Amirah Fadhlina
Cultural Anthropologist
Hello! I'm a PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology at Boston University. Originally from the tropical archipelago of Indonesia, I moved to Boston in 2018 to pursue my Master's at Harvard Divinity School after spending my undergraduate years in Indiana.
My doctoral research explores the intersections of identity, gender nonconformity, new media, and religion. For my dissertation, I collaborate with an intergenerational network of queer and gender nonconforming individuals in Yogyakarta, examining stakes and innovations in their efforts to seek legitimacy.
Engaging ethnographic methods, archives, and media analysis, my project traces new conditions of possibility around queer embodiment, identity formation, and visual culture in contemporary Indonesia.
I am open to research collaborations and learning more about teaching opportunities!
Contact me: amirahf@bu.edu
Presentations
Pursuits of Legitimacy: Mapping Gender Fluidity, Activism, and Social Change in Indonesia
Guest Lecture, April 2025
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Gender and Sexuality in Flux: Zines, Alternative Media, and Resistance in Yogyakarta
Presenter, March 2025
Association for Asian Studies Conference
Columbus, OH
The Ethics of Representing Others/Etika Merepresentasikan yang Lain dan yang Liyan
Workshop Facilitator, July 2024
Queer Indonesia Archive Workshop Series
Virtual, Indonesia
Embodying Alternative Lifestyle: Queer Discontent and the Making of Youth Performative Politics in Yogyakarta
Panel Organizer and Presenter, July 2024
Association for Asian Studies in Asia Conference
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Queer Activism, Quasi Visibility: Gender Identity, Social Activism, and Change
Guest Lecture, April 2024
Virtual, University of Michigan-Flint
Waria, Worship, Welfare: Exploring Trans Women’s Conditions of Precarity Under COVID-19 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Presenter, March 2023
Association for Asian Studies Conference
Boston, MA
Conditions of Possibility, Queering Islam, and the Rise of Trans Activism in Indonesia
Presenter, November 2023
American Academy of Religion Conference
Denver, CO
Carpool Dakwah: Queer Mockery, Social Media, and New Discourses of Gendered Expertise in Indonesia
Panel Organizer and Presenter, June 2022
AIFIS-MSU Conference
Virtual, Indonesia
Beyond the Binary: Islamic Authority, New Media & Queer Identity Assertion in Indonesia
Guest Lecture, April 2022
Virtual, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Humor, Piety, and Masculinity: The Role of Digital Platforms in Aiding ‘Conversations’ Between Islamic Preachers and Waria in Indonesia
Presenter, March 2022
Association for Asian Studies Conference
Honolulu, HI
Fadhlina, A. (2021). Humor, Piety, and Masculinity: The Role of Digital Platforms in Aiding “Conversations” Between Islamic Preachers and Waria in Indonesia. CyberOrient, 15: 59-84. https://doi.org/10.1002/cyo2.7
Fadhlina, A. (2024). “Waria, Worship, and Welfare: Exploring Trans Women’s Conditions of Precarity Amidst COVID-19 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.” TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, January, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2024.1.
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