James Hoesterey

Jim Hoesterey is a graduate student in cultural anthropology. His Scott Kloeck-Jenson award will fund travel to conduct pre-dissertation field research about political sentiment and subjectivity in a contemporary Islamic movement in Indonesia. This preliminary research will address the ways in which Islamic preacher Aa Gymnastiar promotes a program of emotion-management (Manajemen Qalbu) as the moral and psychological basis for his “Movement to Build a Moral Nation.” Jim’s previous research includes M.A. fieldwork (University of South Carolina) concerning the cultural politics of nostalgia and shame among Minangkabau out-migrants in Java. Jim has received Foreign Language and Area Studies fellowships for intensive Indonesian language training at Cornell University and the UW Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute (1999-2000). Before entering the doctoral program at Madison, Jim served as translator and cultural consultant for several documentary films about Indonesia and Ethiopia which have been broadcast on the Discovery Channel (2002-2003).

Read more about James’s research experience here.