Wednesday Forums Archive

Anthropocene, Plastisphere, and Local Attitudes towards Nature in Java
Waste and pollution affect all humans as well as other-than-humans. The globalized environmentalist discourse tends to ignore local diversity of waste practices, and this discourse emphasizes a new feeling of entanglement with nature to transform the waste problem. Yet my fieldwork in Java revealed...

Muslim Feminism in Indonesia
Most feminist Muslims in Indonesia argue that there is a place for reconciliation between Islam and feminism. For them, being religious and being feminist at the same time is possible, although the process of harmonization involves negotiations and differing opinions. Moderate feminists who use...

Reviving Indigenous Religions through Heterotopic Tourism
Wednesday Forum – 27 February 2019 Indigenous communities such as Kasepuhan Ciptagelar (West Java, Indonesia) and Dusun (Sabah, Malaysia) have often been labelled “uncivilized” or considered as obstacles to economic growth. These communities face various challenges including...

Deity Statue Disputed: Hate Spin against the Chinese Religion, and Local Resistance in Tuban, East Java
In August 2017, a 32-metre high statue of Guan Yu, a Chinese deity, was inaugurated in the backyard of Tuban’s biggest temple. Some Muslim and Indigenous groups from Surabaya considered the creation of a Chinese figure’s huge statue inappropriate, claiming that it opposed both the...

Artificial Intelligence and the Frontiers of Religiosity
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Emerging Digital Islamic Socialities among Bandung’s Youth
Bandung is home to numerous groups, so called “komunitas”, who effectively seize emerging social spaces evolving from the interplay between urban and technological development and the increased use of social media in all spheres of everyday life, including religious practice. For many...

Lakoat.Kujawas and Village Revitalization Based on Mollo Tradition in East Nusa Tenggara
In the past, the strength of the cultural identity of the Mollo people was communicated between generations at the elaf, the festivals marking transitions in life and between seasons, through oral traditions, songs and dance. In building Lakoat.Kujawas, we believe the elaf model of mutual...

Broken Marriage: A Perspective From Gender Studies
Many people enter the new world of marriage with their idealized sets of perceived and expected gender roles they learned from such sources as religion and culture. Many of them are successful, remaining in their married life untill death parts them, while others are not. Unfortunately, we see a...

Sufis, Soldiers, and the State: A State-Tariqa Alliance in Contemporary Java
The long history of organized Sufism has shown not only tensions, but also alliances with indigenous, colonial, and post-colonial states across the Muslims world. Focusing on the alliance between a tarīqa leader, Habib Luthfi bin Yahya (b. 1947) of Pekalongan, and the Indonesian state, this talk...

Peace Education for Inner Transformation in Higher Religious Education Institutions
There is a rising awareness among peace scholars and religious leaders that the future of sustainable peacebuilding relies on the work of inner transformation. However, this dimension of peacebuilding has not been paid proper attention in mainstream peace education and even within religious...