Siti Murtiningsih was born in Kulonprogo on December 9, 1971, and grew up in an educator’s family in Yogyakarta. She pursued philosophy studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada and was actively involved in the pro-democracy student movement, which led to her interest in alternative education. Mentored by academics such as Romo Sudiarja and engaged in educational initiatives for marginalized communities, such as the Kali Code community, she deepened her interest in Paulo Freire’s thought. She wrote her undergraduate thesis and master’s thesis on Freire’s critical pedagogy, which was later published as the book Pendidikan Alat Perlawanan (Education as a Tool of Resistance) in 2004, one of the earliest introductions to Freire’s ideas in Indonesia.

Her academic journey was supported by several prestigious grants, including the URGE grant from the Directorate General of Higher Education in 1996, the World Class University (WCU) Scholarship from Universitas Gadjah Mada in 2009, and the Sandwich-LIKE program from the Directorate General of Higher Education in 2010.

As times changed, her interest in education expanded to include technology studies. She earned her doctorate from UGM in 2014 with a dissertation on video games from Jean Baudrillard’s perspective. In recent years, she has been exploring the ethics of artificial intelligence in education, leading to her appointment as a consultant for UNESCO Jakarta Office. She currently serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at UGM (2021–2026) and as a member of the Yogyakarta Education Council (2022–2027). Since 2024, she has been appointed as a Professor of Philosophy of Education, emphasizing in her inaugural speech that machines should serve as collaborators in education, not as the primary subjects.