Ferdiansyah Thajib

Public acts of intolerance have added new violent dimensions to the debates of homosexuality and Islam that have been perpetuating both aspects as contradictory and irreconcilable facets of life in Indonesian Muslim culture. Meanwhile, stories of Muslim queer inhabiting the cleavages between sexuality and piety continue to emerge through various lifeworlds. This research deals with questions of (1) how affect, feelings and emotion take shape among Muslim queer in their processes of reflectively engaging with both transcendental space of religious well-being andsocial norms of Indonesian Muslim culture. (2) It explores everyday instances where sexual minorities and transgender identities carve out and navigate feelings of belonging in a society that continues to problematize their social existence. (3) It elucidates ways for the subjects who are vulnerable to exclusionary forces of moral orthodoxy cope with conflicting situations through religious devotions and engaging with emotional reflexivity. And finally this dissertation project also seeks to (4) analytically frame forms of politics of subjectivity beyond the polar opposites that often compartmentalize non-normative agencies to either accommodation or resistance. At stake is the potency of vulnerable subjects in their struggle to not only make life bearable but also realize possibilities of living norms differently.