Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health and Modernity in Indonesia

Domestic Nationalism argues that Muslim women in Java and Sumatra, from the late 1910s to the 1950s, were central to Indonesia’s progress as guardians and promoters of health and piety through gendered activities of care work. Women from all walks of life were called upon to fulfill domestic and motherly roles for the production and socialization of laborers, soldiers, and citizens, and pushed against the boundaries imposed on them by states and patriarchal orders. In this talk I will discuss how they rearticulated scientific mothering, nationalist maternalism, and Islamic ideals of motherhood to create a public voice through gendered care work, and the methodological challenges of doing so.

Moderated by Teren Sevea, Harvard Divinity School

Chiara Formichi is Director of the Religious Studies Program and Professor in Asian Studies at Cornell University. She specializes on Islam in Southeast Asia focusing on the intersection of religion, politics and society in colonial and postcolonial Southeast Asia. Chiara’s third monograph, Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health, and Modernity in Indonesia is forthcoming with Stanford University Press.