Hendrikus Paulus Kaunang

One of the students of the IRS UGM, Fardan Mahmudatul Imamah, participated as a presenter at an international academic forum titled The Graduate Conference, which was held on May 12–13, 2026. The event was a collaborative initiative among four higher education institutions: UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, UIN Sayyid Ali Rahmatullah Tulungagung, Universitas Brawijaya Malang, and Leiden University.

This academic forum served as a meeting space for scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds to present their research before both national and international academic communities. During the conference, Fardan presented a paper entitled “If a Peasant, Even Though Muslim, Still Has a Soul That Comes from Adat”: Peasant Narratives on Religious Change, Myth, and Agriculture in Rural Java. The paper explored a highly relevant yet often overlooked issue: how peasant communities in rural Java articulate their own religious experiences within the context of continuously changing agricultural life. read more

Hendrikus Paulus Kaunang

Dr. Leonard Chrysostomos Epafras, a lecturer in the Inter-Religious Studies (IRS) Program, has recently published a new scholarly article examining the relationship between digital technology and theological and religious education. The article, titled “Gadgets Need Healing: A Proposal for Digital Pedagogy,” has been published in the Scopus Indexed journal Religious Education on the Taylor & Francis platform. In this article, Dr. Epafras proposes a new approach to the use of digital technology in educational processes, particularly within the context of theology and religious studies. He points out that digital devices such as gadgets and artificial intelligence are often perceived merely as neutral tools. However, according to Dr. Epafras, technology actually shapes the ways people think, interact, and understand knowledge. read more