Young researchers from various countries across Southeast Asia and the Pacific region participated in the UGM-CHSS Writing Workshop held at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta. The participants came from Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. This activity is part of a capacity building effort for young academics researching issues of conflict and peace.
The UGM-CHSS Writing Workshop is an initiative under the umbrella of the CHSS (Cultivating the Humanities and Social Sciences and Supporting Under-Represented Scholars of Asia) Project, funded by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) and mandated by the AAS (Association for Asian Studies) to Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
The Hub Lead from Universitas Gadjah Mada is Professor Wening Udasmoro, Professor of Gender and Literature at UGM, who will lead this SIDA-AAS project. The project will run for three years, from 2026 to 2028, with the hope of fostering a more inclusive and representative generation of researchers.
The main issue that becomes the focus of this UGM-CHSS Academic Writing Workshop is peace. Participants selected from abroad come from Southeast Asian countries and Papua New Guinea. They are young researchers and junior lecturers who study conflict and peace issues or who come from post-conflict regions.
The central theme of this first workshop batch in 2026 is “Self Narration: Centralizing the Periphery”. This theme was deliberately chosen as a shared awareness of giving voice to those who are often marginalized in both local and global narrative discourses. Through this theme, participants are encouraged to bring peripheral voices to the center of academic conversations.
The workshop also aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in the aspects of education and education for sustainability. By providing academic writing training to young researchers, this program contributes to creating quality, sustainable education for academics across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Furthermore, the workshop promotes equal access to academic development opportunities. Researchers from developing countries or under-represented regions often face barriers in accessing training, international publication, and global academic networks. This initiative seeks to bridge that gap, ensuring that talented scholars regardless of their geographic or institutional background can thrive.
Empowerment of young researchers lies at the heart of this program. Participants are equipped not only with academic writing skills but also with the confidence to voice their research on the international stage. Junior lecturers from post-conflict regions, in particular, are given space to fully develop their academic potential.
The outputs of the UGM-CHSS Writing Workshop are articles that will be published in both international and national journals according to the participants’ needs. These publications are expected to enrich the body of knowledge in humanities and social sciences on peace issues from the perspectives of researchers in the Asian region.
More than just a writing arena, this forum is expected to create networking spaces between countries. The cross-border collaborations established through this workshop are hoped to grow into long-term research partnerships, strengthen regional academic solidarity, and ensure that the voices of young researchers from Southeast Asia and the Pacific are increasingly heard in global conversations on peace and humanity.
Contributors: Nada & Jusma, 2026
