On Monday September 26, 2022 NOG staff member Widya Fitria Ningsih will defend her thesis  More than the wedding ring – Engaged women of the Indonesian state formation, 1940s-1960s. The dissertation focuses exclusively on the life stories of engaged women who participated in the Indonesian nation-state formation that was immensely affected by the intersection of the decolonial movement, the Cold War, and the formation of the Third World. The use of the term “engaged women” is deliberate, not merely to refer to those women whose lives became entangled in that intersection but also to acknowledge their marriages to Indonesian leftist nationalists. The dissertation bears the names of my select group of ‘engaged women’: Molly (Warner) Bondan (1912-1990), Trees Soenito-Heyligers (1915-2003), Carmel (Brickman) Budiardjo (1925-2021), Francisca Casparina Fanggidaej (1925-2013), and Francisca Pattipilohy (1926), who came from diverse backgrounds, classes, ethnicities, religions, and nationalities. Some made the long-term commitment of settling and/or working in Indonesia, and some also chose Indonesian citizenship. The engaged women started their lives in independent Indonesia at different times, mostly spanning from the 1940s to the 1960s. By using intersected approaches and theoretical concepts —biographical approach, intersectionality, citizenship, belonging, home, emotion, memory, transnationalism, and transnational marriage—this dissertation analyzes the different forms of their engagements in the formation of Indonesia as a nation-state, mainly throughout the intersecting periods that fueled dynamic changes in public and personal domains. See here for more information.

Widya’s research is funded by the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP).

Details PhD Defense
Date: Monday September 26, 2022
Time: 9.45 hrs.
Location: Online via this link and at the VU Aula for invited quests
Title: More than the wedding ring – Engaged women of the Indonesian state formation, 1940s-1960s
Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Susan. Legene & Prof. dr. Bambang. Purwanto