Desri Sumbayak is a senior lecturer at Universitas Sumatera Utara's English Literature Study Program. She was awarded a grant to conduct a Climate Justice Campaign in Sei Tuan Village, Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, using a theme-based learning approach. In collaboration with her students, Desri recently published a poetry anthology titled "Human, Love, and Nature" (2024). She is a consultant for an eco-theology project in her church, which involved an interfaith dialogue and actions regarding climate justice. Currently, Desri is doing her PhD by research in Faculty of Arts and Education, Charles Sturt University in areas of ecocriticism and Indonesian eco-poetry.
Desri will present on her research: an ecocritical and postcolonial literary analysis of the poem “extraction rumination, in the words of the lithosphere”, from the Ultimatum Orang Utan by Indonesian author Khairani Barokka. Barokka was born in Jakarta in 1985. She is a poet, performer, producer, interdisciplinary artist, and advocate for disability rights who recently completed her PhD in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths University of London. As a Minang-Javanese writer and artist, Barokka concentrates her works on issues of disability justice and environmental injustices.
Desri argues that this poem critiques neo-colonialism and highlights the devastating impacts of the expansion of palm oil plantations in Indonesia. She explores the historical context of palm oil plantations in Indonesia and the consequent exploitation associated with them. Subsequently, Desri critically analyses Barokka’s nine stanzas to uncover her perspectives on the neo-colonial exploitation of palm oil and how this exploitation has contributed to the deaths and suicides of Indonesian farmers.
The seminar will be facilitated by Dr Lara Stevens.
Please contact one of our networks co-leads for more information.