Yogyakarta, 26/8/2025 – The Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (FIB UGM), held the Maguyubagya Graduation Ceremony for Undergraduate Students, Period IV of the 2024/2025 Academic Year at the Poerbacaraka Auditorium. In his remarks, the Dean proudly announced that this graduation marked a historic record with the highest number of graduates ever—226 students in total.

The graduates came from 11 study programs: Cultural Anthropology (20), Archaeology (20), History (14), Arabic Literature (34), Indonesian Language and Literature (29), English Literature (28), Japanese Language and Culture (13), Korean Language and Culture (22), Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture (8), French Language and Literature (12), and Tourism (26).

Outstanding achievements were highlighted during the ceremony. Anindya Calyndra (English Literature) was named the best graduate with a GPA of 3.96, completing her studies in just 3 years, 11 months, and 8 days. Meanwhile, Ruth Selma Sekar Citra (Indonesian Language and Literature) recorded the fastest study period, graduating in only 3 years, 9 months, and 10 days. The youngest graduate was Sherina Azmi Ahmad (Korean Language and Culture), who completed her degree at just 21 years, 1 month, and 13 days old.

A special moment in the ceremony was the address delivered by Prof. Dr. Rr. Retno Widyani, M.S., M.H., the parent of An Nuur Khairune Nisa, S.Par. Representing all parents and guardians of the graduates, she expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the lecturers and the entire academic community of FIB UGM for their dedication to educating and guiding the students until they successfully reached graduation day.

Overall, FIB UGM reported an average GPA of 3.68 and an average study period of 4 years and 3 months, reflecting the faculty’s strong commitment to academic excellence and student success.

This graduation not only marked the end of an academic journey but also the beginning of a new chapter for the graduates, who are now ready to contribute to society with the knowledge and cultural values they have gained at FIB UGM.

Yogyakarta, 27/8/2025 – The Master’s Program in Linguistics, Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB) Universitas Gadjah Mada, held a public lecture entitled “An Outside Perspective: Classifying Languages in Multilingual Spoken Corpora” at the R. Soegondo Auditorium. The event was open to both the academic community and the general public, featuring Dr. Zara Maxwell-Smith, Lecturer in Indonesian Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), UNSW Canberra, as the keynote speaker.

The lecture was officially opened by the Head of the Linguistics Master’s Program, Prof. Dr. Suhandano, M.A. In his remarks, he encouraged participants to collaborate in advancing linguistic research and to make the most of the opportunity to learn from the invited speaker.

In her presentation, Dr. Zara first highlighted the major challenges in building multilingual spoken corpora. She explained that such corpora are notoriously difficult to annotate and describe. The difficulties include managing non-verbal cues in transcripts, converting oral communication rules into written systems across different languages, transcriber subjectivity, and the significant amount of time required for manual transcription.

She then presented findings from her research on Indonesian Language for Foreign Speakers (BIPA) classroom data. According to her, teachers’ speech is part of their professional identity, and training data can shape perceptions of teaching practice as well as teachers’ understanding of their own work. This, she noted, calls for sensitive approaches to avoid negative impacts on employment and professional reputation.

Despite these challenges, Dr. Zara emphasized the empirical benefits of such research. The findings provide valuable insights for teachers, curriculum developers, educational researchers, and policymakers. Moreover, the study helps advance the teaching of Indonesian, contributes to resources for bilingual natural language processing (NLP), and places education at the center of technological applications in the field of language.

Yogyakarta, 21/8/2025 – The Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB) at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) has once again produced a new doctor in the field of linguistics. Novi Eka Susilowati officially earned her doctoral degree with her dissertation titled “The Use of Verbal Violence Metaphors Against Indonesian Politicians on Twitter.” The doctoral promotion session took place in the Multimedia Room, Margono Building, FIB UGM, with promoter Prof. Dr. I Dewa Putu Wijana, S.U., M.A., and co-promoter Dr. Hayatul Cholsy, M.Hum.

