Nelly van Doorn-Harder Professor of Religion 216 Wingate Hall Telephone: (336) 7583945 FAX: (336) 758-4463 Email Homepage

Nelly van Doorn-Harder’s research straddles issues concerning women and religion and those concerning minorities, minority cultures, and human rights in Muslim countries. She has done her main fieldwork in the Middle East and Southeast Asia; specializing in indigenous Christianity of Egypt and in Muslim organizations in Indonesia. She has authored and co-authored books, papers, and book chapters in these areas, among others for Sojourn, The Muslim World, the Nordic Journal of Human Rights, The Encyclopaedia of the Qur’an, The Encyclopaedia of Religion, and the  Encyclopaedia of Islam. Her latest book Women Shaping Islam. Indonesian Muslim Women Reading the Qur’an (2006) analyzes the various religious strategies Indonesian Muslim feminists have developed to strengthen the position of women. The book argues that their use of Qur’an based texts rather than secular feminist material allows women to gain degrees of authority that in certain fields are comparable to the authority of male Muslim leaders. Her current research focuses on spiritual trends that motivate activist expressions of Islam in Indonesia. This project includes artistic expressions, visual culture, rituals, and text. She has held fellowships from Fulbright, the Ford Foundation, the American University at Cairo, and the Norwegian Institute for Human Rights Studies. Before coming to Valparaiso University where she holds the Surjit Patheja Chair in World Religions and Ethics, she taught Islamic Studies and the Study of Religion at Leiden University, the Free University in Amsterdam, and at the Gajah Mada and Duta Wacana Universities in Indonesia.