Amelia Rugun Sirait is a researcher and cultural practitioner. She completed her Master’s program in Digital Anthropology at University College London in 2023. Her thesis explored the sound aspect of the TikTok platform, titled “Jedag jedug: the high-speed sound meme of Indonesian TikTok”. This research was continuously developed on several occasions; it was publicly presented at KUNCI (Study Forum & Collective), discussed in podcasts, participated in the Ruang Mes 56 ‘Youth of Today’ residency program, and exhibited at the Jogja Fotografis Festival 2024. Rugun began her cultural journey in Yogyakarta while studying Cultural Anthropology at Gadjah Mada University. Her undergraduate thesis discussed second accounts on Instagram among young female users. Rugun has a strong interest in various forms of media, such as the internet (and its culture), documentary films, photography, music, and sound. She firmly believes that media cannot be separated from its context and the issues surrounding it. Since 2022, she has been a member of the TikTok Ethnography Collective.
Profile and Research Interests
Education
- B.A. Cultural Anthropology, Gadjah Mada University (2019)
- M.Sc. Digital Anthropology, University College London (2023)
Selected Publications
- Sirait, A.R. (2021) ‘Spectactorial Sisterhood: Social Relations of second account users on Instagram’, Antropologi Indonesia, 42(1). doi:10.7454/ai.v42i1.12998.
- Sirait, A.R. (2022) ‘Imperfect Subjectivity: Women in “second accounts” on Instagram’, Lembaran Antropologi, 1(1), pp. 1–19. doi:10.22146/la.3486.
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