Rachel Rinaldo received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 2007. Her interests include the sociology of gender, culture, religion, and social change.

Professor Rinaldo's research examines how transnational shifts such as modernity and religious revival affect women and possibilities for egalitarian social change. How is religion implicated in diverse formulations of the modern? And what are the uses and consequences of moral visions in the public sphere, especially for women? She explores these questions about gender, religion, and politics through fieldwork in Indonesia.

Her Ph.D. dissertation was a study of Muslim and secular women activists, based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Her article, "Envisioning the Nation: Women Activists, Religion, and the Public Sphere in Indonesia" (Social Forces, 2008) explored how Muslim women activists are increasingly legitimate participants in the ongoing re-imagination of the Indonesian nation-state. Another article, "Muslim Women, Middle Class Habitus, and Modernity in Indonesia," (Contemporary Islam, 2008) investigates how pious practices are linked to the production of new forms of middle class subjectivity. She is currently working on a book about women, Islam, and the public sphere in Indonesia.

"Muslim Women, Moral Visions: Globalization and Gender Controversies in Indonesia." Qualitative Sociology (expected publication December 2011).

"The Islamic Revival and Women's Political Subjectivity in Indonesia." Women's Studies International Forum (2010).

"Envisioning the Nation: Women Activists, Religion, and the Public Sphere in Indonesia." Social Forces, Vol. 86 No. 4 (June 2008).

"Muslim Women, Middle Class Habitus, and Modernity in Indonesia." Contemporary Islam, Vol 2, No 1 (March 2008).

 

Undergraduate Level SOC 2320 - Gender & Society SOC 3020 - Intro to Social Theory SOC 3056 - Culture & Power SOC 3450 (3595) - Women, Islam & Modernity

Graduate Level