Saiful Akmal

He earned his bachelor degree from English Department, Ar-Raniry State Islamic Institute in 2005. He received his master degree from The University of Liverpool, United Kingdom in 2007 focusing on the applied linguistics, specializing in critical/political discourse analysis on the language of power and justification in political speech. Saiful analyzed views of the Iraq War in Obama, Bush, Galloway and Blair political remarks in the media prior to the Iraq War. He holds a doctoral degree in Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Language and Culture from Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany researching the language of politics and the political rhetoric of ex-combatants leaders in post-conflict election setting in the newspapers and portal news, intertwining his multi-discipline interest in language, politics and the media. He has been teaching since 2005 at Raniry State Islamic Institute, particularly in Discourse Analysis, Speech, Public Speaking, English for Islamic Studies and Specific Purposes, (Applied) Linguistics at the Teacher Training and Education Faculty. He also teaches Political Communication and Public Opinion at the Communication and Social and Political Science at the same university. He has been involved at the research think-thank institution, as political discourse analyst and program manager at TheAceh Institute since 2007. He is also actively engaged as media analyst and consultant at Aceh Society Task Force, Kata Hati Institute, AIPRD-AUSAID in post-tsunami reconstruction between 2005 2008. The ideas books, and articles he has written and presented in local, national in local, national media, seminars and conferences are among others; Travelogue: Aceh – Germany – Europe (2014, book), Views of The Iraq War: The Language of Power and Justification in Political Speeches (2008, book), and forthcoming (Political Rhetoric in Post-Conflict Aceh, book). He can be contacted at: saiful.akmal@gmail.com