CAORC Welcomes Newest Member Center

CAORC is pleased to announce our newest Member Center: the American Institute for Indonesian Studies.


The American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS) was established in January 2012 as a consortium of US universities and colleges interested in furthering the development of Indonesian studies in the United States and fostering scholarly exchange between Indonesian and US scholars. Its mission is to facilitate study and research concerning Indonesia in the fields of the physical sciences, social sciences, agricultural practices and technologies, engineering, and the arts and humanities. A key goal of AIFIS is to create an open and friendly environment that draws in Indonesian and American researchers from diverse backgrounds, and maximizes interactions between American and Indonesian scholars and students.

AIFIS’s US office is situated at Cornell University, where the Echols Collection on Southeast Asia offers the most extensive library holdings on Indonesia in the United States. Its Jakarta office at the Sampoerna School of Education, fully furnished and equipped with computers, desks and office supplies, offers excellent facilities that are freely available to American scholars from the consortium member institutions, as well as to all interested Indonesian scholars and students. The Indonesian reading room contains a diverse collection of books and journals dealing with Indonesia, which were donated by our U.S. consortium member universities. AIFIS staff in our Jakarta office provides personal assistance with research and residency permits for US researchers and networking facilities for visiting US and Indonesian academics. AIFIS has taken an active role in planning and supporting events that foster scholarly exchange between American and Indonesian scholars and is coordinating with a wide variety of other academic institutions and organizations to arrange presentations and other events throughout the 2012 calendar year. It is looking into the possibility of opening a branch facility in Yogyakarta and later in other areas of Indonesia, such as Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan.

U.S. and Indonesian AIFIS organizers, staff, and other presenters at the conclusion of the
inaugural seminar at the AIFIS offices in the Sampoerna School of Education in Jakarta.