Dylan Renca

Matriculated September 2019

Research Interests

Southeast Asia; multiculturalism; Indigeneity; political belonging; religion; ethical selfhood .

About

Dylan is a doctoral candidate in sociocultural anthropology at Boston University. Broadly, he is interested in multiculturalism in Southeast Asia, including the forms of empowerment, ambivalences, and refusals multicultural recognition can generate for minority and subaltern communities. Dylan looks at the Indonesian context through research in Central Java with members of penghayat kepercayaan, masyarakat adat, and kejawen communities whose spiritual practices have historically been viewed as backward and religion-less in a nation in which multicultural recognition and policymaking has been largely restricted to world religions. Yet, in 2017, Indonesian courts extended these marginalized communities new political recognition and rights as a form of local or Indigenous religiosity. Dylan is interested in members’ responses to recognition, including different expressions of political belonging and projects of Indigenous and ethical self-fashioning made possible in this post-recognition landscape. His project therefore considers multiculturalism, belonging, and Indigenous as well as religious politics in Indonesia, a non-settler state in which debates over the shape and limits of legitimate social diversity reflect ongoing legacies of European colonialism, Christian missionization, and Islamic reformism.

Prior to beginning his doctorate at Boston University, Dylan completed a BA in English literature and religion at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont where he graduated magna cum laude in 2013. As an undergraduate, he participated in World Learning’s School for International Training (SIT) in Bali, Indonesia in 2011. After graduation, Dylan served with the Fulbright US Student Program as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in West Java, Indonesia.

Awards & Grants

• Fulbright-Hays (DDRA) Doctoral Dissertation Research Award. (2022-2023). 
• Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Javanese, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Summer 2021). 
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant. (2021).   
• Department of Anthropology Summer Research Grant. (2020).  
• Boston University (GRAS) Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Scholarship. (2020- present).      
• Boston University Dean’s Fellowship. (Fall 2019, Spring 2020). 
• Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for Indonesian, University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Summer 2019). 
• Fulbright US Student Program English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) Award to Indonesia. (2014-2015).

Publications

• forthcoming