PhD Candidate Sociocultural Anthropology

she/her/hers

Matriculated September 2020

Research Interests

Indonesia, gender nonconformity, queer activism, masculinities and popular culture.

About

Amirah’s research interests include the intersections of identity, sexuality, new media, gender pluralism, and religion in Indonesia. To trace new possibilities around gender, queer history, and rights articulation in Muslim-majority Indonesia, she explores how younger and older generations of gender nonconforming communities carve out alternative spaces, negotiate visibility, and develop activism in Yogyakarta, south-central Java. She seeks to understand how globalized forces (i.e. increased access to education and media) impact the ways individuals form choices, identities, and social structures. While focusing on Indonesia, her research has broader theoretical relevance as it illuminates how gender nonconforming individuals construct power and contribute to social change under rapid cultural, economic, and sociopolitical transformations in Southeast Asia. 
 
Prior to joining Boston University, Amirah completed her B.A. in Human Development & Social Relations and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Earlham College (2013-2017). She then completed her master’s in Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School (2018-2020), where she utilized a combined lens of anthropology and gender to study the religious activism of sexual minorities in Indonesia and feminist Islamic hermeneutics.

Awards & Grants

  • Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant. (Summer 2023).
  • GRS Summer Fellowship Grant. (Summer 2023).
  • Long-term Graduate Research Abroad Fellowship (GRAF). (awarded Spring 2023 for AY23-24).
  • Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant. (2022).
  • CURA Fellowship Grant. (2022).
  • CISS (Center for Innovation in Social Science). (2022).
  • CURA Colloquium Honorarius. (2022).
  • ITLSC (Indonesia-Timor Leste Studies Committee). (2022).
  • Graduate Student Conference Award Association of Asian Studies – Presenting at the annual AAS Conference in Honolulu, HI. (2022).
  • Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant. (2021).
  • Center for Innovation in Social Science Travel Grant at BU. (2021).
  • CURA Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs Fellowship at BU. (2021).
  • Boston University Dean’s Fellowship. (Fall 2020, Spring 2021).

Publications

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