Mery received her bachelor (in 1999) and master (in 2002) studies from Bogor Agriculture University (IPB), Indonesia and PhD study (in 2020) from Ghent University (Belgium). Her former experiences as junior researcher from research institutes and as a lecturer at Universitas Pelita Harapan (Indonesia) have brought her into contact with many ancient manuscripts and cultural perspectives. Her interest and research experiences with ancient Batak medicine based on Batak Pustaha (laklak) has provided much knowledge and inspiration related to the dynamic process occurred in Batak society that has developed over time. Recently, her involvement in the initiation program for digitizing ancient Batak manuscripts at Leiden University, the Netherlands in collaborations with the National Library of Indonesia, has made her interested in researching Batak church manuscripts, especially in the process of translating hymns (also known as Buku Ende HKBP) and other church hymns in Indonesia by comparing them with the original church lyrics and songs from the reference sources (for example German, Dutch, English or American hymns). Language was a critical tool in the missionary encounter, used both to translate biblical texts and hymns and to communicate Christian ideas. It emphasizes the challenges of translating religious concepts into local languages, which might lacked of finding the equivalent terms for Christian doctrines. The history of the HKBP church is also a fluid and dynamic process of transformation between missionaries and the local local populations (Batak people); how missionaries used language as a means of asserting authority and control, but also how Batak people could resist or reinterpret missionary teachings through their own linguistic practices.

Dr. Keiko Kamiishi received her Ph.D.(2022) and M.A.(2016) in International Area Studies from Nanzan University, Japan. She has been studying the history of Javanese literature, its connection with epics and myths, the dynamics between Indianized elements and indigenous elements, and the literary activities of court poets and scribes. Her interest also includes reception, aesthetic effect, performativity, prosody, and metaphors in the literature.

Her dissertation explored how the Javanese unique aesthetic sense manifests in the literature by interpreting the metaphors and emotional expression in a specific literary work titled Kakawin Ghaṭotkacāśraya.

After completing the dissertation, she worked as a part-time Lecturer in Indonesian grammar.

Currently, she joined the ERC project as a post-doctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is dealing with Old Javanese poetries translated into Modern Javanese in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, with the perspective of examining modern Muslim translators’ interpretation of ancient literature based on Hindu-Javanese culture.

A faculty member at the Department of Qurʾānic Studies of Universitas Islam Negeri Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, Indonesia and the director of Laboratorium Studi Qur’an-Hadis (LSQH). After completing his bachelor and master studies in Qur’anic Studies in UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, he received his Ph.D at the Department of Islamic Studies, Orientalisches Seminar, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in 2019. His work mainly deals with Qur’anic studies, Qurʾānic hermeneutics and the history of tafsīr in Indonesia, with his most recent publication includes “Vernacularism and the Embers of Conservatism: The Production and Politicization of Qur’an Translations” (2003) and The Official Indonesian Qur’an Translation: The History and Politics of Al-Qur’an dan Terjemahnya, The Global Qur’an Series (Cambridge, OpenBook Publisher, 2022).