CHSS 2026 is an international academic forum that brings together scholars and HUB representatives from various countries across Asia. The forum serves as a strategic space to strengthen cross-border collaboration and to promote the development of humanities and social sciences research capable of addressing contemporary challenges, including issues of cultural diversity and education for sustainability.
Universitas Gadjah Mada participated through three representatives from the Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB): Prof. Dr. Wening Udasmoro, Dr. Aprillia Firmonasari, and Dr. Merry Andriani. The presence of these three scholars demonstrates FIB UGM’s active role in international academic networks across the Asian region.
As part of the series of activities, the UGM Indonesian HUB CHSS team organized a panel session entitled “Endangered Languages in Indonesia and Pakistan: Ideas to Mitigate” on Sunday, 27 September 2026. The panel became one of the highlighted sessions that attracted considerable attention from conference participants.
The panel discussed the vulnerability of endangered languages in Indonesia and Pakistan through three case studies: the Enggano, Minangkabau, and Wakhi languages. These three languages were selected because each faces serious pressure on the continuity of its native speakers, whether due to social change, migration, or the dominance of majority languages.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of language preservation through community engagement and policy support. The speakers emphasized that the loss of a language is not merely the loss of a means of communication, but also the loss of the cultural knowledge embedded within it—ranging from local wisdom and oral traditions to the ways communities perceive nature and life.
From a sustainable development perspective, this issue is closely linked to the agenda of empowerment for minority language-speaking communities. Language preservation requires empowering local communities so that they have the capacity and equal opportunity to safeguard their own linguistic and cultural heritage.
The panel session was the result of a collaboration between two FIB UGM lecturers, Prof. Dr. Wening Udasmoro and Dr. Merry Andriani, together with Dr. Aftab Nasir from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). This cross-country collaboration is a concrete example of how education for sustainability can be realized through equal and mutually beneficial academic partnerships.
The session was attended by advocates and researchers of endangered languages from various countries across Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, and Australia. The presence of participants from multiple regions demonstrated that language endangerment is a global issue demanding collective responses and equal access to resources, research, and language preservation policies.
Not only faculty members—several UGM alumni also participated in various panel sessions at CHSS 2026. The alumni’s participation expanded the engagement and networks of UGM scholars in international academic forums, while strengthening UGM’s position as one of the leading centers for humanities and cultural studies in the region.
Efforts to preserve endangered languages, as discussed in the panel, also represent a tangible form of respect for cultural diversity. Every language that survives means that a treasure of human identity, knowledge, and history remains preserved for future generations.
Moving forward, the UGM Indonesian HUB CHSS team hopes that the collaboration with LUMS and other international partners will continue into joint research, scholarly publications, and more concrete language preservation initiatives. These steps are expected to have a real impact on minority language-speaking communities, both in Indonesia and Pakistan.
Contributors: Nada & Jusma, 2026
