My research bridges theoretical debates in the anthropology of Islam, morality, gender, and education. My book manuscript, Achieving Islam: Women, Piety, and Moral Play in Indonesian Muslim Boarding Schools, is an 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 life trajectories of women 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?
With the support of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, I conducted two years of ethnographic field research (2011-2013) in two Islamic boarding schools for girls. Rather than privileging the perspective of the institutions, administrators, and teachers, my work focuses on the lives and experiences of young women students. My research analyzes moral learning beyond just the classroom setting--in particular, I argue that moments of fun and leisure be viewed as important instances of what I call "moral play." I contend that these moments be taken not as ruptures but instead as everyday occurrences in the life of a piety-minded individual as they "try on" the array of moral messages they receive in and beyond school and their families. I examine decision making around of television viewing, dress, and dating to illustrate both the flexibility and fixity of moral values and evaluation in girls’ lives as they navigate relationships, careers, sexuality, and family as students and after graduation.
In the summers since my initial research, I have begun the development of two new projects. The first examines professionalization and how young women define success. Second, in the age of hoaxes and fake news, I am exploring the issue media literacy among students in Indonesian Islamic schools.