Takahiro Kamisuna

Title: Oligarchy in motion: ‘Dirty’ politics in ‘clean’ energy transitions in Indonesia

Biography:

Taka has extensively worked on nationalism, natural resources and oligarchy in Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on East Timor and Indonesia.  His PhD research titled as Oligarchy in Motion: Dirty Politics in Clean Energy Transitions in Indonesia examines why and how ‘coal oligarchs’ in Indonesia who have benefited from fossil fuel industries shifted their institutional paradigm to renewable energy resources such as nickel over the global energy transitions. His recent work on youth nationalism between East Timorese and Indonesians won the Pattana Kitiarsa Prize for Best Graduate Student Paper by Southeast Asia Council at Association for Asia Studies in 2020 and published from Indonesia journal at Cornell University’s Southeast Asia Programme. Before moving to Cambridge, Takahiro has engaged in policy research on emerging technologies and economic security for the Japanese Cabinet Office, as well as worked for infrastructure business for South and Southeast Asia in Japan. Taka completed MA at Osaka University (Valedictorian) in Japan and holds MSc. in Comparative Politics from London School of Economics and Political Science.