Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gendered Dimensions of New Religious Streams in Java, Indonesia

波士顿大学博士生赵恩杰将在罗伯特·赫夫纳博士的指导下，研究跨国宗教运动伊斯兰化对当地多宗教背景下规范性性别角色的影响。这项研究将在印度尼西亚的爪哇中部进行，她将在那里比较这场运动对三种不同类型宗教组织女性的影响：传统派穆斯林、改革派穆斯林和基督教。规范宗教的影响力不断扩大，在世界许多地区引起了人们对其性别效应的兴趣。通过考察同一社会中的基督教和穆斯林社区，本研究将提供一个新的比较视角。研究人员将采用混合方法。她将通过参与者观察和密集访谈收集定性的人种学信息，并进行结构化调查以收集定量数据。该项目的目标包括调查：(1)不同宗教流派促进的性别规范；(2)宗教解释和性别平等的合法性；(3)性别与宗教知识之间的关系；(4)妇女在各种可观察领域的个人经历：经济、家庭、交往和政治。该项目之所以重要，是因为以宗教变化的性别层面为重点的比较方法将有助于社会科学理解多元化、性别和宗教之间的关系，并有助于理解这些变化对妇女生活的影响。支持这一项目也有助于研究生教育。

Boston University doctoral student, En-Chieh Chao, supervised by Dr. Robert Hefner, will investigate the impact of a transnational religious movement, Islamization, on normative gender roles in local, multi-religious contexts. The research will be carried out in central Java, Indonesia, where she will compare the movement's effects on women in three different types of religious organizations: traditionalist Muslim, reformist Muslim, and Christian. The expanding influence of normative religions has aroused interest in their gendered effects in many parts of the world. By examining both Christian and Muslim communities in a single society, this research will offer a new comparative perspective.The researcher will employ a mix-methods approach. She will collect qualitative ethnographic information through participant-observation and intensive interviews, and also carry out a structured survey to collect quantitative data. The project's objectives include investigations of: (1) the gender norms promoted by different religious streams; (2) religious interpretations and legitimacy of gender equality; (3) the relation between gender and religious knowledge; and (4) women's personal experiences in various observable domains: economic, family, associational, and political. The project is important because a comparative approach, focused on gendered dimensions of religious change, will contribute to both social scientific understanding of the relation between pluralism, gender, and religion, and to understanding the effects of these changes on women's lives. Supporting this project also contributes to graduate education.