PhD Student Gugun Gumilar selected for 49th Annual Conference of the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS)
Image of conference
Conference Report on the 49th Annual Conference of the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS) “The Future of Islamic Studies”
Saturday, December 19, 2020
PhD student Gugun Gumilar was selected to be one of the participants for the 49th Annual Conference of the North American Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (NAAIMS), titled: “The Future of Islamic Studies.” The event was organised from the University of Oregon, and co-sponsored by its Department of Religious Studies University. Because of the Coronavirus epidemic, the workshop was held by a virtual conference on the Zoom platform on Saturday, December 19, 2020.
As Gugun writes:
This program was attended by thirty-six scholars around the world. This was a good opportunity for me to gain more knowledge related to my academic research skills, share my learning experience during my study in DCU, and meet speakers and participants from various backgrounds.
In the conference, I briefly discussed my own research on Pancasila, the official foundational philosophy of the Republic of Indonesia and interreligious dialogue in Indonesia. I discussed the historical origins of Pancasila in the formation of the Indonesian state in its earliest stages. I also shared about Indonesia as the largest Muslim country in the world, and how Pancasila has been presented by the founding fathers as offering a foundation for the basis of Indonesian statehood. I noted, however, how the state only recognizes six religions, namely: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. I argued that Indonesia must support interreligious community programs and we need to foster intra and interreligious dialogue to prevent incitement to violence.