Dalam kajian Filsafat Islam, nama Shihabuddin Suhrawardi masyhur dengan konsep filsafat iluminasinya. Ia adalah tokoh kontroversial di masanya. Ia berusaha menggabungkan konsep filsafat dengan mistisisme. Tokoh inilah yang dalam Wednesday Forum CRCS-ICRS tanggal 01 Desember 2010 lalu dikupas oleh John Compaglia, mahasiswa Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley yang mengikuti program Luce Fellowship di UGM, dalam presentasinya “The Context and Content of Suhrawardi’s Use of Cosmogonic and Cosmological Doctrines in His Philosophical Allegories”.

Since long ago gender relations have been problematized by many scholars in the global north as well as the global south seen from many fields of study such as sociology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, and so on. The concept of masculinities is inside this debate. Along with the debates about gender relations and the form of masculinities, the relations of the global south and the global north have shaped various practices and forms.

The forms of relations occur as results of the various relations of both the global south and the global north. To say one of the examples is colonial encounter between the occupier and the occupied as said by Franz Fanon, an Algerian-birth France philosopher: “Every contact between the occupied and the occupier is falsehood”. This falsehood emerged in the form of articulating the concept of masculinities. Beyond that, the theorists that engage with the issues are merely dominated by the theorists from the global north using their own resources even in analyzing those issues in the global south. This fact creates the epistemic imbalance toward the studies aimed at concerning the issues of gender relations in the global south.

Last July 5-23, 2010, a few students, a staff, and a lecturer of CRCS UGM were invited to participate in the “Vienna International Christian-Islamic Summer University” (VICISU) 2010 in the University of Vienna, Austria, in cooperation with the Austrian Ministry of Research and Science. The CRCS was represented by Dian Maya Safitri, Yuyun Sri Wahjuni, Sholahudin, Mohammad Rokib, Maria Ingrid Nabuboga, and Dr. Fatimah Husein.

For the November 3, 2010 edition of Wednesday Forum, two of them, Yuyun Sri Wahyu and Mohammad Rokib had the opportunity to share their experience.

Pada bulan Juli lalu, beberapa mahasiswa, staf, dan dosen CRCS UGM terlibat dalam agenda “Vienna International Christian-Islamic Summer University” (VICISU) 2010. Tepatnya mulai tanggal 5 hingga 23, Dian Maya Safitri, Yuyun Sri Wahjuni, Sholahudin, Mohammad Rokib, juga Maria Inggrid Nabuboga, dan Dr. Fatimah Husein mengikuti agenda yang diadakan di Austria ini.

Dalam Wednesday Forum, 3 November lalu, dua di antara beberapa nama di atas yaitu Yuyun Sri Wahyuni dan Mohammad Rokib mendapat kesempatan berbagi pengalaman mengikuti acara yang diadakan oleh University of Vienna bekerja sama dengan Kementerian Riset dan Sains Austria tersebut.

For the second time, a student of the University of Malaya Kuala Lumpur took part in “Wednesday Forum” of CRCS/ICRS. The previous theme raised was about the issue of sleeping, and for 20 October 2010 discussion, the theme raised was about the concepts of reward and punishment within the educational system.

Moderated by Nyong Eka Teguh Imam Santoso from ICRS, the forum presented Mohamad Khairul Bajuri, a graduate student of philosophy from University of Malaya, who explored the title of “Use of Reinforcement in Learning: Content Analysis from Behavioral Science and Islamic Perspectives.” Bajuri delivered the results of a research he conducted in several institutions of Islamic education in Malaysia. Before conducting field observation, the research was initially begun with literature reviews from both scientific literatures, mainly psychology, and Islamic literatures.

One of the social phenomena feasible to be examined comprehensively is the issue of suicide. The frequency of suicides is relatively high and closely related to various aspects of human life. Addressing this issue, therefore, must be begun with a thorough study involving interdisciplinary methodology as delivered by Dicky Sofjan, Ph.D in his presentation at CRCS-ICRS Wednesday Forum on Wednesday, 27 October 2010.

Presenting “Suicide and Social Disintegration: Where’s the (Dis)-Connection?”, Dicky Sofjan, a Regional Project Manager in the Asian Public Intellectuals (API) institution, began his presentation with a description of the suicide intensity around the world. The varied motives and types of suicide were also presented. In particular, he mentioned the quite high suicide rate in the area of Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta Special Province.