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Unveiling the Unseen Chains: Decolonizing Knowledge in Contemporary Research

Muhammad Rhaka Katresna In June 2025, an extraordinary event unfolded simultaneously in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Utrecht, Netherlands: the NICMCR Pokja's Joint Research Kick-Off Programme. Under the evocative theme, "Decolonising Knowledge: Rethinking Research in Gender, Ecology, and Education," this gathering marked ...

Decolonizing Academia through Unconference

Rezza Prasetyo Setiawan On 24–25 April 2025, ICRS organized an unconference titled “Polarization and Its Discontent in the Global South: Mitigation Measures, Strategies, and Policies.” The “unconference” format prioritizes free-flowing conversations instead of structured presentations, which exemplifies a decolonial shift ...

Known as a city of culture and academic accomplishment, the Javanese city of Yogyakarta is a fascinating place to study religion. It is home to several of the most respected public and private universities in Indonesia. In 2006, three of these universities, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), the State Islamic University (Universitas Islam Negeri/UIN) Sunan Kalijaga and Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana (UKDW), formed the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS). At the core of the Consortium is the regular doctoral program in Inter-Religious Studies (IRS), which is legally located in the Graduate School of UGM and has been accredited “A” by the Indonesian National Accreditation Agency for Higher Education (Badan Akreditasi Nasional Perguruan Tinggi/BAN-PT) since 2016.

Religious studies have become established in academia as a discipline or an academic field of study. While the field of inter-religious studies, understood as focusing on the relations between religions, has grown quickly in the past decade, with textbooks and journals carrying the name starting to appear. Yet, as an academic field of study, both still leave open a wide space of diverse views in terms of their objects, scopes, and methodologies.