Chiara Formichi

Chiara Formichi is Assistant Professor in Southeast Asian Studies, with a focus on Islam, at the Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University. She received her PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, London), merging her expertise in Southeast Asian Studies with Arabic and Islamic Studies. Chiara has held fellowships in Indonesia (UIN Syarif Hidayatullah and UGM Yogyakarta), Singapore (Asia Research Institute), and the Netherlands (KITLV).

Chiara’s research addresses different aspects of the history of Islam in Southeast Asia, with a strong interest in inter-Asian connections. Her publications include the monograph Islam and the making of the nation: Kartosuwiryo and political Islam in 20th century Indonesia (2012), and the edited volumes Religious Pluralism, State and Society in Asia (2013) and Shi’ism in Southeast Asia: ‘Alid Piety and Sectarian Constructions (2015). Journal articles on Indonesia Journal (Cornell), Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, and Die Welt des Islams, and book chapters printed by Oxford University Press and Columbia University Press, deal with the relationship between Islam and the state, with a focus on ideas of the Islamic State and modernity, sectarianism, and religious minorities.