Joshua Kam holds a bachelor’s degree in History and the Classics from Hope College, Michigan in 2017. Joshua has spent fourteen years abroad in Southeast Asia, and continued to be fascinated by the complex relationship between the secular and the mystic in the larger Nusantara.

Under 2018 US Fulbright Student Grant, his project, “Imagining Ratu Kidul: Localized and National Identity in Java,” entails a study of how historical and contemporary Javanese communities interact with the cult of an indigenous sea goddess. Joshua seeks to also observe the ways national and regional identity is expressed through religion.

He intends to complete his research in August, 2019.

During this period of research, Joshua is affiliated with Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.