research overview
- My research focuses on the Indonesian middle class, questions of femininity, consumption and religious propriety. Broadly, my research analyzes the cultural politics of appearance and aesthetics. I work in two major cities on Java, Yogyakarta and Jakarta. In Yogyakarta, I work in two middle-class neighborhoods, one older and one newer, in which I have come to know many of the families in my research on domesticity. I have also studied the growing phenomenon of women's self-improvement seminars, and issues of dress and manners. More recently, I have turned to questions of Islamic dress as Indonesia, the largest majority-Muslim country in the world, has become a vibrant site for a global Islamic fashion industry. This growth has raised questions within Indonesia about the relationship between religion and wealth, a topic I theorize through the lens of feminist ethnography. I find that anxieties about illegitimate wealth, corruption and scandal are gendered as forms of style.
