Jacqueline Aquino Siapno-de Araujo, the interim First Lady of East Timor, has joined the faculty of Seoul National University.

Professor Siapno teaches and conducts research in the fields of comparative Asian politics, rural development, political economy, human security, Islamic studies, and gender. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from SOAS and UC Berkeley respectively. She was an assistant professor at the University of Melbourne in Australia for 8 years and recently taught at the National University of East Timor, co-founding the School of Democratic Economics (SDE).

“Of course participating in state pageantry and representing the state in East Timor is fascinating but my own independent research is also very important. I think SNU is a good place for me to continue my research and teaching.” She said.

Professor Siapno was born and raised in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, in the Philippines. She met her husband Fernando La Sama de Araujo when she was a doctoral student at UC Berkeley. At that time, Lasama was in prison sentenced to 9 years for being one of the leaders of National Resistance of East Timorese Students (RENETIL), a clandestine independence movement. He was released in 1998, 5 years after they first met. They married in 2001, one year earlier than East Timor had become an officially independent country.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta is currently the president of East Timor and Siapno’s husband is president of the national parliament. According to the East Timor Constitution, when the President is out of town or ill, the President of Parliament becomes interim president. In February 2008, when President Ramos-Horta was wounded after an assassination attempt, Lasama became the interim President and Professor Siapno the interim First Lady. Also, since President Ramos-Horta does not have a wife, Professor Siapno was asked to officially host with her husband when UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his wife visited East Timor on his first official trip to the country.

Siapno explains,"I don't do the fashion. I can’t afford it, I don’t have a budget." But her husband, who was visiting Korea for Kim Dae Jung's funeral, said smiling,"She is a good political adviser to me."

Professor Siapno continued her academic research while helping her husband with political activities in East Timor. In 2001, she published a book,"Gender, Islam, Nationalism and the State in Aceh, Indonesia". In 2004, she co-authored"Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Peace-building in Regional Context". She is the associate editor of the six-volume Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and has published several articles on security sector reform, bureaucracy in foreign aid and international development, and gender systems in Southeast Asia.

"I'm not just here to represent East Timor. I want to have an academic freedom to do any research, and if you are representing a state that is difficult to balance. So I’ve chosen the scholarly path," she emphasized.

Professor Siapno said Korea has also suffered from colonization, separation and war, but Korean students may have forgotten all this history. She hopes her students will learn new methods of international cooperation and solidarity and have genuine compassion and friendship with Southeast Asian countries.

September 21, 2009
SNU PR Office