Rafadi Hakim is a PhD Candidate in anthropology at the University of Chicago. He will conduct ethnographic field research in Jakarta and Kupang, East Nusa Tengara for his dissertation entitled “Enregistering Democracy: Gender and Political Discourse in Eastern Indonesia.”

Through the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad (DDRA) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation grant, Rafadi intends to find out how gender influences communicative strategies in grassroots forums (musyawarah), where local citizens discuss policy suggestions for their village and district governments. By deploying feminist and linguistic anthropological concepts, he will also investigate how civil society organizations produce new communicative practices among women as they participate in local democratic forums.

During his research, Rafadi is affiliated with Institut KAPAL Perempuan and University of Indonesia.