UGM Anthropology Department collaborated with Faculty of Social Science Chiang Mai University (CMU) Thailand to Organize Summer Course “Knowledge Enhancement Program” from June 8-14, 2024. The program, attended by 9 CMU students from Myanmar, China, Japan, Thailand, and 8 UGM Anthropology Department students, included activities such as lectures, fieldwork at three locations in Yogyakarta (Panggungharjo Village, Kaliurang, and Kali Code Village), and presentations of field findings.

The Summer Course aims to provide CMU and UGM students the opportunity to explain the conditions of their respective countries, particularly regarding economic, environmental, social, or cultural aspects of regional economic development. This is expected to foster sensitivity and critical thinking towards everyday issues through participation in field activities. Additionally, the program seeks to offer opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars from ASEAN countries to exchange and share their knowledge and culture with fellow students and academics, fostering inter-university regional relationships.

On Saturday, June 8, 2024, 9 CMU students arrived in Yogyakarta accompanied by Dr. Putthida. On Monday, June 10, 2024, the Summer Course was officially opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at UGM, Prof. Setiadi, followed by lectures from UGM Anthropology lecturers: Zamzam Fauzanafi, Ph.D., Prof. Pujo Semedi, and Dr. Pande Made Kutanegara, who provided an overview of the three fieldwork areas.

On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, CMU and UGM students, accompanied by Agung Wicaksono, Ph.D., and Dr. Putthida, began fieldwork in Panggungharjo with the topic “The Development of Yogyakarta’s Peri-Urban Regions.” At the site, students conducted observations and interviews with local residents about the changes in Panggungharjo over time, from land use changes to waste management innovations by the Panggungharjo Village Government, which has become a model for public service management.

The fieldwork continued to the second location in Kaliurang, specifically in Padukuhan Kaliurang Timur, with the theme “The Wealth and Poverty in Rural Yogyakarta.” Similar to previous activities, each CMU student was paired with a UGM student as a translator. In Kaliurang, participants received materials on the causes and impacts of poverty experienced by the local community and visitors.

On Wednesday, June 12, 2024, Summer Course participants continued fieldwork in Kampung Kalicode. There, they met with Pak Totok, a tour guide, who explained the history of Kampung Kalicode. This fieldwork focused on the theme “Inter-Ethnicity Relations in Yogyakarta City,” observing the dynamics and relationships between ethnic and religious groups in Kampung Kalicode.

To conclude the Summer Course, on Thursday, June 13, 2024, students were asked to present their findings from the fieldwork. Each student offered their perspectives and reflections based on what they discovered in their country and fieldwork areas. Dr. Putthida, who accompanied the CMU students, hoped that the UGM-CMU Summer Course would contribute significantly to national and regional efforts toward development and tolerance of socio-economic, political, and cultural diversity, which are key to successful regional integration.

Authors: Bety Oktaviani & Vincamira Tasha Florika

The Merdeka Student Exchange Program is an initiative that allows university students to study at universities in Indonesia for one semester. It aims to enhance their learning experience and strengthen unity in diversity. PMM targets to involve 204 recipient universities and accept 15,505 students as participants of this program. One of the universities that received the program is of course Gadjah Mada University. There are many students who have exchanged to this campus and not a few who managed to qualify to study at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences. The students came from various universities from all over Indonesia, and some even came from abroad, namely 2 students from Hankuk University, South Korea.

After almost 6 months of PMM students studying, they will finally be released to return to their respective universities after completing the Final Semester Examination. Therefore, the Faculty of Cultural Sciences took the initiative to organize a farewell event for them. The event was held at Teras Langit Turi on Thursday, June 13, 2024 and was attended by 24 students and a number of lecturers representing each study program. They gathered at 4pm at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences and departed together using the bus that had been prepared for them. After traveling for about half an hour, they arrived at the venue. There they were served various drinks, food, snacks, and heavy meals. While eating the dishes, they were invited to share their respective experiences during college. They captured the moment together before going home.

Linguistics study program is one of the master level study programs at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. The vision of the study program is to become a linguistics study program with superior quality, national insight, active and responsive to language problems and linguistic development, and able to become a reference study program in the Asia Pacific region in 2025. To achieve this vision, one of the missions carried out by the study program is to educate linguistics graduates with a master’s degree who are able to apply the linguistic knowledge they have obtained to solve various social problems and are able to dialogue and partner with foreign scholars in an effort to establish mutually beneficial intercultural cooperation. This is evidenced by the requirement for students to use their respective regional languages when presenting in Psycholinguistics courses.

Psycholinguistics is a field that studies how humans create and use language. Psycholinguistic theory views language as a means of conveying information, focusing on the view that language is the result of human habits. In essence, psycholinguistics seeks to explain how language structures are formed, used and understood in the process of communication. From this focus, a psycholinguistics lecturer at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Drs. Tatang Hariri, M.A., Ph.D., took the initiative to utilize the condition where his students come from various regions to introduce their respective native languages. This aims to be a direct example of how different languages occur and so that local languages are preserved and not lost.

The Information and Documentation Management Officer (PPID) of Universitas Gadjah Mada regularly updates public information as a form of commitment to the implementation of information disclosure at UGM. In connection with this, PPID invited representatives of each faculty at Universitas Gadjah Mada, especially the Public Relations (Humas) section, to attend the 2024 Public Information Update Coordination Meeting which was held online on Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 9 until 11 am.

Dr. Andi Sandi Antonius Tabusassa Tonralipu, S.H., LL.M. as the Main Information and Documentation Management Officer expressed his gratitude for the attention and good cooperation. It is hoped that after this meeting, there will be concrete steps to improve transparency and accessibility of information within the university. Hopefully, the meeting results in a more proactive policy in providing relevant and up-to-date information to all stakeholders, be it students, staff, or the general public. Thus, Universitas Gadjah Mada can be increasingly recognized as an institution that is transparent, accountable, and responsive to the information needs of the community.

On June 1, 2024 from 4 to 6 pm in the courtyard of Soegondo Building, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Gadjah Mada University, Palmerah, Yuk! together with Perpustra continued their efforts to enlighten others through literacy discussions with Maman Suherman and Kalis Mardiasih as speakers. They invited literacy communities and publishers as parties who participate in fighting for the literacy movement. Perpustra UGM together with Palmerah, Yuk! has held a discussion related to efforts in nurturing literacy. This discussion highlighted the importance of access to books and efforts to make books as living objects that actively meet their readers, in order to continue our struggle to enlighten each other.