Keynote lecture | Possible heroes – Concrete utopias – Guerilla conferences | Rudolf Mrázek

What is the global legacy of the Indonesian Communist Party PKI? One hundred (+2) years after its establishment, KITLV hosts a two-day workshop to discuss the long history, politics, and culture of this important political and social organization in Indonesia’s twentieth century.

As part of this workshop, Rudolf Mrázek, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Michigan, will give a public keynote lecture, titled ‘Possible Heroes – Concrete Utopias – Guerilla Conferences’ on Monday 23 May (11.30 h-12.30 h CET).

Keynote speaker

Rudolf Mrázek, who received academic education in Prague, Czech Republic, and continued his work in the US, has written numerous books and articles about twentieth century Indonesian political and social history. Well known are Politics and Exile in Indonesia (Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1994), his biography of Sutan Sjahrir; Engineers of Happy Land (Princeton University Press, 2002) on the social and technological transformation of late colonial Indonesia and The Complete Lives of Camp People (Duke University Press, 2020), on daily life in the concentration camps Boven Digoel and Theresienstadt. He is currently working on a biography of Amir Sjarifuddin.

Keynote lecture

In the first part of his address, Mrázek will be daringly personal. But he will argue that the story of his encounters with the problem of Communism may serve as a lesson in a serious study of Communism, revolution, and despair among other things. A “Socratic” apology of Communism will be the theme of the middle section of the talk: Socrates also knew that he would be convicted and summarily dealt with in the end. In the conclusion of the talk (if the speaker would not be disconnected till then), Communism, Indonesian and other, will be conjured and presented as a specter.

Format & venue

This keynote lecture will be a hybrid event. It will be held in the Vossius Conference Room, at the Leiden University Library, and online via Zoom.

Registration

Registration is required. If you want to attend the keynote lecture on location, please register via: [email protected].
Seats are limited.

If you wish to attend the keynote lecture online, please register here first:
https://universiteitleiden.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3iHexCtiQLyBU2H3DzTQdg

Image

-Image ‘100 + 2 years of revolution’, made by Gery Paulandhika, Jakarta, Indonesia.

-Photo below: Somewhere, East Java, 1948: A man explains the problem of Communism to Merdeka fighters.