Usep Abdul Matin will do his research at Duke University on “Activism, Conflict. and the Islamic Public Sphere in Indonesia: The Enlightenment Project of Jalaluddin Rakhmat”  drawn on his previous interdisciplinary work on Shi’a followers in the United States and on Jalaluddin Rakhmat.

Usep is a senior lecturer at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Islamic history and culture, a master’s in Islamic studies from Leiden University, a second master’s degree from Duke University with a Fulbright grant, and a PhD in religious studies from Monash University.