Three Keys to Win A Travel Grant to the USA Conference

By Muhammat Sabar Prihatin (Phd student at the Faculty of Education UIII 2023)

Being accepted as a presenter in six different international conferences in Indonesia and abroad marks a significant ambition of my second-year study journey here in the faculty of education UIII.  From November 2024 to June 2025, I already presented my papers in several conferences, such as the third International Conference on Religious Moderation (ICROM) held by the Ministry of Religious Affairs of Indonesia in Jakarta, 5-7 November 2024,  where our lecturer Dr. Andar was one of the keynote speakers in this event. I also had a chance to present my paper online in the International Conference on Research, Community Service, and Gender Studies (ICRCSGS) conducted by UIN Imam Bonjol Padang, West Sumatera, 5-6 December 2024. Prof. Nina, our dean, was one of the keynote speakers. Not to mention, on 10-11 May 2025, I presented my paper in the third International Conference on Islamic Education and Science Development (ICONSIDE) held by UIN Mataram, Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. The head of the PhD in Education program, Dr. Bambang, was one of the keynote speakers in this forum. Lately, I have flown all the way from Jakarta to Los Angeles to present my work in the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR) Biennial Conference conducted by the American Anthropological Association, taking place in the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), California, USA, 21-23 June 2025.

Those experiences reflect my endeavours to engage in national and global academic conversations as an emerging scholar. This story would have never happened unless because of various valuable lessons I learned, particularly from our beloved university. I figured out three keys that I believe had enabled me successfully to participate in such meaningful academic events I mentioned before, including winning a competitive travel grant for the U.S. conference. Let me share my reflection on this story in more detail, as follows.

Themed Religiosities, Ecologies, and Environmentalisms in the Age of the Anthropocene, the SAR conference was attended by hundreds of presenters, such as university students, lecturers, and professional researchers, coming from world top institutions and universities, such as Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, Michigan, Toronto, Cambridge, Edinburg, SOAS, Melbourne, Sydney, Beijing, Taiwan, and many more. In that conference, I was the one and only presenter coming from Indonesian university, which is our beloved UIII. I shared my comparative findings about the roles of two prominent Indonesian Islamic mass organizations, NU and Muhammadiyah, in their stewardship towards environmental obstacles in Indonesia based on Wasatiyah principles. Actually, there was another Indonesian presenter, my colleague who is currently a PhD student in the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at UCSB. He is the one who shared the information about this conference with me. Thanks to a friendship that turned into networking.

Thank God, in addition to being accepted as presenter, I also won a travel grant that is awarded to only five grantees in the SAR conference. I was so happy to be one of them. To apply for this grant, we are required to submit an accepted abstract, statement letter explaining why we fit the requirements, and latest CV. This grant was very beneficial to facilitate my U.S. Visa application as well as to financially support my departure to the USA.

The SAR conference, for me, is one of the most prestigious and essential academic forums I have ever joined. It presented expert scholars who shared their academic works that positively have direct impacts on wider society, including in the environment where the study was conducted. Additionally, their findings offer adaptable policies and recommend concrete actions that can be adopted by governments and the stakeholders, leveraging benefits of the research itself. Overall, their presentation really amazed me in the sense of the way they did their study, and this is what I mean by essential, that academic conferences become an inspiring platform to exchange knowledge and shape understanding through thoughtful and meaningful research for the goods of human beings as well as the environment.

Should I leave a message to encourage colleagues, as emerging scholars, to take part in such academic forums, I have three things to say. First I would say public events matter. Let us join in public lectures, such as seminars, conferences, book discussions, etc., that we think can enrich our knowledge and broaden perspectives even if the topic falls apart from the field of our study. Such programs often help unexpectedly connect our study field with other branches of disciplines. This combined-areas meeting can be crucial to discover distinct sights in conducting research as well as a key factor for collaborative study. The SAR conference topic is actually not really my study area since it is more on religion, society, and environment, while my major is education. However, I remember the fifth ClimateTalk on Muslims Environmentalism held by FOSS and a public lecture on Faith & Environment: Pragmaticism, Piety, and Ethics held by our university inspired me to write the paper.

Secondly I suggest that anything can be studied scientifically. Let us take benefits from classes, courses, or programs, such as writing clinics in our library, that offer us opportunities to learn research methodology, whether qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods. For me, research skills, such as collecting and analysing data, constructing conclusions or reflections, and knowing proper tools are keys that enable us to conduct a scientific study properly. Surely it is great if we can apply more than one method in doing research. But, truly mastering one approach only is already sufficient to study any human activities, events, or phenomena academically. So, instead of doing complex research such as field work for my paper in the SAR conference, I chose the most doable method for me by doing a comparative content-analysis study. I can do this because I have learned several research methodology courses previously.

Last but not least, thanks to the existing various communities in our university. I believe such Islamic Global Challenges (IGC) initiative under the faculty of Islamic Studies in our university is crucial for all civitas academia, including students and lecturers from any department. Such programs can serve as a platform for collaboration and contribution to increase our concerns toward global issues through research or real actions. Thus, our university should optimize their roles/functions so that the beneficiaries will also get more maximum. I strongly believe that the potential of IGC I mentioned in the SAR Travel Grant proposal form at that time became one of the most powerful reasons why I won the award.