SSEASN - Islam, Gender and the State in Southeast Asia

Islam has been a shaping force in many of the cultures and politics of Southeast Asia since the earliest days of global commerce predating Western colonialism.  The Islamic Revival that has swept through the Islamic world since at least the 1970s, and the rise of the internet have brought important changes to this region, which includes Indonesia--the nation with the world's largest Muslim population--Malaysia, Brunei, the southern Philippines and southern Thailand, with important Muslim communities on the Southeast Asian mainland.  This course offers a survey of the constructions, practices and contestations of gender against the background of trade, colonialism, and the current flows of cultural and financial capital through which bodies and subjectivities are articulated.  Through texts including ethnographic writing, literature, film and political discourse, we will explore the interface of indigenous customary practice ('adat), universalisms, nationalisms, and social justice to look at masculinities, femininities and hybrid sexualities.

Readings:  Atheist, a novel by A. K. Mihardja, Gender and Islam in Southeast Asia, Susanne Schröter;  selections from: Gender and Power in Indonesian Islam: Leaders, Feminists, Sufis and pesantren selves,  Bianca J. Smith and Mark Woodward, eds;  selections from Bewitching Women, Pious Men: Gender and Body Politics in Southeast Asia, Aihwa Ong and Michael Peletz, eds; I Am Muslim, Dina Zaman.  An Ocean of Jilbab, poetry by Emha Ainun Najib; "Delirium" a short story by Shahnon Ahmad.  Muslims and Matriarchs: Cultural Resilience in Indonesia through Jihad and Colonialism (selected chapters) by Jeffrey Hadler.

(This list of readings is tentative).