UNAIR NEWS – Online Summer School Postgraduate School (SPS) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) was officially commenced on Monday (21/6/2021). With Comparative Regionalism in a Changing World Order 2021 as the theme, the five-day event was attended by at least nine presenters from 5 countries and 30 participants from 19 countries.
Director of UNAIR Postgraduate School (SPS), Prof. Badri Munir Sukoco, said that the first summer school of SPS UNAIR was a forum to introduce students to regionalism issues that are currently being highlighted.
“Regionalism can be deemed to be the focus of policy in various countries. Moreover, the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic will certainly change our world order. Therefore, we need to understand the perspective of each region on various global issues through comparative regionalism,” he explained.
The Indonesian Ambassador to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan H.E. Rahmat Pramono said a similar thing, emphasizing the importance of comparative regionalism studies in order to be able to respond to multidimensional issues using the appropriate perspective.
In his remarks, Dr. Saule Kemelbayeva, Dean of the Higher School of Economics M.Narikbayev KAZGUU University Kazakhstan, expected collaboration from all program participants through their innovative ideas and active participation.
From the opening session, SPS UNAIR also presented two invited speakers presenting materials on comparative regionalism. Prof. Philippe De Lombaerde from the UNU Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies Belgium, for example, explained the basic theories of comparative regionalism and its future potential.
Meanwhile, Dr. Farkhad Tolipov as Director of Non-Governmental Research Institution’ Knowledge Caravan’ Uzbekistan focuses more on the issue of regionalism in Central Asia, particularly related to integration, geopolitics, and theories that form regionalism.
The event, held from June 21, 2021, to June 25, 2021, will present speakers from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Africa Programme, London School of Economics and Political Science, St. Andrew University U.K., KAZGUU University Kazakhstan, Ghent University Belgium, as well as the best lecturers from UNAIR. UNAIR Postgraduate School has succeeded in attracting the enthusiasm of students from Malaysia, Cambodia, Argentina, China, Thailand, Azerbaijan, India, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Nepal, Mexico, Scotland, Tajikistan, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uzbekistan, Brazil, Nigeria, and Indonesia. (*)
Author: Intang Arifia
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
