Powered by Bina Nusantara University, English Department has successfully organized an event for those who love and appreciate language, applied linguistics, technology, and literary works, The event is called KASS or Kijang Academic Sharing Series. The ideas to make it into sharing session and split into a few episodes were set up early in July 2020 by  Mr. Irfan Rifai, S.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D. On Friday, August 14, 2020, Bina Nusantara English Department held a webinar entitled “The Power of Language in Indonesian Literary & Cultural Expressions”. Also, this marks the department that they already accomplished the second episode of sharing session; which means, there are few episodes of sharing session to come in the future. The session offers a warm discussion and mostly exploits the topic of the power of language. The webinar ran approximately 120 minutes full with presentation and Q&A sessions.

Ms. Criscentia Jessica Setiadi, S.S., M.A., and Ms. Maria Tamarina Prawati, S.Pd., M.A. were the host and the Co-host for KASS.  Mr. Abdul Aziz Turhan Kariko, S.S., M.Hum. also took part actively by pooling every question asked by the participants and sending it to the private chatroom so it wouldn’t be too distracting.

The moderator of the event was Ms. Paramita Ayuningtyas, S. Hum., M. Hum, one of the English Literature lecturers in Binus, who moderated and managed three speakers in the webinar. They were Nelly Martin-Anatias, Ph.D. from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, Prof. Drs. Mugijatna, M.Si., Ph.D from Sebelas Maret University, Solo, Indonesia, and lastly, was Dr. Andreas Akun, S.Pd., M.Hum. from Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia. The first speaker talked about “English at the Periphery: Evidence from Indonesian Popular Novels”. The second speaker delivered a presentation related to Indonesian poetry entitled “The Power of Language in Indonesian Poetry”. The third and last speaker shared a presentation about “The (Unspoken) Power of Language in Indonesian Female Authors’ Novels on Woman and Corruption”.

From the beginning until the end, the webinar ran smoothly. According to the main host, since it is called KASS – Kijang Academic Sharing Series, the event today is not the end. In other words, there will be more to come until December 2020.  From this webinar and others that will come, the organizers were hoping that from this KASS, they could share and spread passions toward literature and ignite appreciation toward literary works (ARF).