In her research, Novi discovered that political discourse on social media is rife with metaphors of verbal violence used by netizens to dehumanize and belittle politicians. The forms of these metaphors vary, ranging from words and phrases to sentences, drawing from source domains such as animals, trash, metaphysical beings, and physical objects. Interestingly, new metaphors unique to Indonesia’s digital culture have emerged, such as Mak Lampir and Kakek Sugiono.

During her speech, she identified six factors contributing to the use of verbal violence metaphors against politicians: (1) disappointment with politicians, (2) the political party ideology that supports the politicians, (3) access to social media, (4) the anonymity feature on Twitter, (5) the social distance between Twitter users and politicians, and (6) cultural context.

These findings indicate that social media is not merely a space for expression but also an arena for the reproduction of symbolic violence that can damage the positive image of politicians and diminish respect for their human rights. From a global perspective, this study is relevant to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, which emphasizes the importance of peaceful communication, transparency, and respect for human dignity in public life.

Yogyakarta, 19/8/2025 – The Arabic Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), opened the 2025/2026 academic year with a warm and meaningful gathering between Academic Supervisors and their students. This event served not only as an academic briefing but also as a space to strengthen personal connections, ensuring students have a clearer roadmap for their journey at Arabic Study Program UGM.

The Academic Supervisors personally greeted their mentees, fostering closer communication and interaction. The session continued with a review of students’ credit achievements (SKS) and a reminder of the academic credit system, encouraging students to design effective learning strategies for the semesters ahead. In addition, the supervisors introduced students to the projection of their final projects, giving them an early picture of the possible paths they could take in preparing for their culminating academic work.

Beyond academics, students were reminded of the importance of building a professional digital footprint during their time at UGM. They were encouraged to utilize platforms such as LinkedIn to record achievements, experiences, and personal growth. This simple yet strategic step is expected to lay a strong foundation for future careers while supporting the university’s Key Performance Indicators (IKU).

In line with this, the meeting also highlighted opportunities offered by the Merdeka Belajar Kampus Merdeka (MBKM) program, which enables students to strengthen both hard skills and soft skills through experiential learning beyond the classroom.

The session concluded with an emphasis on nurturing student achievement. The Arabic Study Program reaffirmed its commitment to fully supporting students in developing their potential—both academic and non-academic—so that they may grow into graduates who are excellent, competitive, and ready to contribute meaningfully to society.

Author: Muhammad Ardiansyah

A youth-led, non-profit organisation, AIYA seeks to improve the connections between young Australians and Indonesians as well as the opportunities that exist between Australia and Indonesia through cultural and language exchanges, professional programs, and more. AIYA has chapters active in Australian states and territories, and also in Indonesia, including one in Yogyakarta. At the national level, AIYA is governed by an executive committee of early-career professionals.

Bathari Sekar Dewangga, also known as Atha, an English Literature student, secured an internship as an educational events organizer at AIYA. Atha went through two stages of selection for this internship at AIYA. The first was application screening/review, and the second was an interview. Since AIYA is an international organization, in the interview, she had to position herself as a delegate/representative of her country and have a mindset to grow, learn, be tolerant, and understand others.

As an education event officer, Atha’s main task is to organize language exchange events, starting from brainstorming topic ideas and questions related to the chosen topic, compiling event rundowns, surveying places to hold events, becoming MCs and facilitators during the event, and being an intermediary between AIYA and outside parties who want to collaborate with Education AIYA. Not only that, but sometimes Atha also assists the socio-cultural division in running events.

She also served as a link between AIYA and the external parties. Moreover, being part of AIYA allowed her to see the world through different perspectives, appreciating cultural differences and learning to manage her schedule more effectively, especially while balancing academic commitments and preparing for her community service (KKN). At first, she only wanted to strengthen her English skills and make global connections during her internship with the organisation. But she ended up with more than she had needed. She became more proficient in communication, time management, and decision-making. 

Meeting new people and learning about their cultures and languages at each event was both exciting and thrilling for her. Through collaboration, she gained experience in a professional environment and built her career path. “My participation in this organisation has increased my interest in pursuing an overseas job, getting a master’s degree, or establishing a career in Australia,” she shared.