive systems. He currently works on collaborative projects in the Western Amazon and Indonesia, including a book on resource frontiers and climate change. For a large part of his childhood and parts of adulthood he lived in Asia, including Thailand, Japan, and Taiwan, and has traveled throughout the continent as well as in Africa, South and Central America, and Europe, having also lived in France for three years. He is a former Fulbright Senior Scholar (Venezuela) and Safra Network Fellow at Harvard University.
Matt Regan is a PhD student at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy researching a dissertation on democracy and culture in Southeast Asia, focusing on the “Asian values” debate. He holds a B.A. in history and an M.A. in modern European history from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where his research focused on the history of the biological and social sciences and European interpretations of Asian thought and culture. His research interests include the ethics of global development, sustainable development, and Buddhist philosophy. He has toured Mexico with a Thai traditional dance group, served on the organizing committee for the Dalai Lama's 2011 visit to DC, and spent the last several Januarys in the Indonesian jungle, despite being totally unsuited for that kind of thing.
Adriane Michaelis is a PhD student in the University of Maryland’s Department of Anthropology. Her dissertation research focuses on the continued development of oyster aquaculture alongside public oyster fisheries in the United States, in order to better understand the social and ecological implications of privatized oyster fisheries. Adriane earned her B.S. in anthropology-zoology from the University of Michigan and her M.S. in marine biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She has worked as a field biologist for the National Audubon Society, managing coastal bird sanctuaries in North Carolina, and as lab manager of an oyster research and restoration monitoring lab at the University of Maryland. Her research interests include social-ecological systems, sustainable fisheries, and participatory resource management. In her free time, Adriane can usually be found near water and/or wandering with her two dogs.
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I didn’t expect studying abroad in London to be as uniquely insightful as it was. My presumption before the trip was that, while “British”culture significantly differed from “American” culture, this difference wouldn’t be drastically different compared to non-western contexts. However, the cosmopolitan nature of London (and it’s fascinating conception of “identity”) shocked me. Taking a course on Media, Gender and Identity in the age of Brexit was especially fascinating as a GVPT major in understanding how nationalistic attitudes form and are embraced or rejected by people in the UK. In learning about the perceived effects of migration on national identity, I was able to get an understanding of globalization and its consequences on London as a prime destination for many migrants.