Book Launch | Experiencing Indonesia: 30 years of ACICIS
Description
Join us to celebrate the launch of Experiencing Indonesia: 30 Years of ACICIS.
Edited by Kirrilee Hughes, Kate Naidu and David Reeve, this book charts Acicis’ institutional journey from its origins to now, tracing the development of innovative, experiential learning abroad programs built in partnership with Indonesian institutions and communities.
Drawing on chapters from alumni, staff members, and partners, it weaves together personal stories of in-country experience with broader reflections on what three decades of engagement have meant for host communities and Australia-Indonesia relations.
This event will feature Kirrilee, Kate, and David in conversation with Dr Natali Pearson.
Date: Wednesday, 12 August 2026
Time: 5:30pm networking and refreshments for 6:00pm start
Venue: Level 24, 123 Pitt Street, Sydney
Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the venue.
You can read more about the upcoming book here.
Please contact us at acicis@acicis.edu.au if you have any enquiries.
Speakers
Kirilee Hughes
Kirrilee Hughes is an international education practitioner and researcher. She has held leadership and strategy roles for global school organisations and at leading Australian universities, and has taught undergraduate and postgraduate students in Australia and Singapore. Kirrilee’s interest in Indonesia was initially sparked through an AFS high school exchange program in the 1990s and she is also an alumna of Acicis’ Flexible Language Immersion Program and East Java Field Study. She currently serves on Acicis’ Reference Group.
David Reeve
David Reeve has been visiting Indonesia for over 55 years, as a diplomat, teacher, researcher and program manager. He has worked at more than a dozen Indonesian universities, including as Acicis' Resident Director 1997-1999 at Universitas Gadjah Mada and Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang. He publishes on Indonesian history and politics, language and culture. He was a longstanding Deputy Director of Acicis up to 2023.
Kate Naidu
Kate Naidu is a researcher and educator based in Sydney, Australia. With a background in teaching Indonesian to Australian high school students, she now works in teacher education at The University of Notre Dame Australia. Her research interests include linguistic and cultural diversity, interculturality, and study abroad. Her doctoral research examined the development of intercultural capacities among Acicis students.
Natali Pearson (Moderator)
Natali Pearson is a DECRA Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Heritage Studies at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on maritime heritage in Southeast Asia. Previously at the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, she is President of Indonesia Council and co-host of the New Books in Southeast Asian Studies podcast. Natali is author of Belitung: The Afterlives of a Shipwreck (University of Hawai'i Press, 2022), and her forthcoming monograph examines the complex legacies of World War II shipwrecks in Southeast Asia. She is a proud Acicis alumna (2000).
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