Marlina Flassy is one of the female anthropologists in Indonesia with many honored achievements. She is an active lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Cenderawasih University in Jayapura. Also as a scholar, she has conducted women-related extensive studies and activities in West Papua.
Let’s get to know better this wonder indigenous female figure from Papua Island.
Her Personal and Educational Background
Marlina Flassy was born on 15 March 1968 in Seribau Village of Teminabuan District, West Papua.
Marlina Flassy studied Anthropology at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Cenderawasih University, Jayapura. She graduated on 31 January 1995 and received her undergraduate Bachelor of Social Sciences (S.Sos) title from one of the prestigious universities in West Papua.
She continued her post-graduate study and received her master’s degree from Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She graduated on 25 September 2002 with the Master of Humanities (M.Hum) title from the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Sciences.
While being a full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Cenderawasih University, she got the chance to pursue her doctoral title. In 2015 she graduated with a doctorate (Ph.D.) in Anthropology Ethnology from the Faculty of Social Sciences of Wissenchaf, Georg August University of Gottingen, Germany.
In 1992, the Arts Council of Irian Jaya (DKIJ) assigned her to an internship in ethno-cinematography. She was an intern at the Department of Ethno-Cinematography, the Faculty of Social Sciences, State University of Leiden, the Netherlands.
Her Teaching Career
Marlina Flassy started her teaching career as a full-time lecturer at one of the leading universities in West Papua, Cenderawasih University, in 1996. She worked at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences in the Anthropology Department of Social Anthropology Study Program.
Some of the courses under her lecturer career span are Introduction to Social Anthropology, Papua Ethnography, Indonesia Ethnography, Indonesia Social-Cultural Systems, Social Organizations and Kinship, Folklore, Gender and Development, and Field Research Practice.
Her Awards as an Anthropologist-Researcher
Marlina Flassy has a keen awareness of gender issues and successfully has raised the issues of children and women in West Papua.
In 2004, the Ministry of Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia awarded her as a Young Community Care Researcher.
In the same year, her gender issue awareness activities made the Jayapura City Women’s and Children’s Empowerment Service crown her with an award of the Achievement Image of Papuan Women’s Charisma.
In 2015, she received the Golden Pin (Peniti Emas) Award from the Ministry of Research and Technology due to her contribution to the culture and women’s life.
Her Scholar Writings
Marlina Flassy has written several academic works in the field of anthropology regarding West Papua. To name some of them are:
- The ethnographic book of the Mooi tribe in Sorong Regency
- The Ansus Ethnography in Yapen Waropen District
- The Ethnographic of the Napan-Wainame Tribe in Nabire Regency
- Fully Roads Honoring Children and Women in Papua Province (2019)
- The Marriage System in the Maybrat Community in West Papua
- The Gender Equality Deficit in the Province of Papua and the Health of Women and Children in the Province of West Papua
Her Present Activities
In addition to being a full-time active lecturer, Marlina Flassy has held structural positions in the Cenderawasih University (UNCEN), such as Chair of the Department of Anthropology, Assistant Dean I of the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, and a Cooperation Coordinator between UNCEN and the Georg August University of Goettingen, Germany.
Due to her love and concern for gender issues, she has become the coordinator of PSGA (the Cenderawasih University’s Center for Gender and Child Studies) for the 2019-2023 period.
As an anthropologist and researcher, Marlina Flassy is also the Editor-in-Chief of UNCEN’s anthropology e-journal of Journal Antropologi Papua that has an interest in the socio-cultural issues in the Asia-Pacific regions, particularly in West Papua.
