Claire-Marie Hefner, PhD.

I am a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Union College where I teach courses on ethnography, Islam, gender, education, and environment. I am currently completing my book manuscript Achieving Islam: Women, Education, and Morality in Indonesia. 

Based on over two years of field research, Achieving Islam is book-length ethnographic study of women’s achievement and moral learning in two Islamic boarding schools for girls in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It asks, how does Islamic schooling impact the imagined futures and real-life trajectories of their female students? What does the moral learning of Indonesian Islamic boarding school (pesantren) students tell us about how young Muslims today engage, reconceive, and enact Islam? What role does leisure and fun play in the ethical subject formation of Muslim women students? What lessons does this Indonesian example offer for how anthropologists understand freedom, agency, and human flourishing? 

Prior to my position at Union College, I have held visiting teaching positions at Bard College (Interdisciplinary Study of Religions Program, 2022-2024), Florida State University (Religion Department, 2019-2021) and Manhattanville College (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, 2016-2019). My teaching experience includes introductory courses on Cultural Anthropology, gender and sexuality, Islam, and education as well as seminars on themes of gender and Islam; religion and new media; ethnographic writing; and Southeast Asian studies.