Bandung, Unikom — On Friday, June 20, 2025, the Department of International Relations held a guest lecture by inviting Prof. Bettina Meiser from the University of New South Wales, who is a volunteer from the collaboration between UNIKOM and Australia Aid. This activity raised the topic of “How to Write a Literature Review” with the aim of increasing students’ knowledge in writing literature reviews.
This activity was opened by Dr. Dewi Triwahyuni, S.IP., M.Si, as the Head of the Department of International Relations and also as the lecturer for the International Relations Research Methods course in semester 6. There were 71 students who enrolled in this course this semester.
Prof. Bettina Meiser presented a different perspective on how to write a literature review from the usual classroom approach, explaining in detail the significance of a comprehensive literature review for the quality of academic research. She also discussed various effective methods for identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing relevant literature, emphasizing that a good literature review is the cornerstone for building a strong research argument, in addition, it also explains how to publish journals and how to choose appropriate journals for reference. According to her, the class was quite calm, listened attentively to the material presented, and asked insightful questions.
During the Q&A session, students asked various questions about writing literature reviews, including how to address publication bias, identify gaps in the literature, and balance summarizing and analyzing. Prof. Bettina responded with detailed explanations and real-life examples, providing valuable guidance for the students. She even praised the critical thinking skills of UNIKOM students, evident from their questions, noting that the class was quite calm, listened attentively to the material presented, and asked thought-provoking questions.
Some students said that this class was enjoyable, the material explained was useful in writing papers, the way the material was presented was very easy to understand, and it provided some tips on writing literature reviews.
