Radhita Zahratul Jannah Am

Johanes Marno Nigha, the IRS UGM doctoral student, is currently developing his dissertation proposal entitled “Art-Based Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue: A Case Study of the Siselo Susurang Festival by Komunitas Kahe and the Wuring Community”. This dissertation proposal examines the failure of formal-institutional interreligious dialogue approaches in Indonesia to reach the realities of grassroots communities. The research centers on the Siselo Susurang Festival, initiated by Komunitas Kahe in Wuring Village, Maumere, East Nusa Tenggara, a region marked by spatial segregation between the Catholic-Krowe majority and the Muslim Bajo-Bugis minority. The festival was preceded by a lengthy process of living together with residents, communal deliberations, and workshops beginning in early 2020, producing a documentary film, a recipe book, and a wall magazine exhibition. read more

Radhita Zahratul Jannah Am

The Doctoral Program in Inter-Religious Studies (IRS) at the Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada held the second Dissertation Promotion Club (DPC 2), exactly one month after DPC 1. This short interval reflects the productive pace at which Fuji Riang Prastowo has been refining his dissertation, Spiritual Resilience in Buddhist Teachings on Mental Health: A Study of Interreligious Javanese Meditators in Yogyakarta. While DPC 1 highlighted the study’s background and field findings, DPC 2 focused on the dissertation’s theoretical framework and scholarly contributions. Fuji presented the gap in the literature that underlies his study. Western clinical-psychological scholarship tends to reduce Buddhist meditation to a stress-management technique, while Indonesian religious scholarship pays little attention to lived, interreligious inner experience. read more

Jesada Buaban

As a former Theravada monk from the Thai tradition who previously focused my doctoral’s research on the invention of Theravada Buddhism in Indonesia (Buaban, 2020), the diversity of Buddhism in Indonesia attracted me to pay more attention to other Buddhist groups. Of course, I encountered many internal conflicts (or pluralism, depending on how we define it). Buddhayana, a new movement that encourages Buddhists from the Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana traditions to live and learn together in the same temple, is particularly worthy of study. Imagine if we could see a church where Catholic and Protestant priests lived and worked together. Such an arrangement may be difficult in many other religions, but for Indonesian Buddhists, Buddhayana is a successful product of the Indonesian context. read more

David Akbar Hasyemi Rafsanjani

The existence of adherents of indigenous beliefs in Indonesia faces various dynamics and challenges as a minority group in the country. One of the most common challenges is related to generational succession. Based on preliminary observations conducted by a research team from the IRS UGM in collaboration with BRIN as part of the research project “Digital Inclusion for Indigenous Belief Groups in Indonesia”, out of approximately 60 communities the research team has visited all around Indonesia, the majority of these groups acknowledge that sustained regeneration is an urgent issue. read more

Radhita Zahratul Jannah Am

The Inter-Religious Studies (IRS) Doctoral Program at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) began the new month with a productive session, holding a workshop to discuss its new curriculum on Wednesday, July 1, 2026. The workshop was led by Dr. Agus Wahyudi, Head of the Study Program. In his opening remarks, Dr. Agus Wahyudi highlighted two key issues to be addressed: how to increase the visibility of the research-based doctoral track (by research), and how to design a curriculum structure that is genuinely applicable to students from diverse academic backgrounds. Curriculum renewal of this kind is not new to the study program. The forum agreed that such discussions have become a regular tradition within IRS UGM, conducted periodically to ensure the program remains responsive to ongoing developments. read more

Radhita Zahratul Jannah Am

Selfitriani Kulla, one of the doctoral students in the Interreligious Studies (IRS) Program at the Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada, successfully defended her dissertation in a closed defense held on Friday, June 26, 2026. The defense was held before a panel of examiners consisting of Dr. Samsul Maarif, Dr. Suryaningsi Mila, Dr. Agus Wahyudi, and Dr. Jonathan Smith, with Prof. Ir. Siti Malkhamah, M.Sc., Ph.D. as the chair. This research was supervised by two promotors, namely Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir and Prof. Michael Stanford Northcott. In the defense, Selfitriani presented her dissertation entitled “The Water Story of Mori Indigenous Community: A Study of Water and Religion in North Morowali, Central Sulawesi.” read more

Radhita Zahratul Jannah Am

Rahmad Setyoko, a doctoral candidate in the Inter-Religious Studies (IRS) Program at Universitas Gadjah Mada, successfully passed a significant milestone in his academic journey by defending his dissertation proposal during a comprehensive examination held on June 12, 2026. In the examination, Rahmad presented a research proposal entitled “Buddhist Missionaries on Social Media: The Reconfiguration of Dharmaduta in Contemporary Indonesia.” During the session, Rahmad outlined the conceptual framework, research questions, and methodological approaches that will guide his investigation into the intersection of religion, media, and contemporary social change. read more

Siti Muyasaroh

The Doctoral Program in Inter-Religious Studies at the Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) organized a field trip as part of the implementation of experiential learning in the History of Religions course. This activity was designed to enhance students’ understanding of the historical development of religions, the dynamics of interfaith interactions, and the cultural heritage that has shaped the diversity of Indonesian society to the present day.

The full article can be accessed through the following link. read more

Radhita Zahratul Jannah AM

On Thursday (5 June 2026), the Doctoral Program in Inter-Religious Studies (IRS) at the Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) organized the Dissertation Promotion Club  (DPC 1). The session took place in the IRS Meeting Room on the third floor of the UGM Graduate School Building and featured the dissertation research of doctoral candidate Fuji Riang Prastowo. Before the examination committee, consisting of Prof. Dra. Kwartarini Wahyu Yuniarti, M.Med.Sc., Ph.D., Psychologist, and Dr. Yulianti, M.A., and moderated by Dr. Michael Robert Quinlan, Fuji presented his dissertation entitled Spiritual Resilience in Buddhist Teachings on Mental Health: A Study of Interreligious Javanese Meditators in Yogyakarta. read more

Since the restoration of Borobudur Temple and its introduction to the world by Thomas Stamford Raffles more than two centuries ago, hundreds of papers and academic works have been published in attempts to interpret its grandeur. Yet a critical question arises: to what extent are these writings grounded in sound research methodology, and how many instead remain trapped in the biases of colonial assumptions and the lenses of modern Orientalism?

This fundamental challenge lies at the heart of a presentation by Dr. Hudaya Kandahjaya titled “Borobudur: Research Methodology.” The talk was delivered at the Wednesday Forum. Through a rigorous methodological lens, Dr. Kandahjaya invited the audience to deconstruct and rethink the ways in which the world has come to view Borobudur. read more