The Queer Staff Network cordially invites all interested parties to an exciting book talk:
Join us for the launch of Enduring Otherwise: Muslim Queer and Trans Worldmaking in Indonesia (NYU Press, 2026) with its author, Ferdiansyah Thajib. Viola Thimm, author of Shopping with Allah (UCL Press, 2023)will serve as a discussant in the event.
When: Tuesday, 12 May 2026, 6 p.m. – 7.30 p.m.
Where: Exhibition Room, Main University Library (Ausstellungsraum, Hauptbibliothek), Schuhstraße 1a, 91052 Erlangen
About the Book:
Drawing on ethnographic research in multiple locations in Indonesia, Enduring Otherwise examines how Muslim individuals and communities grapple with the challenges and possibilities of inhabiting queer and trans religiosity. Some distance themselves from religious tenets because of the harms implicated in them, while others immerse themselves in religious practices and spiritual values, seeking to reimagine them. There are also those who remain caught in tensions, having to navigate a life entrenched in ambivalence. Yet across these varied engagements, they continue to find ways to keep going. Offering a nuanced account of the affective politics of worldmaking at the intersection of sexuality, gender, and religion, Enduring Otherwise highlights how the drawn-out moments of hope, failure, improvisation, and exhaustion experienced by queer and gender non-conforming Indonesians configure efforts to create a world where no one will have to endure the unendurable anymore.
About the Author:
Dr. Ferdiansyah Thajib, is a Senior Lecturer in the Elite Graduate Program “Standards of Decision-Making Across Cultures” (SDAC) at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. He is member of KUNCI Study Forum & Collective, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
About the Discussant:
PD Dr. Viola Thimm holds a DFG-Heisenberg-Position at FAU’s Chair of Cultural and Social Anthropology with her project “Gender, Queer, Islam: Transregional Reconfigurations of Muslim Pilgrimage.” She joined FAU in 2022 at SDAC as a W2 professor and has been a Senior Lecturer there since 2023.
We look foward to all participants and to a lively discussion!