Rina Priyani
Education
University of California, Berkeley, PhD
Bandung Institute of Technology, Master of Engineering
Bandung Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Architecture
Biography
Rina Priyani is a Mellon Race, Place and Equity Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Architectural History, School of Architecture. Her research focuses on the racialization of urban space and landscape in colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia.
Her current book project, Building Bandung: Colonialism, Ethnic Identities and Architectural Practices in Indonesia, examines the efforts of Indonesian intellectuals and visionaries of the postcolonial world who have been reinventing the city of Bandung in West Java, rupturing it from its colonial origin. This research foregrounds class, ethnicity, gender, and race in Bandung’s urban transformation that grappled with the legacies of late Dutch colonialism, Japanese occupation, and Indonesian post-independence. She traced this lineage to the important moment in global history when the city hosted the anticolonial Afro-Asian or Asian-African Conference, known as the ”Bandung Conference,” in 1955 and became a symbol of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Her dissertation research was supported by the University of California-Berkeley’s Townsend and Global Urban Humanities Joint Fellowships, University of California Humanities Research Institute, and Berkeley Connect Fellowships, among others. Her research and preservation work benefited from Fulbright - the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation, the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation in Indonesia, and the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO in Japan.
As a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Indonesia, Priyani advocated for two World Heritage Site inscriptions which address the urgency of preservation, local identities, and the meanings of place: Cultural Landscape of Bali Province and the legacy of Ombilin coal mining town of Sawahlunto in West Sumatra.
Prior to coming to UVA, she taught at Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia and UC Berkeley. In Spring 2025, she will offer a seminar course on “Bandung: Afro-Asian Solidarity and Urban Futures.”
