Rate My Professor Meredian Alam

Dr. Meredian Alam completed his PhD in Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Newcastle, Faculty of Education and Arts, in 2017. His dissertation, titled “When the City Forest is Ours: Urban Environmentalism and Youth in Bandung, Indonesia,” received the Research Higher Degree Excellence Award. From 2014 to 2017, during his PhD candidature, Alam was awarded the University of Newcastle International Postgraduate Research Scholarship, Scholarship Central, and Faculty of Education and Arts Research Training Scheme places. He also contributed as a student researcher to the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant project DP130100051, “Fostering pro-environment consciousness and practice: environmentalism, environmentality and environmental education in Indonesia,” led by Professor Pamela Nilan.

Alam’s academic background includes an MPhil in Culture, Environment and Sustainability from the University of Oslo (2012), an MA in Sociology from Universitas Gadjah Mada (2013), an MSc in Mental Health from Anglia Ruskin University, United Kingdom, and a BSocSc (Honours) in Sociology from Universitas Gadjah Mada (2007). Since October 2019, he has held the position of Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. His research specializations include ecological habitus in environmental movements, environmental education, social and cultural dimensions of renewable energy such as biogas, stylized youth civic participation, and mental health among young people aged 12-30. Prominent publications encompass “Environmental activists’ hysteresis as a driving force for establishing environmental actions against urban forest privatization in Bandung, Indonesia” (International Sociology, 2021), “Learning from Greenpeace: Activist Habitus in a Local Struggle” (Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2019), “Reconstructing anti-capitalism as heterodoxa in Indonesia’s youth-led urban environmentalism Twitter account” (Geoforum, 2020), and forthcoming books “Social Life of Biogas: Biogas Users and Their Innovations in Indonesia” (Springer, 2025) and “Youth Environmentalism in Urban Indonesia: Eco-Habitus and Resistance in Babakan Siliwangi Forest” (2024). Alam has secured additional honors, including travel grants from Asia Research Institute at National University of Singapore (2017) and Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (2017), as well as scholarships from Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (2012) and Norwegian Education Department (2010-2012). His scholarship has amassed 346 citations on ResearchGate, influencing discourse on environmental activism and sustainability in Southeast Asia.