Ivana Putri (Indonesia)


Ivana Putri was born and raised in Indonesia. She completed her undergraduate studies in International Relations at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in 2016, during which she spent time studying abroad to deepen her focus on Migration Studies. Upon graduation, she embarked on a year of internships at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, the EU Delegation to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, and Cowater International in Jakarta before joining the 2017-2019 Euroculture cohort, spending the first and fourth semesters at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (DE), her second semester at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL), and her third semester at Paradiso Amsterdam where she interned for a European arts cooperation project. During her MA studies, she also briefly worked as a Student Assistant at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology in Göttingen. In 2019, she completed her Master thesis which was a comparative research on regional (EU) and national (German) policy frameworks, specifically on the topic of culture in external relations. She is currently working at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Jakarta as a Programme Assistant for an EU-ASEAN cooperation project on Higher Education and in support of DAAD initiatives with the Ministry of Education & Culture of the Republic of Indonesia.

Ivana's Euroculture Experience
Euroculture allowed me to continue deepening my regional specialisation in Europe especially through the perspective of cultural studies, which I was immensely interested in but did not have much opportunity to explore during my undergraduate studies. I was interested in exploring topics I touched on during my undergraduate thesis such as cultural identity, integration, cosmopolitanism, and the politics of belonging. During my 2 years with Euroculture, I was able to flexibly adapt my studies based on my goals and interests while still exposing me to the interdisciplinary perspectives which gave me a more holistic understanding of the topics I encountered. Perhaps the most invaluable part of the Euroculture experience was how it challenged me beyond the pure content of the learning material, in that the learning process continued outside of class -- there were numerous opportunities for profound reflection of theory and practice, which can even sometimes touch on a very personal level (as was the case with the topics on postcolonialism and memory studies, for example). Working together with colleagues of different nationalities who came from different disciplines, grew up with different academic systems, and have different styles of working truly helped me embrace and see the value in diversity. Additionally, moving 7 times in the course of 2 years helped me cherish friendships and familial ties with people I encountered, and taught me how much mental discipline is necessary to manage the workload of the studies and deal with practical administrative matters as a non-EU student (immigration, city administration, finding a place to live every 5 months, etc.) -- an experience which inspired me to revive the Blog section of The Euroculturer Magazine. In short, Euroculture did not only give me the theoretical perspectives I needed to understand complex issues, but also the so-called "soft skills" required to succeed at work and most importantly to sustain an attitude for lifelong learning.