ASC UGM Open House 2022 – The Engagement of Academia in Community Building

The existence of an academic approach to support community building in the ASEAN and the Southeast Asia region is essential. Academia has a role in engaging the regional development through critical and scientific research in maintaining the three ASEAN Pillars, and ASEAN Community Vision 2025. It is correlated with the development of the youth in the region, with about 20 million students in tertiary education, ASEAN may become a hotspot for higher education expansion and is expected to increase the number of young researchers and academia.

Since its establishment in 2013, ASEAN Studies Center Universitas Gadjah Mada has supported and enabled the participation of academia and researchers in research and outreach projects targeted at strengthening ASEAN-People engagement. ASEAN Studies Center Universitas Gadjah Mada seeks to improve the dialogue between researchers and academia in response to emerging challenges and underline their contribution to regional development as a hub for researchers and students.

With this idea, on Friday 25 February 2022, the ASEAN Studies Center successfully held an Open House event, that aimed to introduce the institution and its research, programs, and outreach initiatives. The event is expected to invite and attract the interest from academia, specifically researchers and students, as well as experts, to engage and provide their contribution in regional development through critical and scientific research with ASEAN Studies Center Universitas Gadjah Mada. The involvement could be engaged by several forms such as collaborative research, scientific and critical writing in ASEAN Notes, Policy Brief, Working Paper, and joining an internship program for young researchers and students.

Aside from that, the Open House event hosted a series of webinars titled “Academic Engagement in Community Building.” The purpose of the webinar is to address how researchers and academics may contribute to and assist the above-mentioned concerns. The webinar invited Mr. Muhammad Takdir (Head for Policy Strategy for the Asia Pacific and Africa Region, MOFA RI) as a keynote speaker and was moderated by Ms. Yulida Nuraini Santoso (Managing Director at ASC UGM). Several panelists have also been invited to enliven the discussion and provide responses to Mr. Takdir’s explanation, they are Mr. Lee Yoong Yoong (Director of Community Affairs Directorate ASEAN Secretariat); Dr. Alan Chong (Associate Professor at the Centre for Multilateralism Studies, RSIS NTU); and Ms. Prodita Sabarini (Executive Editor at The Conversation Indonesia). To seek the point of view from the young researcher, the webinar also invited Felicitas Cahya from the student community UGM ASEAN Society.

The webinar came to a close with remarks from the keynote speaker and each panelist. Hopefully, the event would promote regional community-building awareness and bring the ASEAN Studies Center closer to researchers, academia, and students from various institutions and universities in ASEAN Countries and dialogue partners. Just as ASC UGM institution tagline -Bringing ASEAN Closer to You-.

*You can also watch the recorded webinar on our YouTube channel, ugm.id/youtubeascugm.

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