Jumping the Paywall, Part I
by Elizabeth Cullen Dunn The power of writing for a non-academic audience first hit me when I was quoted in the New York Times. Four short words of mine—“the guy’s a [...]
Jon Bialecki | Winner of the Sharon Stephens Prize for his book A Diagram for Fire: Miracles and Variation in an American Charismatic Movement
by Bryan Dougan Bryan Dougan, AES editorial intern and graduate student at the University of North Carolina, interviews Jon Bialecki, honorary fellow at the School of Social and Political Science at [...]
“The Personal is Political” Reflections, Critique, and Steps Forward in the Era of Donald Trump
Chelsey Carter
“A political contribution which we feel we have already made is the expansion of the feminist principle that the personal is political,” wrote the Combahee River Collective in 1977. [...]
Miriam Ticktin | Innocence, Ethnography, and Politics Beyond the Human
Alison Hanson, AES editorial intern and graduate student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, interviews Miriam Ticktin, professor of anthropology at the New School for Social Research about her latest [...]
Doing Fieldwork After Henrietta Schmerler On Sexual Violence and Blame in Anthropology
Megan Steffen
(Courtesy of Gil Schmerler.) For two years, I have been trying to find a way to talk about Henrietta Schmerler without joining the wake of vultures that [...]
Tweeting Religion in Indonesia When Political Arenas Go Viral
John Postill and Leonard Chrysostomos Epafras
The popularity of social media in Indonesia, combined with the rise of political Islamism in recent years, are changing the ways in which people engage with religious matters in the [...]
Understanding Piety and Anger in Indonesia’s 2016 Islamic Mass Rallies
Saskia Schäfer
On December 2, 2016 an estimated 500,000 to 750,000 Muslims gathered in central Jakarta. It was the biggest demonstration since the fall of Suharto, and possibly the largest religious mass [...]
Sincerity and Scandal The Cultural Politics of “Fake Piety” in Indonesia
James B. Hoesterey
President Obama’s first official visit to Indonesia in 2010 was broadcast live on national television. Political choreographers were eager to capitalize on the homecoming of Indonesia’s adopted prodigal son. To [...]
The Allure of “One Day One Juz”
Eva Nisa
A central tenet of Islamic practice holds that reading the Qurʾan is an act of devotion that will be rewarded by Allah. Although this belief is widespread in Indonesia, reading [...]
Paths to Celebrity Status The Significance of Social Media for Islamic Preachers from South Sulawesi
Wahyuddin Halim
Social media may create narrow communities of fellowship, but they can also introduce esoteric knowledge to broader communities. In this essay, I trace the rise of a nationally popular Muslim [...]
