Thursday, August 29, 2024 became a very happy day for the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada. A total of 244 students of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM undergraduate program have successfully completed their education in higher education. A total of 244 graduates of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM hold a new title as a Bachelor.

This graduation period is a very special period in its history, which is the graduation period with the largest number of graduates. Because of this, this graduation was held in parallel, centered in the Soegondo Auditorium Room and connected to several other rooms on the same floor, namely the 7th floor of the R. Soegondo Building, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Photo 1: Parallel Room of Undergraduate Graduation of Faculty of Humanities Period IV Academic Year 2023/2024

Photo 2: Dean of Faculty of Humanities UGM gives a welcoming speech

The graduation ceremony was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM, Prof. Dr. Setiadi, S.Sos., M.Si., Vice Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, Dr. Nur Saktiningrum, S.S., M.Hum. Vice Dean for Finance, Assets, and Human Resources, Suray Agung Nugroho, S.S., M.A., Ph.D and representatives from each department and study program at the Faculty of Humanities.

In this graduation period, Valentino Yovenky Ardi Bentarangga, a student of the Cultural Anthropology Study Program achieved the highest GPA of 3.95 with a length of study of 3 years, 10 months; followed by Emily Trisnandi with a GPA of 3.94 from the English Literature Study Program with a length of study of 3 years 10 months.

The event was opened by singing Indonesia Raya, Gadjah Mada Mars, and Mars Sastra by Paramadaya. Then the dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM, Prof. Dr. Setiadi, S.Sos, M.Si., delivered a welcome speech. In his speech, Setiadi congratulated the graduates and graduates, besides that he also conveyed several messages for graduates and graduates to continue their journey even though they had completed their studies and won a bachelor’s degree. The event was also enlivened by the entertainment performance of Geol Denok Dance by Ratnaraya Jawa, Javanese Literature Students. The next event was the handover of graduation documents in the form of diplomas and academic transcripts to graduates. In closing, a prayer was read by Mr. Hamdan, S.S., M.A.

Congratulations to all graduates! A bright future awaits you!

The Women’s Crisis Center is a place for complaints of various cases of violence experienced by women. So far, public attention has centered on the development of legal cases, and places the victim as the sole subject who experiences the effects of trauma. In fact, the traumatic effect spreads to other actors who listen and fight for the case. On the occasion of the Caring for the Victim, Caring for the Self seminar (27/08/2024), the Anthropology Department of the Faculty of Arts UGM invited Mona Elisa Behnke to share the results of her months of research with the assistants at one of the Women’s Crisis Centers in Java, especially Yogyakarta.

Mona Behnke is a doctoral candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Free University Berlin, Germany. Her Master’s thesis was on hyperreality, state rhetoric and collective memory in contemporary Indonesia, and combined her interest in psychological and visual anthropology with a philosophical approach. After graduation, Mona worked for some time as a business anthropologist in the field of user experience and the organization of work structures. In her PhD project, she focused on the emotional labor of social assistance workers in a women’s crisis center in Java, Indonesia, touching on issues of emotion, gender, and conflict management.

Working in the humanitarian field has the consequence of great challenges, not only in terms of legal assistance skills, but also the skills that must be possessed to work in the field. Basically, gender itself is labor, where the articulation of actions, behaviors and performance are socially constructed in harmony. Women are considered more flexible in absorbing emotions and navigating concerns. Being an advocate for cases of violence against children and women makes them have to be able to navigate themselves technically and emotionally. Caring is the main asset that must be possessed by the assistants. Mona’s research tries to answer how care is practiced in a neutral environment through emotional labor from psychological and legal assistants.

Plunging as a companion shows that they consciously decide to enter a non-profit institution ready to experience institutionalization in three fundamental aspects, namely emotional labor, order of feelings, and emotion repertoires. ‘Emotional Labor’ refers to the management of emotions carried out to fulfill work performance when faced with clients. Facilitators are required to be able to harmonize their emotions with a socially constructed hierarchy or order. They must understand what emotions are allowed to be shown and not when listening to client stories. Repeated mentoring experiences shape their knowledge and memory of the repertoire of emotions when assisting clients. Furthermore, the process of assisting cases of violence against women and children has a dynamic approach both feminist and gender.

