Rita Smith Kipp, Provost, Marietta College

I did fieldwork in Sumatra for 18 months in the early 1970s, and returned to Sumatra or Indonesia for shorter research trips of several weeks to several months over the next decades.

In the 1980s, I also began to do historical research about Indonesia using archival materials in the Netherlands. I spent a year there with my family in 1980-81, and again made short trips there in the summer, and once for a semester.

Learning other languages and living for extended periods in other countries have been central to my intellectual life and my career. I know I see the world very differently today than I did when I was 20 and before all these journeys began.