Plenary Speakers

Prof. Swarsih Madya 

Prof. Dewa Komang Tantra

Introduction of Plenary Speakers : 

Suwarsih Madya

After obtaining her M.A. and Ph.D. from Macquarie University in 1988, Suwarsih Madya returned to Yogyakarta State University as an English Department faculty member. Although her main interest had been in language teacher education, in 1995 the Ministry of Education and Culture made her an Educational-Cultural Attaché at the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. After spending four years there, during which time she data on the English spoken by Thai people, she spent three years as Head of the Bureau for Foreign Cooperation and Public Relations at the Ministry of National Education in Jakarta. To remain in touch with the academic world, she returned to Yogyakarta every weekend to teach her students on Saturday and discuss their theses with them on Monday. Two years later she became Head of the Provincial Education Office in Jakarta, and her last administrative job was as the Vice-Rector for Foreign Cooperation and Development at her university in Yogyakarta. She spent four years here, and then got her current position as the Head of the Postgraduate English Study Program at her university, a job she really enjoys given her original academic interests. Professor Madya is still active in both national and international professional organizations. Reflecting on her rich experiences interacting with people from various cultural and professional backgrounds, Dr. Madya has finally come to believe that  the most important goal of education should be the formation of a strong and virtuous character.