Sharing Research Through the Outreach Lecturing Fund
Sulthon Sjahril Sabaruddin, Diplomatic Official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Republic of Indonesia
2014-2015 Fulbright Visiting Scholar from Indonesia to Pomona College
Outreach Lecturing Fund participant to New Mexico State University and University of Texas El Paso
I was a 2014-2015 Fulbright Visiting Scholar, conducting research on “Indonesian-Latin American Economic Relations” at the Department of Economics, Pomona College. My main interest is in strengthening Indonesian-Latin American relations, part of my current work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. The United States has strong academic resources and experiences to share to enrich my research project. As a Fulbright Visiting Scholar, I had the opportunity to visit New Mexico State University (NMSU) and the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) as part of the Outreach Lecturing Fund (OLF) Program. During this visit, I brought my family, my wife and our two-year-old daughter.
At NMSU, I was invited by Dr. Iñigo Garcia-Bryce, Director of the Center for Latin American and Border Studies (CLABS) to deliver a talk entitled “An Overview on Indonesia-Latin American Relations” for the Spring 2015 Speaker Series “Latin America and the Border” at CLABS. I was also a guest speaker on “An Overview of Indonesian Diaspora in Latin America” at the Population Economics class, Department of Economics, International Business and Applied Statistics. The audience included faculty members and students at NMSU and local communities in Las Cruces. The objective of this talk visit was to introduce, share and enhance awareness about Indonesia-Latin American diplomatic relations in Las Cruces. There is plenty of research about East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and South Korean relations with the Latin American counterparts, but very limited research and discussion have been conducted so far about Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia and their relationships with the Latin American countries. The audience was very excited and we discuss challenging topics such as the political economy of Indonesia-Latin American diplomatic relations.
During my visit to New Mexico, I was invited by Associate Professor Iñigo García-Bryce, Director of CLABS, which hosted my visit. Professor Iñigo kindly showed me around the NMSU campus, and he made arrangements to have luncheon together. During the luncheon, we explored the possible cooperation that could be done in the future. Following our luncheon, we are working to invite Professor Iñigo as a guest speaker to Indonesia. My family and I were also invited by Associate Professor Richard V Adkisson, Chair in Economic Development; Professor Christopher A. Erickson; and Regents Professor Jim Peach and his wife, for dinner in local restaurants and showed some mini-tours in surrounding Las Cruces. We were amazed with the local sites particularly the classic Mesilla town and the local culture in Las Cruces that was strongly influenced by the Latin American culture. In my view, the people in Las Cruces seemed to be more influenced by the Latino-Mexican culture rather than the U.S. culture.
After our visit to NMSU, we traveled to the UTEP in El Paso, Texas, where I visited the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies (CIBS), UTEP and met with Professor Josiah Heyman, Director of CIBS and Stacey Sowards, Chair Department of Communications. In El Paso, we were able to take a short city tour and one memorable experience was the view of Ciudad Juarez from El Paso. We saw the borders that separate the cities from two different countries, the United States and Mexico.
The opportunity to visit NMSU and UTEP was an invaluable experience, not only to share and enhance awareness about Indonesia in the United States, but most importantly, to establish networks and long-lasting friends, particularly with U.S. experts and practitioners who share similar research interests. Since returning to Indonesia, I have shared my OLF experiences with my students, colleagues, and friends.
Several months after returning back to Indonesia, I had the opportunity to become a visiting professor at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico City representing the Center for Policy Analysis and Development on American and European Affairs (P3K2 Amerop) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was an incredible academic opportunity for me. The Fulbright Visiting Scholar program has helped my expertise on Indonesian-Latin American studies, which ultimately allowed me to represent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia in the visiting professor program at CIDE in Mexico.
At the Ministry, I continue to pursue my work on formulating policy recommendations of Indonesian foreign policy towards Latin America. I have had opportunities to utilize the research framework that I learned in the United States to strengthen the policy analysis and recommendations formulation in policy brief papers, independent research projects, and research papers published in local and international journals.
The Fulbright Visiting Scholar program is an invaluable experience and further equipped my teaching and research skills. During my stay in the United States, I had the opportunities to conduct the proposed research project on Indonesia-Latin American relations, enhance my teaching skills by attending the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program, to deliver guest lectures in several universities in the United States, and actively participated the Indonesian community activities at the Pomona College.