A Written Legacy of Engagement: Lala Bumela’s Call for the GET Team to Contribute to Global Knowledge Production in a Forthcoming Springer Academic Volume
Cirebon, July 1, 2025 — In a recent weekly coordination meeting for international programs, Lala Bumela, Ph.D. Director of the International Office and Partnership at UIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon (UIN SSC), announced a visionary academic initiative: the development of a collaboratively written scientific volume authored by the Global Engagement Team (GET). This forthcoming book, intended for submission to Springer Publisher, aims to encapsulate the institutional reflections, scholarly practices, and international strategies pioneered by UIN SSC. Inspired by Lala Bumela’s own recent publication Multisensory CALL for Under-Resourced Universities and Schools in Indonesia, the new book project will serve not only as a record of institutional engagement but also as a strategic effort to place UIN SSC in the global academic discourse on internationalization.
Lala Bumela emphasized the importance of scholarly contribution as a tool for visibility and global recognition, particularly for emerging Islamic universities operating in a cyber-university context. “If we have contributed to academic knowledge through action, it is time we contribute through authorship,” he stated during the meeting. He expressed his strong desire to see his own scholarly trajectory—culminating in the Springer-published book—mirrored and continued by the GET Team. The initiative is positioned not merely as a publishing opportunity, but as an intellectual legacy-building movement that connects individual expertise with institutional vision. Through writing, he argued, the values, innovations, and unique institutional experiences of UIN SSC can be preserved, celebrated, and elevated globally.
The planned academic volume will be structured as an anthology, with each member of the GET Team contributing a full-length chapter. Topics will range from reflections on managing international mobility programs, digital diplomacy through virtual exchange, multilingual program development, global event organization, intercultural partnerships, and the strategic implementation of academic cooperation. Lala Bumela underscored that this anthology is not just about writing experiences, but about theorizing those experiences—translating action into analytical frameworks, and turning daily administrative and academic challenges into publishable knowledge. As such, the project becomes a form of academic diplomacy, bridging Southeast Asian Islamic education with the broader international education community.
This project also reflects UIN SSC’s broader academic mission of producing knowledge from within, rather than being merely consumers of global theory. Lala Bumela urged the GET Team to write not only as administrators or facilitators, but as scholar-practitioners whose lived experiences can enrich and critique dominant paradigms of international education. He added, “You have been in the field, at the center of international events, programs, and academic exchanges—your insights are valid contributions to global scholarship. Let’s shape that into a Springer-level academic manuscript.” This marks a major pedagogical shift within the institution, turning administrative units like the International Office into active centers of knowledge production.
With Springer as the targeted publisher, the initiative carries not only prestige but also rigorous academic expectations. The GET Team is now being guided through chapter planning, theoretical grounding, citation ethics, and scholarly formatting. A core working group has been established to coordinate timelines, peer review processes, and editorial standards. The team is expected to draw from both empirical experience and relevant scholarly literature, ensuring each chapter meets international academic standards. The process itself is envisioned as a form of capacity-building, in which young professionals at UIN SSC refine their academic writing skills while simultaneously contributing to the global discourse on internationalization.
In closing, Lala Bumela reminded the team that writing is not a solitary act, but an institutional commitment. He positioned the book as a “collective legacy of engagement”, a testament to how UIN SSC, through its International Office, can move from being globally active to being academically impactful. “We’ve done the work; now let’s write the world,” he concluded. The book is projected for submission as soon as possible, symbolizing UIN SSC’s next step toward becoming a recognized voice in global higher education through scholarly publishing.
Author: Muhammad Azkiya Bahtsulkhoir