Sunarwoto is an academic at UIN Sunan Kalijaga Postgraduate. In 1990, he graduated from high school while studying at the Salafiyah Islamic Boarding School and Lirboyo Kediri. In 1994, he started his Bachelor's degree in the department of Tafsir Al-Qur'an and Hadith at the Usuluddin Faculty, IAIN Yogyakarta and completed it in 1999.

In 2007, he received a scholarship for an MA degree in Islamic studies from Leiden University, the Netherlands within the framework of TIYL (The Young Leaders of Indonesia), and completed in 2008. He became an alumni of the NISIS (Netherlands Interuniversity for Islamic Studies) scholarship in pursuing a doctoral program (PhD) at the Til School of Humanities, Tilburg University in the Netherlands from 2011 to 2015. His dissertation entitled "Contesting Religious Authority: A Study on Da'wah Radio in Surakarta, Indonesia" discusses propaganda radio in Surakarta.

The research interests that are occupied are; religious studies , the study of the Koran , the history of Indonesian Islam , anthropology of Muslim society , Islamic politics and the media . Among some of his works are;

1. 2008, “ The Influence of Meccan Education on Pesantren Tradition” diterbitkan di Leiden University
2. 2015, “Contesting Religious Authority: A Study on Dakwah Radio in Surakarta, Indonesia” di terbitkan di Tilburg University
3. 2018 , " Ulama , Fragmentasi Otoritas , dan Imajinasi Negara - Bangsa : Studi Kasus Pontianak " , diterbitkan Puspidep Pascasarjana UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta .
4. 2020 , " Negotiating Salafi Islam and the State : The Madkhaliyya in Indonesia " diterbitkan di jurnal Die Welt des Islams ( Brill Netherlands ) .
5. 2021, " Online Salafi Rivalries in Indonesia : Between Sectarianism and ' good ' Citizenship " diterbitkan di jurnal Religion , State and Society ( Routledge ) .

The topic that will be shared in the 2022 Summer School event is: " ( Re ) claiming Religious Authority Digital Activism among Indonesian Muslim Traditionalists "