From Indonesia to Lugano to represent Indonesian university students in Switzerland and Lichtenstein

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Institutional Communication Service

26 September 2019

Puspita Ayu Permatasari, PhD student from Indonesia at USI Faculty of Communication Sciences has been appointed President of the Indonesian Students Association in Switzerland and Lichtestein. Her research thesis as well as her term as President will focus on the cooperation between students-researchers, the promotion of cultural heritage, and communication technologies.  

“When you are interested in a research topic, it is important to share it with the public and speak about it aloud: USI has been a model of openness and dialogue on many levels, and I was shown how important it is for professors and researchers to communicate in order to create a network of common knowledge.” With this approach, Puspita Ayu Permatasari, recently serves as President of the Indonesian Students Association of universities in Switzerland and Lichtestein. The Indonesian researcher graduated from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and is currently PhD student at USI in the field of cultural heritage and tourism for the Faculty of Communication Sciences (UNESCO chair in ICT to develop and promote sustainable tourism in World Heritage Sites). The Association is part of a wider network (the "Overseas Indonesian Student Association in American-European Region") and involves a hundred and some students spread over eight cities in Zurich, Lausanne, Geneva, Lucerne, Chur, Basel, Lugano and Vaduz-Lichtenstein. The objectives of the association are to create a platform for dialogue for Indonesian students, where they can share their research topics and connect with the territory, gathering advice on how to link their research to society through meetings and cultural and artistic contributions (more information on the website www.pelajarindonesia.ch and on the social channels @ppiswissdanliechtenstein).

From Indonesia, to Paris and finally to Lugano, Puspita's research interests include cultural heritage, the fashion industry, and tourism management. The idea to focus her PhD work on intangible cultural heritage and tourism came from her participation at UNESCO Summer School in Milano in 2015 with Prof. Lorenzo Cantoni. While attending the programme she was intrigued by how ICT can help the development of cultural heritage. Her ongoing research at USI, supported by the Indonesian government, is in fact aimed at analysing the narratives used in apps, websites, social media and other ICT tools to communicate the cultural heritage of the Batik - traditional Indonesian fabric - to foreign tourists and new Indonesian generations and aims to identify methods to improve the communication strategy of this material and immaterial heritage. The Indonesian Batik, is a hand-dyed cotton and silk fabric that has been part of UNESCO's intangible heritage since 2009. Its motifs contain historical elements, cultural influences and symbols that trace the history of the region.

In the near future Puspita would like to keep working for the promotion of cultural heritage through the creation of a centre of expertise that will help Indonesian craftsmen, mostly from rural areas, to make their products competitive on the global market, using the right narratives to communicate the intangible heritage behind these works.  

More information on the research available here.

 

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