社会共生研究部門・特定助教
PhD in Anthropology (Australian National University)　
Specialty: Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Anthropology, Migration, Conflict and Peacebuilding

My name is Andrey Damaledo and my research focuses on the multiple impacts of transnational migration among post-conflict communities in Southeast Asia. I am particularly interested in the way in which ordinary East Timorese and Indonesians rebuild their relationships following the violence and destruction that separated them in 1999. My interest on the East Timorese dated back to 2005 when I assumed a role of resettlement project officer at the Indonesian government Department of Transmigration, one of the key players in East Timorese resettlement program. On one of my assignments, I worked with a team of transmigration officers to monitor the construction of water pipelines in a resettlement area which housed many East Timorese. The resettlement area comprises of 150 houses for 75 West Timorese households and 75 East Timorese. When we arrived at the site, I could hardly see the settlers. I walked around several blocks and found to my surprise that many houses had been dissembled and/or left empty. It took me another several blocks before I encountered several households members who had remained in the area. The pipelines project was not immediately my point of interest after seeing that some of the people were actually reluctant to stay there. The remaining settlers told me that the East Timorese households had simply been abandoned their house because they chose to return to the camps to be closer to their family.

　This experience taught me that dealing with conflict-induced displacement is not necessarily about provision of physical housing needs. It requires an understanding of the way they perceive themselves and how they attribute meaning to their displacement. To acquire such understanding I pursued my PhD training in Anthropology at the Australian National University (ANU) where I conducted 12 months ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesian West Timor (and East Timor). My research was awarded the Ann Bates Prize for the most outstanding PhD thesis on Indonesian Studies at the ANU. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also recognized my achievement and awarded me an Alison Sudradjat Prize. For me, however, these awards were just the beginning and I immediately return to West Timor and conducted another 12 months research to gather more data. I continued my works when I joined CSEAS which resulted in my book entitled Divided Loyalties: Displacement, Belonging and Citizenship among East Timorese in Indonesian West Timor (ANU Press, 2018). In her recent review of my book, published in The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology (2019), Professor Lisa Palmer of the University of Melbourne wrote that it is a “fascinating book that will be valued and read with great interest by wider academy and many Timorese people for decades to come”. My works have also been published in high profile journals in my field including The Australian Journal of Anthropology, Review of Indonesian and Malaysian Affairs, and State Society and Governance in Melanesia, Asian Journal of Law and Society (Forthcoming). In addition, I have published two book chapters on the political activities of former displaced people in Indonesia (for Routledge) and the meanings of death for displaced East Timorese (for Amsterdam University Press). Currently in CSEAS I am working three new projects including the lives of Indonesian migrants in East Timor in relation to grassroots peacebuilding; the cultural politics of local palm-wine production in rural in East Timor; and another project on transnational mobility in East Timor.