Dear CRCS & ICRS students, faculty and guests, We kindly invite you to participate in the CRCS & ICRS Wednesday Forum of this week. Wednesday forum will have Jimmy Marcos Immanuel as the speaker who will talk about “Marapu, Nature and Natural Disaster”. Some information about this forum can be read as follows.

Date: Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Time: 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm (free lunch)
Venue: Room 306, UGM Graduate School Teknika Utara, Pogung
Speaker: Jimmy Marcos Immanuel, S.Si-Teol.

It has just been realized that CRCS has already run two periods of Competitive Research Grant Projects with a theme “Interpretations and Responses on Natural Disaster: The Integrative Studies of Science, Religion and Culture.”

The first period started at the end of 2008, and now the successful research grantees are going to report their researches. The second period is going to hold another workshop and selection for the 10 best proposals.

This grant has involved academicians, researchers, and NGO activists from every corner of Indonesia. Some of their proposals are done individually while the other proposals are done by groups.

Ms. Karen Bryner, a PhD candidate from Columbia University, presented her field research during the first Wednesday Forum for the semester and of the year which was held on February 3, 2010 at 1:00 PM, while Nina M. Noor, a PhD student, acted as moderator.

In the forum, Ms. Bryner perceived the combination of Islamic revival and the growing middle class in generating a new market for Islamic education which is the elite urban Islamic schools. This combination happened in the 1990s when many middle-class Muslims spend their money in educating their children by sending them to a very expensive elementary school which charged much than that of a state university. These Islamic elementary schools, unlike many of the traditional Islamic education institutions, are not largely directly connected to the long established Islamic organizations such as NU and Muhammadiyah, but rather to independent foundations or franchises. Yet tensions between Islamic organizations are being played out, particularly among NU, Muhammadiyah and PKS, as individuals are fighting for real estate for this new market.

Dear CRCS & ICRS students, faculty and guests, We kindly invite you to participate in the CRCS & ICRS Wednesday Forum of this week. Wednesday forum will have KAREN BRYNER as the speaker who will talk about “New Trends in Elite Urban Islamic Schooling: A Case Study in Yogyakarta”. Some information about this forum can be read as follows.

Date: Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Time: 12.30 pm – 2.30 pm (free lunch)
Venue: Room 306, UGM Graduate School Teknika Utara, Pogung
Speaker: Karen Bryner

For the weekly Wednesday Forum held on December 16, 2009, the invited speaker was Uma or Subhani Kusma Dewi. She earned her B.A. degree in Islamic Philosophy from the State Islamic University Sunan Kalijaga and completed her Master’s degree at CRCS-UGM, both in Yogyakarta.

During her presentation, Uma perceived that the coming of Islam in East Nusa Tenggara was around 15 C.E. and 18 C.E. which involved many elements of agents not only through the merchants’ mission but also by fishing activity around the coastal areas of the province, as well as the undeniable role of the ulama (Muslim cleric agents). The latest group of agents was peripherally discussed by the major historical record, though their significant influence could not be ignored easily.

During the weekly Wednesday Forum held on December 9, 2010, Dr. Phill Enns, the invited speaker, talked about the search for truth. Dr. Enns was once invited by CRCS-UGM as visiting lecturer in 2008; he taught the course “Introduction to Postmodernism.”? He previously taught at Gindiri College of Theology in Nigeria and at Brock University.

In his presentation, Dr. Enns perceived that in Academia today, one hears a great deal of discussion about culture, contexts and perspectives. This sort of discussion, in and of itself, is not mistaken, and in fact has proven to be quite valuable, both as a balance to earlier excesses and providing insight of its own. However, one of the consequences of this discourse, which has arisen primarily out of the social sciences, is the reluctance on the part of scholars to think of themselves as part of a larger project in pursuit of the truth. Dr Enns thinks this is unfortunate.