Listening to the emotions released by the client makes the companion experience second traumatization. This opens up further discussion that the experience of trauma is not only experienced by subjects who are directly treated with violence, but those who absorb the emotions of victims will also experience ‘second traumatization’, such as assistants and sign language interpreters. Emotional and mental exhaustion becomes the point where the assistants have an experience with the victim, beyond their technical skills. Mona describes the emotional flow of the helper and the victim in an interesting diagram, how the helper has to empty their emotional glass between before and after entering the hot table (where the client tells about their case). They professionally process their emotions in order to maintain themselves mentally so that they can continue to assist victims. This discussion brings us to the fact that the advocates actually have the potential to experience unequal care, where they give their full care to others, but they do not get the same care because they are considered not victims even though they absorb trauma from clients every day and fight for them. Sometimes, both survivors and caregivers feel very grateful when they can forget a very painful traumatic experience. From this we can conclude that forgetting is not a passive thing, but an active process that is also selective in building individual and collective memory. The ability to forget is also a valuable skill in emotional labor, in addition to the ability to remember which has been widely applied.

This discussion ended with several stories of assistants who were carrying out their temporal agencies by caring for each other and strengthening the emotional conditions of fellow assistants. Activities such as watching movies, joking, walking, telling stories and laughing out loud are a form of temporal agencies for the assistants so that their mental state is maintained and they can return to caring for other victims.

Author: Nuzul Solekhah
Photo: Puspita Nindya Sari

On Saturday, June 8, 2024, the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, held a course on Ethnography of the Sumatra Region which took place in the courtyard of the Soegondo building. The event, which began at 09.00 WIB until 14.00 WIB, aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the human and ethnic cultural dynamics in the Sumatra region and hone appreciation for local cultural forms and practices. The participants of this activity were all students of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences who took the Ethnography of the Sumatra Region course, totaling 74 students. In addition, the event was also attended by several INCULS students who participated as part of the program.

This practicum course in the form of cooking together is an affective supplement to build the affective side of students such as cooperation, discipline, dedication, ethics and responsibility. Through this joint cooking activity, students are expected to understand that food is not as simple as buying and enjoying. There is a cognitive process of recognizing taste, honing taste sensitivity through combination, which overall requires patience, accuracy, cooperation, and empathy. Furthermore, this process is expected to have a better attitude of appreciating food, not wasting food, and appreciating local food which is now starting to be abandoned.

The event began with a general explanation by the lecturer regarding the rules of the game, for example related to the order and time of implementation. Furthermore, the lecturer explained about the main types of spices used to cook rendang. All the spices were displayed on a table in front of Soegondo’s terrace. After enough explanation and questions and answers, each group took a ‘ration’ of 1 kilogram of beef that had been prepared, as well as the basic spices that had been prepared on display. For the spices, they took their own according to their own needs.

In the previous week, technical cooking issues had been discussed in class. Students are allowed to find their own rendang recipes. Therefore, it is possible that there are differences in additional spices and cooking techniques.  Some include brown sugar, some include grated coconut. There are also those who include turmeric leaves.

At 09.30am, the students returned to their desks and started cooking. While the students were cooking, the lecturers and their ‘assistants’ were also doing the same. The atmosphere became exciting. Moreover, it was also announced that there would be an assessment conducted by the ‘jury’. The judges were interns in the department who were actually tasked with documenting the activities. Because there will be this ‘assessment’ the students become excited. Several times students came to the lecturer’s desk to ask about cooking techniques or ask for additional spices. Some students were also seen making phone and video calls to their parents about the ‘correct’ cooking procedures. Although it was obvious that the majority of the students were not used to cooking, they were in good spirits. Occasionally shouting and chattering cheerfully. Occasionally came to the lecturer’s desk to compare his cooking with his group.

