Master’s Program in Linguistics, Universitas Gadjah Mada with other Master’s Program in Linguistics from Universitas Brawijaya, Universitas Diponegoro, Universitas Airlangga, and Universitas Jember gathered in Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Brawijaya to hold a joint conference. The conference was held on October 15, 2024. The conference theme was Exploring the Roles and Impacts of Linguistics Studies in the Digital Era. Thirty-one students responded to the theme by bringing various issues to discuss in a panel session.

Tursina, a sociolinguistic student, and Alfina, a translation student, participated in the conference. In response to the theme, Tursina brought up the topic of how French media framed Islamophobia to be discussed, and Alfina initiated a conversation talking about transparency in translation and its implication for dynamic equivalence seen through a particular Netflix series.

“I was very happy to be able to be involved in the discussion. First of all, I got some significant feedback from the reviewers. I believe that it will strengthen my research analysis,” said Tursina. In line with Tursina, Alfina expressed that she was also glad to be involved in the panel discussions where she got an interesting quotation from her reviewer, which is “a translator is just a person who runs away from the reality, rather than saying the literal meaning of the particular utterance, they decide to say something else.” Tursina and Alfine also mentioned that seeing and listening to the presentation delivered by other participants from the Master’s Program in Linguistics, Universitas Gadjah Mada was inspiring and filled them with pride. 

It was not only the students involved in the conversation but also the lecturer. Dr. Sajarwa, M.Hum was one of the keynote speakers. He sparked the conversation by talking about Resistensi dan Negosiasi Identitas Islam: Penerjemahan Kata Budaya Bahasa Perancis dalam Bahasa Indonesia (The Resistance and Negotiation of Islamic Identity: Translating French Cultural Words into Indonesian). Zasqia, one of the participants, expressed that the keynote speakers enlightened her because of the various topics they brought which allowed her and other participants to look at the linguistic problems from different perspectives as well as gave them another option to conduct linguistic research. 

After the conference, it was expected that the discussion and the feedback they got from the reviewers and other participants may improve and enhance their writing and analysis skills. This collaboration also allowed the students to submit their research articles to the journal managed by each university or study program. 

Four students and two lecturers participated in the Critical Island Studies Consortium 2024 at De la Salle University, Manila, Philippines. They traveled all the way from Yogyakarta to Manila, presenting their critical ideas on the role of language in addressing ecological issues. The consortium took place on October 3rd and 4th, 2024.

Critical Island Studies Consortium 2024 brought a theme of the Political Lives of Islands, where scholars were challenged to respond to environmental transformation through an interdisciplinary lens, in particular humanities studies, to perform a practical and creative solution for life and sustainability. Six delegates from the Master’s Program in Linguistics, Universitas Gadjah Mada, brought their ideas in a paper to be presented in the parallel session of the conference. 

In detail, Munzila Adelawati and Muh. Asrul Baharuddin presented their paper discussing Ecolinguistic Analysis of Industry and Ecology of Island: A Case Study of Tin Mining in Bangka Belitung Island. Hurrotul Firdausiyah discussed linguistic landscape by presenting her paper entitled Remembering the Pearl of Java among the Trading Ports: A Linguistic Landscape Study in Bandar Grissee, Indonesia. Diana Sri Suryani examined how environmental policy is generated by the Indonesian Government, where she submitted a paper entitled Exploring Climate Change Metaphors on the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Website: An Ecolinguistics of Representations of Indonesia Government’s Environmental Policy. Furthermore, Dr. Aprillia Firmonasari, S.S., M.Hum., DEA presented her paper entitled Unveiling Cultural Depths: A Critical Ecolinguistic Exploration of Tahne Juguin and Jean-Denis Pendanx’s Comic “Mentawai” while Dr. Merry Andriani, S.S., M.L.C.S. analyzed environmental issues and carbon market in presidential campaign 2024 in Indonesia, where she put Contestation of Environmental Issues and Carbon Market Discourse in Presidential Electoral Campaigns 2024 in Indonesia as the title of her paper. 

Hurrotul expressed that she was very glad and blessed to participate in the Critical Island Studies 2024. “We, the participants, came from countries with similar environmental and cultural backgrounds. Listening to and engaging in the discussions provided valuable insights, along with opportunities for networking among scholars,” Hurrotul explained. When asked about the most interesting part of the discussion, Hurrotul mentioned that Asian cultures share common ideas—not only in social norms or cultural ideologies but also in small details that we might not have considered. “I never imagined that we have similar or even the same concept of another entity—a ghost. The differences are only in the names, but the form and structure are identical. For me, it shows that we face the same issues, and this type of meeting can be a medium to exchange ideas and knowledge to help solve our problems,” said Hurrotul.

The Critical Island Studies Consortium was initiated by Kritika Kultura, Ateneo de Manila University, and UNITAS, University of Santo Tomas in 2019 taking “Critical Island Studies: The Islandic Archipelago and Oceanic” as the theme. It reconvened post-pandemic in Jakarta in 2022, in which Universitas Kristen Indonesia (UKI) and Universitas Indonesia (UI) hosted the conference. Still in Indonesia, in 2023, it carried the theme “Island Commodities” and was held at Universitas Gadjah Mada in conjunction with Universitas Sanata Dharma’s Literary Studies Conference.