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.