I am a scholar of modern international and transnational history, with an interest in the history of the connections between Indonesia and the Afro-Asian world in the 20th century. I obtained my PhD at the Department of History, University of Bristol in 2023, researching on the involvement of Indonesian anti-imperialist activists in Afro-Asian movements in the 1950s-1960s to demonstrate that South-South Solidarity was central to the history of national independence, anti-imperialism, and decolonial worldmaking. I got my BA in history from Universitas Gadjah Mada and Leiden University and MA in Colonial and Global History from Leiden University.

My first book, Konferensi Asia-Afrika 1955: Asal Usual Intelektual dan Warisannya bagi Gerakan Global Antiimperialisme (Marjin Kiri, 2017), examines the global history of the Bandung Conference and its legacy in international politics. In 2018, the Indonesian newspaper Jakarta Globe selected this book as one of the thirty book that helped you to understand the Southeast Asian Giants (Indonesia). The book is translated into English in 2025 by Leftword and will be translated into Arabic by Sefsafa Publishing, an Egyptian publisher. The articles I have written revolve around Afro-Asian Movements in the 1950s and 1960s, with the agency of Indonesian anti-imperialist activists included therein. Some of them are an article that I wrote with Su Lin Lewis entitled 'The Politics of Development at Afro-Asian Women's Conferences,' in Su Lin Lewis and Nana Osei-Opare (eds.), Socialism, Internationalism, and Development in the Third World (London: Bloomsbury, 2024); 'A Forgotten Bandung: The Afro-Asian Students' Conference and the Call for Decolonisation' is published in The Lives of Cold War Afro-Asianism (Leiden University Press, 2022), edited by Carolien Stolte and Su Lin Lewis; and 'From Pan-Asian to Afro-Asian Solidarity: History of the Bandung Conference from the Indonesian Perspective,' in Darwin Khudori, Diah Ariani Arimbi, and Isaac Bazié (eds.), Bandung-Belgrade-Havana in Global History and Perspective: The Deployment of Bandung Constellation towards a Global Future (Surabaya: Airlangga University Press, 2023).

I was involved as an associate researcher in Asia in the collaborative research project Afro-Asian Networks in the Early of Cold War (2015-2018) led by University of Bristol (Su Lin Lewis) and Leiden University (Carolien Stolte). I was a team member of the Socialist Internationalism in Afro-Asian World 1950s-1960s research (2021-2023) that brought together young historians, senior activists, and public curators from Southeast and South Asia to research the history of leftist movements and activism in Asia. I am a member of Editorial Board of Lembaran Sejarah, Candrasangkala: Jurnal Pendidikan Sejarah and Bakti Budaya (2018-2019). Besides academic writing, I write columns for several Indonesian media, such as tirto.id, historia.id, detik.com, beritagar.id, Media Indonesia, Sinar Harapan, Seputar Indonesia, The Jakarta Post and Kompas. Email: wsutama@ugm.ac.id

Selected Publications

Books

Vision for the Future: An Intellectual History of the 1955 Bandung Conference (New Delhi: Leftword, 2025). Translation of Konferensi Asia-Afrika 1955 (2017).

Konferensi Asia-Afrika 1955: Asal Usul Intelektual dan Warisannya bagi Gerakan Global Anti-Imperialisme (Tangerang Selatan: Marjin Kiri, 2017, second edition 2026). 

'Engineering Solidarity: Indonesia, Afro-Asian Networks, and the Third World Anti-Imperialism 1950s-1960s' (PhD dis., University of Bristol, 2023).

Chapters and Journal Articles

'Socialist Culture and Transnational Anti-Imperialist Solidarity: Lekra Activism in the Afro-Asian Writers' Movement', in Hongxuan Lin, Klaas Stutje, Rianne Subijanto (eds.), The Indonesian Left in the Twentieth Century: Beyond the Rise and Fall of a Party (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2026).

Ayu Wulandari, Wildan Sena Utama, and Mutiah Amini, ‘Herawati Diah’s Cultural Diplomacy: Redefining the Role of a Diplomat’s Spouse in 1950s-1960s Indonesia,’ Women’s History Review 35, no. 3 (2026), 463-487.

Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Sandev Handy, Agnes Khoo, Su Lin Lewis, Ita Fatia Nadia, Carlos Quijon Jr, Wildan Sena Utama, 'Dissenting Histories: A Dialogue on Activism and the Left in Decolonizing Asia', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 45, no. 3 (2025), 568-582.

'The British Government's Observation of Sukarno's Health Condition during the Konfrontasi Era 1964-1965', Sejarah dan Budaya: Jurnal Sejarah, Budaya, dan Pengajarannya 19, no. 2 (2025), 161-178.

Su Lin Lewis and Wildan Sena Utama, 'The Politics of Development at Afro-Asian Women's Conferences,' in Su Lin Lewis and Nana Osei-Opare (eds.), Socialism, Internationalism, and Development in the Third World (London: Bloomsbury, 2024).

'From Pan-Asian to Afro-Asian Solidarity: History of the Bandung Conference from the Indonesian Perspective,' in Darwin Khudori, Diah Ariani Arimbi, and Isaac Bazié (eds.), Bandung-Belgrade-Havana in Global History and Perspective: The Deployment of Bandung Constellation towards a Global Future (Surabaya: Airlangga University Press, 2023).

'Macht en Fatwa. Religieuze Leiders Tijdens de Revolutie in Yogyakarta,' in Abdul Wahid and Yulianti (eds.), Onze Revolutie (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2023).

'A Forgotten Bandung: The Afro-Asian Students' Conference and the Call for Decolonisation,' in Carolien Stolte and Su Lin Lewis (eds.), The Lives of Cold War Afro-Asianism (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2022).