Dr Monika Winarnita is a Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at the Asia Institute and is currently the University of Melbourne's Convener of the Indonesia Forum and a member of the Indonesia Council's Executive Committee (Indonesian Studies Association in Australia). She did her PhD in Anthropology (Australian National University 2014) with a Sir Raymond Firth Thesis prize (Honorable Mentioned, passed with no revision).

Monika’s publications and research interests include: ethnography of the Indonesian and Malay diaspora, gender and cultural performance, as well as digital lives and precarious work. Her book based on her PhD Thesis ‘Dancing the Feminine: Gender and Identity Performances by Indonesian Migrant Women’ (Liverpool University Press UK/University of Chicago Press USA, 2016) was awarded Monograph of Distinction (chosen out of 80 titles) by the University of Victoria BC Canada in 2017 during her Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. Prior to joining the University of Melbourne, Monika was a Lecturer of Indonesian Studies at Deakin University where she received three Faculty of Arts and Education awards for Teaching (undergraduate), Supervision (postgraduate) and Early Career Researcher Excellence (2021). She is a nominated Fellow in the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and teaches in all language levels of Indonesian Studies.