Dylan Renca is a doctoral candidate in sociocultural anthropology at Boston University. Broadly, he is interested in multiculturalism, religion, and political belonging in Southeast Asia.

As a Fulbright DDRA Fellow, Dylan is looking at the Indonesian context through doctoral research with members of the Penghayat Kepercayaan community on Java, whose traditions and spiritual practices have historically been stigmatized as a heterodox, syncretic blend of Islam, Hinduism, and Indigenous practices. However, Penghayat Kepercayaan practices received greater political recognition under Indonesian courts in 2017. Dylan is now exploring members’ attitudes toward recognition and their sense of political belonging and personhood. His research, therefore, brings together scholarship on multicultural governance, belonging, and personhood in a nation where debates over the recognition of social difference are entangled with legacies of colonialism, Christian missionization, and Islamic reformism. Dylan’s research is graciously supported through an affiliation with the Center for Religious & Cross-cultural Studies (CRCS) at Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Before beginning his doctoral studies, Dylan completed his bachelor’s degree in English literature and religion at Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont, where he graduated magna cum laude. As an undergraduate, he participated in World Learning’s School for International Training (SIT), a semester-abroad program based in Bali focused on Indonesian arts, religion, and social change. In 2014, Dylan served with the Fulbright U.S. Student Program as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in a state-run Islamic secondary school (MAN) in Bandung, West Java.