Bridging Ushuluddin to the Ivy League, UIN Jakarta Alumnus Shares Path to Harvard
CIPUTAT, UIN Online News – Proving that world-class academic achievements stem from sustained intellectual curiosity rather than mere fortune, Dadi Darmadi, M.A., Ph.D., an alumnus of the Comparative Religion Department at the Faculty of Theology (Ushuluddin), UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, has successfully navigated top-tier global academia to earn his doctoral degree at Harvard University.
Reflecting on his academic journey, Dr. Darmadi shares how the critical thinking culture nurtured within UIN Jakarta’s famed "Ciputat intellectual tradition" served as his core foundation when competing on the global stage.
"During my undergraduate years, I never imagined I would attend one of the world's premier research institutions," Dr. Darmadi recalled. "What drove my progress was a fascination with understanding religion not merely as static sacred texts, but as living traditions, cultures, and daily human experiences."
Dr. Darmadi highlighted that his student years at UIN Jakarta reshaped his worldview, training him to examine Islamic scholarship through diverse, critical, and dialogue-driven perspectives. Late-night library debates and rigorous faculty mentorship taught him that asking a well-crafted question is often more valuable than rushing toward premature conclusions.
Admissions to Harvard, however, required perseverance through scholarship rejections, intense research proposal revisions, and self-doubt.
"Academic confidence does not spring from assuming one knows everything," he noted. "It grows from an unyielding willingness to learn, listen, and refine one's research methodologies through rigorous field observations."
At Harvard, Dr. Darmadi discovered that Indonesia holds a central position in international Islamic studies. Global scholars actively analyze Indonesia’s dynamic religious diversity, democratic practices, and social cohesion, proving that Indonesian academia offers crucial contributions to global civilizational discourse.
Addressing the current student body at UIN Jakarta, Dr. Darmadi strongly urged young researchers to discard feelings of academic inferiority (minder) when applying for competitive international fellowships or competing with Western scholars.
"I constantly remind students never to feel inferior simply because they come from Indonesia or UIN Jakarta," Dr. Darmadi emphasized. "What the international academic community seeks is not just the prestige of your former university, but the originality of your ideas, the courage of your research questions, and the integrity of your scientific process."
He encouraged aspiring scholars to develop daily habits of critical reading, academic writing, early research participation, and proactive scholarship application. Through his remarkable trajectory from Ushuluddin to the Ivy League, Dr. Dadi Darmadi demonstrates that UIN Jakarta continues to serve as an incubator for globally recognized, transformative scholars.
(Meisa/Zaenal/Arifin)