Finally at 12:30 the cooking program according to the agreement was stopped. Then the impromptu judges came to each group to give an assessment based on two criteria: appearance of cooking and taste. Based on the accumulated scores, group 3 became the champion for the flavor category, and group 4 became the best in terms of the appearance of rendang (looks very beautiful brown, apparently added brown sugar, and it makes it Jogja rendang). One interesting thing was also the creation of group 5 who made rendang with a soft and very light flavor, making it suitable for tourist consumption.

The event was closed with a brief review from the lecturer about the whole process and student impressions. The event was closed with a group photo and a meal together. Some students were even eager to join the queue for rendang made by the lecturer.In terms of achievements, this event can be said to be a success. As the main goal of the ethnography course is appreciation and respect for differences, this event clearly provided new experiences for students about nasi padang. They had never imagined that it would be that difficult to enjoy rendang rice. It takes time, commitment, and intelligence in organizing composition and technicalities. This made students realize to appreciate traditional food more, even if they can afford it.

Another important thing to emphasize is that lectures do not always have to be about reviewing and paper-oriented assignments. This activity is one of the ways that lectures can be more relaxed and enjoyable while still being critical and academic.

On Wednesday, July 31, 2024, Prof. Bambang Hudayana delivered a public lecture on culture as part of the Opening Ceremony of Pionir Kampung Budaya 2024. This lecture successfully captured the attention of many participants with its highly relevant and profound topic on the importance of becoming a cultural activist.

In his presentation, Prof. Bambang emphasized the importance of being a cultural activist. According to him, cultural activists must have awareness and sensitivity towards cultural issues present in society. He also stressed the roles of companion and cultural advocate that these activists must undertake. He added that promoting regional culture is crucial as it holds significant value for our lives.

Moreover, he highlighted that whatever is taught at the Faculty of Cultural Sciences at UGM always includes cultural elements that can serve as guidelines for empowering our culture.

Prof. Bambang also raised the issue of gender equality in all aspects of life. He reminded us that our culture contains values that elevate the dignity of women, making it essential to continue empowering them.

This public lecture provided valuable insights to the participants about the importance of preserving, maintaining, and empowering local culture. Prof. Bambang Hudayana successfully conveyed important messages that inspired the participants to become cultural activists committed to the preservation and development of culture in Indonesia.

Wednesday, July 31, 2024, marked a historic day for the Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB) at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) with the opening of Pionir Kampung Budaya 2024. The event was held in the front yard of the Margono Building, commonly known as Greenland, and was celebrated with great enthusiasm.

The event was officially opened by Prof. Setiadi, Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences UGM. In his speech, Prof. Setiadi introduced the vice deans, heads of study programs, and unit coordinators at FIB UGM. “I hope the students get to know the people who will assist them during their studies at FIB UGM,” said Prof. Setiadi. This introduction aimed to create a closer and more familiar relationship between students and the faculty, fostering a conducive and supportive learning environment.

The event’s excitement continued with various performances from semi-autonomous bodies (BSO) of FIB UGM. Among them were Sastra Oebah with a captivating theater performance, Rampoe with energetic traditional Acehnese dances, and Buchaechum showcasing the elegant and mesmerizing Korean fan dance.

Another highlight was a cultural discussion session featuring Prof. Bambang Hudayana as the speaker. This discussion covered current issues in the cultural world and how students can actively participate in the preservation and development of local culture. This session served as an inspirational moment that motivated students to delve deeper into and appreciate the cultural wealth they possess.

Additionally, there was a sharing session with successful alumni from the Faculty of Cultural Sciences. There was also a session led by Mrs. Erika Purnawati, S.Kom., M.Cs., about the administrative procedures for borrowing rooms and facilities at FIB UGM.

The Opening of Pionir Kampung Budaya 2024 was not only an introduction and entertainment event but also a means to strengthen the relationship between students and the faculty and enrich cultural insights. With high spirits, it is hoped that FIB UGM students will continue to contribute to preserving and developing Indonesian culture.