I am a historian and anthropologist with a focus on Muslim Southeast Asia. I work as a researcher at the Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) in Leiden. the Netherlands. My current research looks the ways in which female religious authorities (preachers, religious experts, and politicians) have become part of the public sphere in Malaysia and Indonesia. Much of my previous research focused on the relationship between state, religious authority and ordinary Muslims in Aceh, Indonesia. See projects for further details.