Minister Calls for Adaptive Humanities to Address Global Changes

RRI.CO.ID, Depok - Indonesia’s Minister of Culture, Fadli Zon, urges the development of humanities that are critical, adaptive, and rooted in culture to address the challenges of a rapidly changing world. He made the statement while serving as a keynote speaker at the 2026 National Symposium of Humanities Professors at the Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia, in Depok, West Java, on Tuesday, August 11, 2026.

Themed “Trajectories and the Urgency of Future Humanities,” the symposium, held from August 11 to 13, brought together 55 professors from 33 universities across Indonesia. The academicians discussed how the humanities can remain relevant amid technological advances, social changes, and emerging challenges.

Fadli said the humanities are developing amid increasingly rapid changes, making forums for exchanging ideas and perspectives more important. “The humanities are facing very exponential changes,” he said.

According to the Minister, the symposium provides a strategic forum for bringing together academic perspectives and Indonesia’s national cultural development agenda. He outlined five key characteristics for future humanities: they must be critical, adaptive, interdisciplinary, rooted in culture, and oriented toward humanity.

Meanwhile, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Universitas Indonesia, Untung Yuwono, said the humanities need to transform to remain relevant in an increasingly complex world. He said future humanities should address ethics and artificial intelligence, support cultural heritage preservation through technology, and contribute to public policymaking based on human values.

The Faculty of Humanities at Universitas Indonesia also proposed four strategic trajectories for the development of the humanities: ethical digital humanities, humanities as a foundation for public policy, humanities for sustainability, and globally oriented humanities rooted in Indonesian perspectives. These agendas are expected to help build a more collaborative and innovative humanities ecosystem while strengthening knowledge networks.

The symposium addressed a range of strategic issues, including digital humanities, ecological humanities, cultural mitigation and conservation, multicultural literacy, social cohesion, and the role of humanities in policymaking. One of the targeted outcomes is the preparation of two policy briefs to be submitted to the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology and the Ministry of Culture.

Fadli hopes the symposium will generate new ideas, stronger academic networks, and concrete recommendations for the development of Indonesia’s education, research, and cultural sectors. “This symposium is expected to formulate a new direction for the development of relevant, adaptive, and impactful humanities, particularly in support of cultural development,” he said.