Verena Meyer
University lecturer
- Name
- Dr. V.H. Meyer
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2281
- v.h.meyer@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-5465-4833
I am an Assistant Professor (Universitair Docent) of Islam in South and Southeast Asia at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies. In my work, I draw on ethnographic field research, training in contemporary critical theory, and literary studies in Javanese, Malay, and Arabic to investigate questions of Islamic identity, the role of memory and the formation of heritage, and the transmission of knowledge across time and space. Before coming to Leiden, I received my PhD at Columbia University and held a postdoc in Norway.
Fields of interest
- intellectual/spiritual networks and lineages of transmission in the Islamic world
- ambiguity and paradox in pre-modern and modern Islam
- memory and constructions of religious identities
- textuality and its materiality
- religious encounters and complexities in Southeast Asia
Research
My first book project, entitled Future’s Past: The Politics of Memory in Islamic Java, is based on extensive ethnographic, archival, and literary research. I investigate how Indonesia’s two largest Islamic mass organizations — one self-identifying as traditionalist, the other as modernist — draw on the historical memory of their founding figures to express and actualize their respective positionings as Muslims. The past, curated in a wide range of media, offers fertile grounds for negotiating and articulating normative religious identities and social visions for both organizations. As constructions of the past are called into the service of different, highly contextual demands, these historical visions often fail to produce coherent self-representations. Yet the ensuing tensions among different memories are often productive, allowing the articulation of complex positionalities beyond the traditionalist-modernist binary. With its focus on contradictions, the book argues against the familiar notion that contemporary Islam, especially in its modernist variant, has lost its tolerance of ambiguity and its ability to make productive use of polyvalence. Grounded in empirical research on Indonesia, the book seeks to offer a theoretical intervention into broader debates within the study of Islam.
Grants and awards
Columbia University, Early Career Postdoctoral Fellowship
Global Religion Research Initiative (GRRI) Doctoral Dissertation Write-Up Fellowship
Mellon Humanities International Travel Fellowship for Dissertation Research
American Academy of Religion Collaborative International Research Grant (twice)
Columbia University, Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life Research Fellowship (twice)
Curriculum vitae
2022-2023 Postdoctoral Fellow, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society
2021-2022 Early Career Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia University, Department of Religion
2015-2021 Columbia University, Department of Religion, PhD in Islamic Studies
Selected publications
Meyer, V. (2023). “Murdering Mangir: Literature and Memories of Violence in Islamic Java.” Philological Encounters. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1163/24519197-bja10047.
Meyer, V. (2023). “Where is Mecca? Or, Map and Territory: Reflections from Java.” In R. Ricci (Ed.), Storied Islands: New Directions in Javanese Studies. Leiden: Brill. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004678897_009.
Meyer, V. (2022). “More Than Diacritics: Writing, Power, and the Porosity of Language and Script in Java.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 53(1-2), 356-358. Retrieved from https://doi:10.1017/S0022463422000339
Meyer, V. (2021). A Wali’s Quest for Guidance: The Islamic Genealogies of the Seh Mlaya. Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia, 22(3), 675-692. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.17510/wacana.v22i3.1084
Meyer, V. (2021). “Traces of the Other Form of Life: The Rural, the Urban, and Indonesians’ Social Mobility in Candra Aditya’s Dewi Pulang.” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 177(2-3), p.234-242. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1163/22134379-bja10031
Meyer, V. (2020). “Neo-Sufism in Indonesia: A Reconsideration of Nurcholish Madjid’s Development of Fazlur Rahman’s Thought.” In K.P. Ewing & R. Corbett (Eds.), Modern Sufis and the State: Rethinking Islam, Scholarship, and the State in South Asia and Beyond. New York: Columbia University Press.
Meyer, V. (2019). “Translating Divinity: Punning and Paradox in Hamzah Fansuri’s Poetic Sufism.” Indonesia and the Malay World, 47(139), p.353-372. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2019.1654216
University lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Institute for Area Studies
- SAS Indonesie
- Meyer V.H. (2024), Review of: Kloos D., Westmoreland M.R., Schmidt L. & Barendregt B. (2023), Provocative images in contemporary Islam. Leiden: Leiden University Press. Contemporary Islam : 233.
- Meyer V.H. (2024), Review of: Robson S. & Sidomulyo H. (2023), Kidung Pañji Margasmara: a Middle Javanese romance, by Kěmuling Rat Dyah Atapêng Raje . Bibliotheca Indonesica. Leiden. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 87(1): 218-219.
- Meyer V.H. 20 March 2024, Digitising the colonial archive: examining the risks of reaffirming colonial discourse. Sacred Pixels 2. SOAS University of London [podcast].
- Meyer V.H. (2024), Epilogue: Asia as a privileged space of inquiry in the field of Islamic studies, International Journal of Islam in Asia 4(1-2): 206-213.
- Acri A., Aminullah Z. & Meyer V.H. (2024), Antinomianism as a way to God in nineteenth-century Java: the Suluk Lonthang between Islamic and pre-Islamic religious discourse, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society : .
- Meyer V.H. (2024), Grave matters: ambiguity, modernism, and the quest for moderate Islam in Indonesia, Journal of the American Academy of Religion : 20 (lfae061).
- Meyer V.H. (2023), Where is Mecca? : or, map and territory: reflections from Java. In: Ricci R. (Ed.), Storied island: new explorations in Javanese literature. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde no. 316. Leiden: Brill. 176-200.
- Meyer V.H. (2023), Murdering Mangir: literature and memories of violence in Islamic Java, Philological Encounters : .
- Meyer V.H. (2022), Text and writing in Southeast Asian Studies: A discussion of Richard Fox's More than words: transforming script, agency and collective life in Bali (Cornell University Press, 2018): introduction, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 53(1-2): 339-340.
- Meyer V.H. (2022), More than diacritics: writing, power, and the porosity of script and language in Java, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 53(1-2): 356-358.
- Meyer V.H. (2021), Traces of the other form of life: the rural, the urban, and Indonesians’ social mobility in Candra Aditya’s Dewi pulang, Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia 177(2-3): 234-242.
- Meyer V.H. (2021), A "wali’s" quest for guidance: the Islamic genealogies of the "Seh Mlaya", Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia 22(3): 675-692.
- Meyer V.H. (2020), From Taṣawwuf Modern to Neo-Sufism : Nurcholish Madjid, Fazlur Rahman, and the development of an idea. In: Ewing K.P. & Corbett R. (Eds.), Modern Sufis and the state: the politics of Islam in South Asia and beyond. New York: Columbia University Press. 40-56.
- Meyer V.H. (2019), Translating divinity : punning and paradox in Hamzah Fansuri's poetic sufism, Indonesia and the Malay World 47(139): 353-372.
- Meyer V.H. (2016), The people and the Wayang by Franz Magnis Suseno : translation and introduction, International Journal of Dharma Studies 4(3): 1-16.
- Meyer V.H. (2013), Review of: Putra N.D. (2011), A literary mirror: Balinese reflections on modernity and identity in the Twentieth Century. Leiden: KITLV Press. Journal of Asian Studies 72(3): 748-750.