Gugun Gumilar

 

Founder and Executive Director, Institute of Democracy and Education – Indonesia

 

Gugun Gumilar was born in Purwakarta, April 20th, 1989. He is Indonesian. He is currently a Master’s student at Hartford Seminary, majoring in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations. He obtained his undergraduate degree from State Islamic University in 2011, majoring in English Education, and studied in various universities abroad. He received a scholarship from the Study of the United States Institute (SUSI) on Religious Pluralism and Democracy program at Temple University. He also studied International Relations in the United Nations Alliance of Civilization program at the University of Lisbon, and took International Relations courses at the University of Malaya in 2011. He participated in the summer scholars program at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Virginia in 2013, studied Islamic knowledge in the disciplines of Qur’an and Sunna, interpretations of sacred Islamic texts and fiqh. He attended the United Nations Alliance of Civilization conference in Doha, Qatar, 2011 and in Shanghai, China 2012. He completed internships at the Global Peace Festival Foundation in Washington DC in 2013, the Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC in 2014, and is now doing an internship at the United States Indonesia Society (USINDO) in Washington DC, 2014. He often appears on the Voice of America for television program, broadcasted to Indonesian media such as Metro TV, RCTI, and TVRI since 2013-2014. He published his first book, Chasing dreams of Indonesia, in 2012, and contributed a chapter on religious tolerance to the book, Moderation: The Indonesian Experience, published by the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation in 2013.