My greetings to everyone visiting this website. Welcome all of you. It gives me great pleasure to welcome you in LITA website.
Linguistics and Literature Association (LITA) was founded
on 17 June 2018 at Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta.
At the time, there were some English lecturers who teach English, especially in
Literature and Linguistics at Universitas Islam Negeri who discussed about the
need to work and collaborate one another. So, we established LITA. However, now
we want to develop LITA and reach lecturers and all people interested in the
field of Linguistics and Literature without limiting ourselves in the boundary
of Ministry of Religious Affairs. I am proud to convey that now our members are
coming from different universities or institution backgrounds. In addition to
members from various UINs in Indonesia, we now have members from other
Ministries from different parts of Indonesia. In Sumatra, for example,
lecturers from Universitas Negeri Medan, Universitas Prima Indonesia Medan, STT
Pelita Kebenaran Medan, Universitas PGRI Palembang, Universitas Islam
Ogan Komering. We have also members from Java that include members from
Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama Yogya, STKIP Muhammadiyah Blora, Universitas Al
Ghifari Bandung, STKIP PASUNDAN, Universitas Gunadarma, Universitas Islam
Lamongan, Universitas Kebangsaan Republik Indonesia-Bandung, Universitas Jenderal Sudirman,
Universitas Gajah Mada, Universitas Brawijaya, and Universitas Indonesia. From
Borneo, we have lecturers from Universitas Lambung Mangkurat and other
universities. Some lecturers from Nusa Tenggara, for instance, are from
Universitas Qamarul Huda Badarudin NTB, Politeknik Pertanian Negeri Kupang have
been also joining LITA. Members from Sulawesi include Universitas Bosowa,
Universitas Fajar Makassar, Universitas Halu Oleo. We have also members from
other institutions that I cannot mention all for the vast coverage of LITA
members.
It is our intent that we established LITA association in order to both develop
our networks and importantly to develop English literature departments in
Indonesia, including the lecturers, students, learning process, and other
activities under our motto of “Members Helping Members and others: Learn,
Share, and Succeed Together.” Members of the Linguistics and Literature
community bring with them to this online meeting what they have learned through
study, research, and discussion practice to share with other attendees while
listening to the invited speakers for the benefit and success of all.
LITA has been conducting joint online seminars monthly. The first LITA
seminar theme was “English Blended Learning” with the speakers: Ibu Dr.
Raudhatul Jannah and me myself, hosted by UIN Sunan ampel Surabaya on 7 July
2020. The second LITA seminar theme was “Gender, Migration, and Diaspora in
Women’s Literature of the Ummah” with the speakers, they are, Hasnul Insani
Djohar, PhD and Dr. Rosmah Tami hosted by UIN Alaudin Makasar on 21 July 2020.
The third LITA online seminar theme was “Gender, Racism, and Terrorism in
Literature” with the speakers: Dr. Witriani and Maria Ulfa hosted by UIN Syarif
Hidayatullah Jakarta on 12 August 2020. The fourth joint seminar organized by
UIN Bandung inviting Dr. Ala Alghamdi from the Department of Languages and
Translation, Faculty of Arts, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia and Dr.
Isil Ozcan from the American Culture and Literature Department, Faculty of
Letters, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey. We are indebted to all speakers
for their willingness to present and share their expertise with us, despite
their busy schedules.
We’re proud to have all of you with us as LITA members and supporters. In addition
to having Whattsapp group (WAG) for LITA members where we can discuss any issue
in Linguistics & Literature any time we want, LITA develop websites to
further and intensify communication with members and supporters. We can share
resources and learn from other members. Hopefully, in the future we can enrich
LITA with more activities other than joint online seminar, informal discussion
in WA group and collaboration in Journal publication. This website adds to our
platform to have more ways to communicate our ideas and events and to have
dialogues with all members, supporters and LITA’s fans as well as broad
audience interested in the field of Linguistics and Literature. Through this
website, audience may find different activities we’ve conducted in the past as
well as the upcoming events. Information on our collaboration with different
institutions as well as how we possibly develop new partnership with potential
collaborators are also provided in the web. Interesting articles on linguistics
and literature of LITA members and supporters as well as fans also appear in
the web.
I thank each of you, our assembly of committee members of LITA, LITA
members and supporters as well as fans from early-career linguists, literary
critics, teachers to the more senior ones. I am also proud to recognize our
dedicated academic team – led by Bapak Hasbi Ashiddiqi, committed human
resource division—chaired by Bapak Kustiwan Syarief, Ph.D., devoted information
and communication team— managed by Bapak Suhandoko, loyal membership
division—led by Bapak Dr. Ubaidillah, and devoted collaboration and partnership
division—directed by Ibu Dr. Wahju Kusumajanti.
I am very excited about the themes of the online seminars, for example,
the theme in the fourth joint online seminar: ISLAM AND ENGLISH LITERATURE. Islamic
literature is relatively new focus of study. The notion of Islamic
literature started to emerge during the sixties of this century as Najeed Al
Khaelany mentioned in the Introduction of his book entitled Afaaq al-Adab
Al-Islamy. Arabic language is one of the richest sources of Islamic
Literature. Literature accepted Islam and carried it until it became pattern of
Arabic literature describing its theme, culture, and taboos. However, Islamic
literature is not only written in Arabic Language, but also in all different
Muslims’ languages, including English. As a relatively new focus of study,
there are abundant information that we want to know on how Islam is depicted in
the English language and in the English-speaking community where originally
members of English-speaking community are mostly non-Muslim. So, Dr. Alaa
Alghamdi as the speaker reflected on The Representation of Muslim as the
Other in Post 9/11 Fiction. This, of course, has been stimulating new
learning and discussion. The second speaker, Dr. Isil Ozcan shared her ideas
related to Islamic Contexts in Nineteenth Century American Literature: Wai
Chee Dimock on Ralph Waldo Emerson. This is another thought-provoking issue
to examine and converse.
So, ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy the website and RISE to the
challenge! We offer our ideas, work and events for you to respond. We’ll be
happy to have your participation.
Prof. Dr. Zuliati Rohmah, M.Pd.