Aims and Scope

USICON is an annual international conference hosted by the Faculty of Ushuluddin and Islamic Thought at Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga in Yogyakarta. The topic of this year conference is “The Legacy of ‘Integrative-Interconnective’ Approach in Islamic Studies: A New Appraisal on Discourse and Practice”. In the landscape of the Indonesian Islamic higher education (Perguruan Tinggi Keagamaan Islam/PTKI), “the integration between sciences” has been a major issue developed in the last two decades or so. In fact, it also coincided with further investigations on how to define and to conduct so-called “Islamic Studies” (Studi Islam) in Islamic Higher Education with the new 21st century milieu. In this regard, there is no Indonesian author on the issue as prolific as M. Amin Abdullah (b. 1953) who – according to Carool Kersten – has proposed “a new way of doing Islamic studies” at the first decade of 2000s. As Abdullah proposed the ‘integrative-interconnective’ approach in conducting Islamic studies that marked an important shift in the history of Indonesian Islamic higher education, today we see it as a legacy that transcends its first border. Not only belong to its formulator, but is also belong to many Indonesian scholars across disciplines both in the realm of theoretical framework and in the context of activism.
What is evident is that today, integrasi-interkoneksi has become one of the major guides for the direction of Islamic studies scholarship in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education (PTKIs) and beyond. However, as twenty years are passing by, it has become a historical phenomenon leaving a legacy that has recently begun to be revisited by some international scholars who are concerned with Islamic education in Indonesia. Carool Kersten and Megan ‘Abbas are among the recent scholars who shed lights on the issue. On the other hand, the discussion about the ‘academic study of religion’, especially Islamic studies, has also revived in the Western scholarship as shown by Majid Daneshgar, Aaron Hughes, and many others. It is in this heated debate that ithe ‘integrative-interconnective’ approach can be ‘revisited’ through some new frames that transcend its original territory.

The conference  is oriented towards exploring new ideas on the following sub-topics:
1. The Re-invention of 21st Century Islamic Studies in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education
2. Revisiting Integrasi-Interkoneksi: Legacy and Appraisal
3. Integrasi-Interkoneksi, Activism, and Interfaith Dialogue
4. Locating Integrasi-Interkoneksi in the Current Debates on Academic Study of Religion