Ways of Water: Drains, Viscosities, Leaks, Overflows, and Bursts in Indonesia
The 2026 Yale Conference on Indonesia
In this article published by the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University, Biruni Hariadi writes a recap of the Yale Conference on Indonesia with the theme, “Ways of Water: Drains, Viscosities, Leaks, Overflows, and Bursts in Indonesia.”
On Saturday, April 18, students, scholars, and local enthusiasts gathered at Yale University to explore politics, ecology, history, and more in the 2026 Yale Conference on Indonesia. This was the conference’s first in-person iteration since 2019.
In panels moderated by enthusiastic Yale undergraduates, presenters spoke on:
What Water Knows: Indigenous Cosmologies, Colonial Dispossession, and the Onto-Epistemological Refusal in East Nusa Tenggara (Nathanael Pribady, Columbia Teachers College)
Green Energy Lands in Hot Water: Energy Transition and Vertical Hydropolitics in Eastern Indonesia (Timothy Ravis, Cornell Department of Global Development)
When Water Refuses to Recede: Flooding, Healthcare Access, and Uneven Survival in Coastal Jakarta (Clarisza Runtung, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
Accumulation by Excavation: Climate Change, Debt and Repair in the Mahakam Delta (Tamar Law, Cornell Department of Global Development)
Susur Sungai (Izza Alyssa, Yale School of Art)
