When I was little, I always dreamed of flying. I wanted to see the earth from above. I dreamed of seeing the cloud closely. I read that book Around the World in 80 Days and thought that someday I’d fly around the world, too. Of course, just like most lower class Indonesians, I didn’t have a chance to fly when I was a kid. I flew for the first time in 1996, for free. The I flew again once in 1997 and nothing happened in 1998. My academic flight started in 1999, with a trip to Taiwan funded by TungHai University — that was my first academic trip. Then second one was in summer 2000 with a trip funded by the National University of Singapore, to Singapore of course. I came there as perhaps the youngest conference presenter. I was so happy! Little did I know that I’d speak at conferences regularly after that.

2001 marked the beginning of my academic jet-setting, with the first big trip across more than one-third of the globe to the Netherlands. And since then, I’ve been flying for free for more than 160 times! (Yes, I did try to count it — in August 2007, it was 157 times, but perhaps I missed some flights). (more…)

Can we talk about non-ness without nonsense?
Can you be nonscientific and yet be rational?
Can you be rational and non-utilitarian?
Is there intellectual space for non-evidential knowledge?
Can technology close intellectual space for alternatives to technology?
Can we open a self-sustaining space for interactions of systems of knowledge?
Can story-tellers capture reality better than scientists? (more…)

It’s been too long, really. More than three years. At last, finally the book from our civic space project is out. I have my chapter there, Chapter 11, about civic spaces in Jakarta. Sadly, the book is too expensive for regular people to buy so only libraries (in developed countries) will have the book. I wish this kind of book can be cheaper. But I am trying to get my e-copy so I can put it online, just like what I have been doing with my other publications. Fingers crossed, I hope to get the file very soon.

update Dec 15, 2007: the chapter is already online here.

(more…)

Next semester, Spring 2008, I’ll be teaching two classes. The first is JUS 394 Information Technology and Social Justice, which I taught last Spring. The new one is JUS 591/691, which is a graduate seminar. I’m excited about this one. It marks my coming back to “physical” space — well, I actually never left it, I have always been in physical space and some of my work on civic spaces too are about it. So, here it is.

Globalization & Livable Cities
Code: JUS 591/691
Type: Graduate Seminar
Professor: Merlyna Lim
(more…)

Several days ago, I finished a final draft of an essay entitled “Networked Politics: Deliberation, Mobilization and Everything In-Between” to be published as a chapter in the Networked Publics book edited by Kazys Varnelis. The first draft was written with my co-author, Mark Kann, a senior poli-sci professor at USC. Now, after I rewrote it, it goes to the editor and we’ll see whether it needs some further revisions or not. Academic publishing, especially in North American setting, is a meticulous and very impractical business. It pursues quality to the max — not only quality of substance (research) but also of writing/style/grammar. It needs a year or more just to get one small piece to be published. Let alone the book. Every single piece goes through blind pe-er reviews, sometimes double, and it goes back and forth to you and the editor until everybody’s satisfied! Well, what can I do? I chose to be a scholar, nobody forced me to do this so I should follow the rules and so far I don’t get real troubles (yet) in publishing. And when I don’t want to conform with traditions and rules, I’ll just ramble freely in this blog, hehe.

So, it was a big relief that I finally finished. It’s a long essay and while being empirical, it’s a conceptual writing. Since it may put you to sleep easily, if I copy the whole essay, here I copy one section of it. It represents perhaps only 15% of the whole essay.
(more…)

During my Australian visit last semester, I did several interviews. One of them is apparently available online.

LL: I’ve had the opportunity to listen to you present at several different venues during your stay in Australia so it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to follow-up with you on some of the issues you’ve raised. Let’s start though at the very beginning - how did you get interested in studying the Internet in Indonesia?

ML: There were four major occasions that led me to do what I am doing now. First, I had always been interested in computers. I used to hang out with some ……..

complete interview is available here: http://dialogue.media-culture.org.au/node/20

Yesterday was the last day of class of the Spring semester. So, it was the last day seeing my JUS394 students.

It was a big relief to finally get to the end of semester. I still surely have a lot of work to do. Grading tons of papers is coming soon. But at least, no more teaching next week and weeks following next week. No more waking up in the morning and cycling to campus barely waking up!
(more…)

Early this month, I was in East Coast. Experiencing the cold weather of New Haven and Manhattan, as well as exploring the beauty of Yale University, one of the oldest universities in the United States. I was invited to be one of the main speakers at a workshop held by Council of Southeast Asian Studies at Yale University. At first, I actually said I might not be the right person, since it was a workshop on politics and I never did any research on politics per se. But well, the organizer thought I was a right person, so I confirmed. I’m glad I did. It was truly an honor for me to be there.
(more…)

As some of you might have known, several months ago I did a Call for Paper for setting up a panel at International Convention of Asian Scholars in August 2007 in Kuala Lumpur. I got a tremendous reaction. Many great abstracts were submitted, not only from junior scholars but also some senior ones! Many of them didn't even ask for funding, they would be self-funded. I wish I could accept all of them. Unfortunately I couldn't. 

(more…)

Call for papers for Panel on The Internet and Politics in Pacific Asia
ICAS (International Convention of Asian Scholars), Kuala Lumpur, 2-5 August 2007

*Limited funding available*

(more…)