The 11th Graduate Students Conference (GSC) of the Graduate Program in English Language Studies (ELS) is an annual event providing a forum for graduate students not only from Universitas Sanata Dharma but also from neighboring universities to share their research through presentation and dialogue in accordance with the conference theme. Hence, the urgent need for critical thinking in the new media age is placed as the central discussion for the conference this year addressed through the disciplines of literature, linguistics, and education. To highlight, this phenomenon also displays a paradox: there is democratization of knowledge to open the minds of many, yet there is also the rise of fanaticism and brainwashing phenomena propagated by extremist groups such as ISIS. Countering the rise of extremism, radicalism, fundamentalism, fanaticism and brainwashing in the New Media Age, this is where critical thinking through literature and language comes into view through the contributions offered by the 11th Graduate Students Conference of Universitas Sanata Dharma to address this urgent social phenomenon.