Ross Tapsell (@RossTapsell) is a lecturer in Asian Studies at the Australian National University, and the author of By-Lines, Balibo, Bali Bombings: Australian Journalists in Indonesia. He was a delegate to CAUSINDY 2013 in Canberra.

What have you been up to recently?

I’ve spent the first 3 months in Jakarta researching media ownership in the digital era in Indonesia. I am currently on sabbatical based at Indiana university in the US, and will return to the ANU in July.

Did CAUSINDY help you form new networks and relationships?

Yes. My friends in CAUSINDY were able to put me in touch with great contacts for my research, including research on Indonesian politics and elections, media, Papua, and Australia-Indonesia relations.

What is your advice for new applicants?

To emphasise what unique skills or experience you might bring to the cohort.

How did participating in CAUSINDY benefit you?

As well as building networks and relationships for my work, I have made many friends in CAUSINDY that I regularly catch up with whenever we have the opportunity.

The Australia-Indonesia relationship has always been one of highs and lows, motives and prejudices, causes and effects. As Jamie Mackie wrote:

“Closer engagement with Indonesia may be little more than a dream, but it is a dream worth cherishing – and even proclaiming forthrightly as the goal we should be advancing. It does not greatly matter that the goal will probably remain forever just beyond our grasp. It is the direction that the dream provides that is crucial”.

CAUSINDY points us in the direction of that dream.