The Department of History, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), proudly announces the launch of the official website for the international research program Exploring New Futures for Indonesian Objects: Dismantling Colonial Knowledge Production and Recovering Lost Histories and Memories, accessible at https://pastfutureheritage.fib.ugm.ac.id/. Officially launched on September 30, 2025, the website is part of a collaborative research initiative between Universitas Gadjah Mada and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), under the Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) program Research into Collections with a Colonial Context. read more

Pada Sabtu, 20 September 2025,Departemen Sejarah Universitas Gadjah Mada bekerjasama dengan Pengurus Angkatan S1 Sejarah tahun 2024 mengadakan kegiatan Family Gathering dan Kenal Lebih Dekat Keluarga Sejarah bagi Mahasiswa Baru S1 angkatan 2025. Turut hadir dalam kegiatan ini Kepala Program Studi S1 Departemen Sejarah, Dr Mutiah Amini S.S,.M. Hum. yang secara simbolis membuka rangkaian kegiatan ini. Pada moment sambutan ini, Dr Mutiah Amini menitipkan pesan tentang pentingnya menjaga kesehatan baik secara fisik maupun emosional dalam menjalankan kehidupan akademik bagi Mahasiswa Baru angkatan
2025. Rangkaian kegiatan Family Gathering tahun ini terdiri atas beberapa segmen kegiatan antara lain Kenal Kakak Tingkat, Kenal Alumni, dan Sharing Session terkait kehidupan akademik serta persiapan karir bersama Dosen Departemen Sejarah UGM Dr Widya Fitria Ningsih S.S.,M.A. dan Alumni Ayu Wulandari M.Hum. Kegiatan Family Gathering ini pula dimeriahkan dengan berbagai kegiatan yang meningkatkan interaksi, komunikasi dan solidaritas antar mahasiswa baru angkatan 2025. Dalam kegiatan ini, Anindya Nitya Safa Putri selaku Ketua Pelaksana Family Gathering Sejarah 2025 menyampaikan bahwa kegiatan Family Gathering ini sendiri terdiri atas kegiatan Sharing Session dan Outbound yang dibagi dalam dua hari kegiatan. Kegiatan Family Gathering
ini sendiri memiliki tujuan untuk menjalin hubungan dan relasi yang sehat juga asertif antara Pengurus Departemen, Kakak Tingkat dan Mahasiswa Baru Departemen Sejarah UGM. Disamping itu, dalam kegiatan ini Safa juga berharap bahwa setelah kegiatan ini dilaksanakan besar harapannya akan tercipta komunikasi dan kerjasama yang lebih harmonis antar Mahasiswa Program Studi S1 Sejarah UGM pada kegiatan mendatang. read more

On Friday, September 19, 2025, the Department of History at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) welcomed a visit from Colonel Caj. Dr. Kusuma, M.Si., an alumnus of UGM’s undergraduate History program (class of 1992), who currently serves as a lecturer and Head of the Master’s Program in Disaster Management at the Faculty of National Security, Universitas Pertahanan. On this occasion, he delivered a guest lecture on “New Perspectives in Writing Military History Narratives” to undergraduate History students enrolled in the course Fundamentals of Historical Theory and Methodology. read more

Classroom 325 during its inaugural lecture for graduate students. Photo: Muhammad Fadhlan Hamidan

On Thursday, August 14, 2025, from 10:00 to 11:15 a.m. Western Indonesian Time, the Department of History successfully held its introductory lecture for graduate students. The lecture was attended not only by master’s students but also by 31 doctoral students.

The lecture was opened by Farabi Fakih, Head of the Graduate Study Program. It began with an introduction to the graduate program in the Department of History. This program included the course schedule, teaching staff, and extracurricular activities that graduate students could participate in, such as workshops, summer school, conferences, seminars, departmental internships, and others. read more

Hasna Fuadilla H. delivering her experiences during her study of History at Gadjah Mada University. Source: National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI)

On July 11, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Western Indonesian Time, the Department of History, in collaboration with the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI), held a socialization event entitled “Program Pascasarjana Ilmu Sejarah Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Universitas Gadjah Mada bagi Pegawai Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia.” The event was attended by the Head of ANRI, Dr. Mego Pinandito; the Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UGM, Dr. Nur Saktiningrum; and the Head of the Master of History Study Program, Dr. Farabi Fakih, as speakers. read more

Restituting, Reconnecting, Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound)

Institutions : Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) and Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
Funding Body : The Dutch Research Council (NWO)
Application Deadline : 5 May 2025
Start Date : 1 August 2025
Duration : 3 years (full-time)

Project Overview

Re:Sound renegotiates Eurocentric understandings, conceptions and curations of “heritage”. This Eurocentrism obscures the coloniality of the history that “heritage” is supposed to narrate and obstructs the access of source community stakeholders to their own “heritage”. There is no scholarly or curatorial model to decenter European agencies and diversify understandings of heritage (curation). Re:Sound bridges this knowledge gap by focusing on sonic heritage, in particular two colonial sound collections from Indonesia, now located in the Netherlands, The Jaap Kunst Collection at the University of Amsterdam, and the Philips Holland Omroep-Hollandse Indies radio broadcasts at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (NISV). read more

Following the launching of the research project on Lombok Heritage, the Department of History, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) hosted a public lecture titled “Beyond the Point of No Return: The Re-Emergence of Indonesian Debates and Concepts on the Return of Cultural Objects”. The public lecture was delivered by Dr. Sadiah Boonstra, a historian and curator, as well as the founder of CultureLab Consultancy. She is also one of the postdoctoral researchers within the Indonesia-Netherlands research consortium focused on the Lombok Heritage. read more

Image: Jaap Kunst’s Collection, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Olivier Middendorp.

We are delighted to announce that our collaborative research team at the Department of History, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, and the Department of Musicology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) has been awarded a significant grant from the Royal Dutch Research Council (NWO) under the Research into Collections with a Colonial Context program to support our research project, Restituting, Reconnecting, and Reimagining Sound Heritage (Re:Sound). read more

Image: Sadiah Boonstra’s Public Lecture Materials (13 February 2025).

The research project “Exploring New Futures for Indonesian Objects: Dismantling Colonial Knowledge Production and Recovering Lost Histories and Memories” officially commenced on January 25, 2025. The project is a three-year program funded by the Royal Dutch Research Council (NWA), led by Professor Bambang Purwanto (History Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada) and Professor Ihab Saloul (Amsterdam School for Heritage, Memory, and Material Culture, Universiteit van Amsterdam). This project convenes a distinguished consortium of experts and institutions both in the Netherlands and Indonesia, namely Universiteit van Amsterdam, Wereldmuseum, Rijksmuseum, Universitas Gadjah Mada, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia. read more

On Tuesday, February 4, 2025, a historical discussion was held in Room 709, 7th Floor, Soegondo Building, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University. The event took place from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM WIB and was attended by various academics and historical researchers, both from Indonesia and abroad, including research colleagues from the Netherlands who were on a journey retracing history following World War II in Indonesia.

The discussion was officially opened by Dr. Abdul Wahid, M.A., Head of the Department of History, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UGM. In his opening remarks, he emphasized the importance of historical studies based on academic collaboration between Indonesia and the Netherlands to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the decolonization period and its impact on both nations. read more