Baruch Professor Rianne Subijanto Named 2026 American Council of Learned Societies Fellow

April 28, 2026

Baruch College Professor Rianne Subijanto, an associate professor of communication studies at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, has been awarded a 2026 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, a highly competitive national honor recognizing outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. She is among 63 scholars selected from more than 2,000 applicants nationwide.

Subijanto received the fellowship’s maximum award of $60,000 to support 12 months of full-time research and writing.

Exploring the Environmental Roots of Communication

Subijanto will use the fellowship to advance her project, “Botanical Media,” which examines how communication systems have historically depended on natural materials. Her research looks at resources, including gutta percha, a plant-based material used in nineteenth-century telegraph cables, and lontar leaves, which have long been used for handwritten manuscripts in Southeast Asia.

By comparing these materials, the project shows how communication has developed through both large-scale industrial extraction and community-based, sustainable practices. While rooted in Southeast Asia, the research offers a broader perspective on how communication technologies have been shaped by labor, land, and the environment.

“Global communication infrastructures were not only shaped by labor and political movements, but also by the extraction of natural resources,” Subijanto said. “This project expands the study of global communication to include the perspectives of nature, environment, and ecology.”

Connecting Communication Technologies Past and Present

Subijanto’s research connects these historical systems to present-day issues, highlighting how modern communication infrastructures continue to rely on intensive resource extraction with significant environmental costs.

“By recovering these ecological and colonial histories, I hope to shed light on the roots of today’s environmental crisis and unequal global supply chains, and to inspire more just, sustainable, and equitable media practices,” she said.

Her broader scholarship focuses on global communication, colonialism, and capitalism in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. She is the author of Communication against Capital: Red Enlightenment at the Dawn of Indonesia (Cornell University Press, 2025), which examines how communication strategies supported anticolonial movements.

Supporting Student Research

In addition to advancing her research, Subijanto is working with a graduate student research assistant, with support from the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Learn more about the American Council of Learned Societies 2026 Fellows and their research.