A literate celebration of this influential Javanese woman, educator, feminist, advocate, reader/writer Today, April 21, is Kartini Day – Selamat Hari Kartini 🇲🇨 – a day when Indonesians celebrate the influence that a young Javanese woman, daughter of a regent, had on women’s rights and education. Because her legacy has been used by different Indonesian…
Category: Cultural Exchange
Writing Camp Success
Feeling Good about Our Fulbright Host Engagement Project I write this entry in a meeting room at one of my favorite resort getaways in the Semarang region, Melva Balemong, during what is one of the final writing sessions of this second week of writing camp – what I have come to affectionately call “Writing Camp…
Musings on My Limited Window into Indonesian Islamic Practice
Here in Indonesia, where the overall population is reportedly about 87% Muslim (according to the CIA World Factbook page on Indonesia, which matches our findings with the secondary students who responded to our survey), I have had the opportunity to see — and hear — Islamic prayer rituals and to learn more about Muslims’ values…
Remembering a Jam-Packed Weekend in Pontianak
A Warner School – Fulbright Reunion One weekend last month (14 – 18 November) provided an opportunity that Puji and I had been looking forward to for a while – a chance for us to visit Yanti Sri Rezeki in her city/university! It was a reunion of three University of Rochester/Warner School Fulbrighters – as…
Attending a Javanese Wedding Reception
One of my English department colleagues here at UNNES graciously invited me to attend the wedding reception for his niece a couple of weeks ago. What an amazing opportunity for another cultural experience here in Indonesia! On a hot Sunday afternoon, hundreds of us gathered under tents in the family’s neighborhood to celebrate the marriage…
Ask Me Anything
Speaking with a group of future language teachers Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with a class of undergraduate language teaching students here at UNNES – they were in a class called “Teaching Indonesian to Foreigners.” I was invited by their teacher, and my language tutor, Ibu Wati, to talk with them about American…