Oct 30, 2025
In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan interviews Chiara Formichi, H. Stanley Krusen Professor of World Religions, Director of the Religious Studies Program, and Professor of Asian Studies at Cornell University. They discuss how Prof. Formichi’s personal and intellectual journey shaped her research trajectory in Islamic and Southeast Asian studies. Drawing from her latest monograph, Domestic Nationalism: Muslim Women, Health and Modernity in Indonesia, she explores how Indonesian women envisioned their own versions of modernity through gendered care work, from the colonial Dutch East Indies to postcolonial Indonesia. Departing from her earlier research on elite political actors, she turns to examining women’s vernacular magazines, visual sources, and advertisements to uncover the overlooked yet central role of Indonesian Muslim women in shaping Indonesia’s postcolonial future.
Lightning round: 3:16
Research and Lecture Summary: 11:00
Advice for researchers and recommendations: 44:57
Chiara Formichi’s top recommendations:
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World, Vincent Bevins
The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis, Amitav Ghosh
The music on the podcast is from "14 Strings!", a Filipino style Rondalla group established in Cornell University. Check them out here.
Produced by Adam Farihin, Neen Yada Tangcharoenmonkong and Cecilia Liu