Project Leaders

Dr Hélène Njoto

EFEO, Jakarta
Dr Hélène Njoto (EFEO, Jakarta) is the project’s principal investigator (PI). She is an Associate Researcher for École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and was EFEO’s representative in Jakarta from 2021 to 2022. She has more than 15 years of experience as a scholar of Indonesian Islamic and Colonial material culture and heritage history. She has particularly relevant expertise in vernacular mosque architecture from the island of Java where Molucca mosque types are known to have originated (Njoto 2016, 2015). On top of her current research/inventory on Indonesian Early Islamic art and architecture history with the Indonesian National Center for Archaeology (BRIN) (Njoto 2016, 2018, 2014), her engagement with heritage problematics since 2003 (Njoto, 2016) brought her to work with heritage experts from Indonesia.

Prof. R. Michael Feener

MAHS
R. Michael Feener (MAHS), is co-PI of this project, Professor at Kyoto University, and an Associate Member of the History Faculty at the University of Oxford. His research explores the history of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean World, on which he has published extensively. As Director of the Maritime Asia Heritage Survey (MAHS) he works with field teams to digitally document archaeological and historic sites in the Maldives, Thailand, and Indonesia. Prof. Feener has contributed to this project with both MAHS data collected at the Wapauwe Mosque and other sites around Kaitetu to support the conservation work, and in facilitating institutional connections with the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture to support our collaborative work.

Dr Idham Bachtiar Setiadi

World Spice Routes Foundation

Dr Idham Bachtiar Setiadi (World Spice Routes Foundation) is a co-PI to this project. He is the Director of the foundation in Jakarta. He has more than 20 years-experience as a cultural heritage activist, starting at the turning of the millennia with the global World Music Percussion Festival Sacred Rhythm in Bali, sponsored by UNESCO. He is a certified expert in heritage conservation (tenaga ahli cagar budaya), was a member of the national heritage conservation expert team (Tim Ahli Cagar Budaya Nasional or TACBN) 2016-2019, president of the Indonesian Anthropology Association (2016-2017), the Indonesian National Spice Routes Committee (2020), and led intangible heritage-based cultural ecosystem revival initiatives in the Moluccas – Tidore, Ternate, Jailolo, Morotai – and in Tomohon, Minahasa (2017-2019). He is a special advisor to the Director General of Culture at the Ministry of Culture and Education of the Republic of Indonesia in the sustainable management of the Borobudur heritage.