About

ABOUT UGM CENTER FOR CULTURAL STUDIES
At its inception the center had been named Lembaga Pengkajian Kebudayaan Indonesia (The Indonesian Institute for Cultural Analysis), which in the course of time evolved into, respectively, Pusat Penelitian dan Studi Kebudayaan (Center for Cultural Research and Studies), Pusat Penelitian Kebudayaan (Research Center for Culture), Pusat Studi Kebudayaan (Center for Cultural Studies) and Pusat Penelitian Kebudayaan dan Perubahan Sosial (Research Center for Culture and Social Change). Since the year 2000 it has formally acquired the name Gadjah Mada University Center for Cultural Studies (Pusat Studi Kebudayaan UGM – PSK-UGM).

The center was founded by the late Prof. Dr. Umar Kayam in April 1977. At that time cultural studies was promoted mainly by involving artists both at the center and the periphery of the society. During his tenure as the center’s director, Prof.Dr. Umar Kayam came up with the idea of Gadjah Mada Art Market, which was more familiarly known as Gama Fair.

After Prof Kayam’s tenure, the leadership of the institution had been held successively by Prof. Dr.Sjafri Sairin and Dr. Faruk H.T. before it was handed over in 2005 to Dr. Widya Nayati, M.A., the present director.

VISION

1. Develop Gadjah Mada University into a culturally-minded center of excellence.
2. Locate culture holistically as a way of life, value system, and material products in all segments of life.

MISSION
Promote Gadjah Mada Center for Cultural Studies as an institution which

1. Actively takes part in realizing an Indonesian brand of multiculturalism in all aspects of civic life.
2. Promotes the essentiality of cultural perspectives in every development policy sector.

AIM

• Increase awareness among academic communities and the society in general of the importance of social cultural studies for the development and survival of Indonesia. To achieve this goal the institution strives to become an information center for culture.
• Create cultural research possibilities for academic communities.
• Develop high-quality interdisciplinary social and cultural research relating to globalization process, the development of science and technology, and the industrialization of the world.
• Promoting hidden treasure as a part of cultural diversity and transformation.
• Establish sustainable cooperation with local and international partners.
• Develop independent and collaborative research cooperation with local and international partners in order to produce publications with international quality.
• Develop training programs to support governmental performance.

STRENGTH
The Gadjah Mada University Center for Cultural Research is the only research institution that acknowledge culture as the unifying force of the Indonesian State. Cultural diversity in Indonesia must be brought to bear a single great strength in sustainable development.

The institute bases its strength on Gadjah Mada Universities’ basic potency of 18 faculties, more than 40 departments, 69 undergraduate study program , a graduate school and 29 research centers. The implication of this diversity is the lecturers’ diverse specializations, which is unprecedented by any other universities in the country. The heterogeneity of the faculties is the reason why many research centers, especially the Center for Cultural Studies are characterized by multi-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary qualities of their research.

The Gadjah Mada University Center for Cultural Studies is a center for research on cultures that has been operating since 1977, and it was the only one in the country. In the past five years the center has done research on cultural regions of Indonesia-e.g. Java, Western and Eastern Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.

Since 2008 the Indonesian Department of Culture and Tourism has built centers for cultural studies in seven state universities i.e. Indonesian University(UI), Padjajaran University (UNPAD), Airlangga University (UNAIR) , Andalas University , Udayana University, Hasanuddin University (UNHAS) and Gadjah Mada University. While other centers receives funds from the Department of Culture and Tourism, Gadjah Mada University Center for Cultural Studies is planned under the president of the university.

The main tasks of these centers are to study, respectively, Betawi local knowledge(by UI), Sundanese local knowledge (by UNPAD), Minang local knowledge (Andalas University), East Javanese local knowledge (UNAIR), Balinese local knowledge (Udayana), oceanic local knowledge (UNHAS) and Javanese local knowledge (by Gadjah Mada University). However, since nation-wide studies have been done in Gadjah Mada, the national viewpoint is still maintained with an additional study on Javanese culture.

ACTIVITIES

Research

The Gadjah Mada Center for Cultural Studies carries on researches on (a) the implication of culture in non-cultural policies, e.g. infrastructure (roads, hospitals, housing, tourist resorts, irigation, etc), (b) art, language, culture and its change and development, (c) cultural mapping and evaluation of policies on culture, (d) comparison of policies and institutions in various regions worldwide, and other researches that take culture as the central viewpoint to solve the country’s actual problems.

Education and Training

Trainings in various fields with cultural perspective, aimed at academia, legislature bodies, executive bodies, business people, artists, NGOs and the general public. Community outreach in order to deal with various local problems using local cultures.

Consultation

The center gives consultation for the implementation of cultural perspective in national or and regional development projects. It also develops proposal on policies with local culture-based perspective, where they are able to develop their own culture to independently respond to various problems in the future.

Publication

Publication of research reports, seminar modules, and translations of manuscripts relating to cultural policies and the implementation of cultural perspectie in various aspects of societal life.

COOPERATION
The center cooperates with other research centers in other universities, Cultural Board of DIY and The Yogyakarta Municipality, the central government (the Ministry of Environment including Pusreg and Regional Department of Environmental Protection (Bapedalda), The Department of Culture and Tourism, Department of Communication and Informatics, The Ministry of Ocean and Fishery, The State Secretariat Office, The Department of Foreign Affair, regional governments of Yogyakarta, Eastern Nusatenggara, Riau, the regencies of Sleman, Bantul, Klaten, Alor, North-central Timor, Muna, Konawe, Southern Konawe, and Kolaka).

The center has also cooperated with Universities (Hasanuddin, Brawijaya, Wangsa Manggala Univerisities) Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate, Umar Kayam Foundation, Mekar Pribadi, local and national presses, NGOs such as Perapera and Bunderan, and other private parties who are interested in developing cultural perspective, as well as foreign partners such as CIRAD, Toyota Foundation, New Mexico Museum in the US, Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and the Dutch Cultural Center, Karta Pustaka of Yogyakarta.