Discussion Forum
Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 2:15 p.m.

Knight Fights: How Female Pepadu use Spiritual Violence in East Lombok

Presenter: Dr. Bianca J Smith
Cheung Kong Postdoctoral Fellow in Anthropology, Monash University, Australia

Dr. Bianca J. Smith is an early-career researcher in the anthropology of gender and religion, specialising in the study of Islamic practice and mystical movements in Indonesia. She is a field anthropologist and ethnographer of Java and Lombok, and is co-editor of ‘Indonesian Islam in a New Era: How Women Negotiate their Muslim Identities’ (Monash University Press, 2008). She is currently writing a book about her ethnographic research on Tuan Guru Islam, civil armies and women’s spirituality in pesantren culture in Lombok. Dr. Smith received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Monash University in 2005  and since 2006, she has been living in Indonesia conducting research for several postdoctoral projects as well as consulting for non-government organisations in Java and Lombok.