Depok, Indonesia — August 2026 — The 2026 IFAR Consortium Conference was successfully held at Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia (UIII) from 12–14 August 2026, bringing together scholars, researchers, and students from various countries to examine one of Southeast Asia’s most enduring and complex challenges: inequality.

Organized by the Institute for Advanced Research (IFAR) at UIII, in collaboration with IFAR Monash University Indonesia, IFAR Unika Atma Jaya, IFAR LPEM UI, and the Center of Muslim Politics and World Society Studies (COMPOSE) at UIII, the three-day conference provided a platform for critical discussion on the causes, consequences, and changing forms of inequality across Southeast Asia.

Held under the theme “Contours of Inequality: Power, Protest, and Privilege in Southeast Asia,” the conference brought together perspectives from political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, public policy, environmental studies, and related fields. Its program explored inequality not simply as a question of income or wealth, but as a phenomenon closely connected to state-building, economic development, political power, identity, environmental change, technology, and social structures.

Exploring Inequality from Multiple Perspectives

The conference opened with a keynote address by Vivek Chibber, Professor of Sociology at New York University, on “What is Industrial Policy?” The keynote provided a broader perspective on the relationship between state intervention, economic development, and the distribution of resources—issues that are central to understanding inequality in developing economies.