The Frick Collection and the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University jointly sponsor the annual Symposium on the History of Art for graduate students in the northeastern United States.
Speakers are nominated by their doctoral programs to present original research in any field of art history. The Symposium was held on April 9-10, 2026.
Meita Estiningsih, PhD candidate in Cornell’s History of Art, presented on “Visualizing ‘New Asia’: Propaganda Films and Social Engineering in Japanese-Occupied Indonesia, 1942–45.”
Her paper examines how films advanced the Japanese colonial agenda and served as tools of total war mobilization in Indonesia (1942–1945), particularly in densely populated, resource-rich Java. During the occupation, film functioned as both entertainment and political indoctrination, fostering trust between nationalist leaders, the public, and Japanese authorities.
Though their direct impact remains debated, these screenings contributed to shifts in mindset and lifestyle from the pre-war Dutch period. Relying on visual media to overcome widespread illiteracy, the Japanese projected imperial power, and positive self-images. These films framed collaboration and used repetitive rhetoric to instill behavioral shifts aligned with Japanese fascist ideology and its imagined “New Asia.”
https://ifa.nyu.edu/events/frick.html
