Basic Information

Academic Degree

• M.A.（Boston University）(M.A.（Boston University）)
• Ph.D.（Boston University）(Ph.D.（Boston University）)

Research History

• From Feb. 2018, To Mar. 2020

  University of Oxford, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Director & PI, Maldives Heritage Survey
• From Apr. 2020, To Present

  Kyoto University, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Director, Maritime Asia Heritage Survey (MAHS), Professor
• From Mar. 2020, To Present

  University of Oxford, Faculty of History, Associate Member
• From Jan. 2016, To Mar. 2020

  University of Oxford, Faculty of History, Sultan of Oman Fellow, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
• From Jul. 2006, To Dec. 2015

  National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute, Research Leader, Religion and Globalisation Cluster, Associate Professor, History Department
• From Jan. 2013

  Melbourne University Law School, Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society (CILIS), Senior Associate

Language of Instruction

• English

ID,URL

• ORCID ID

  0000-0002-1222-6766

• J-Global ID

  202101010473564130

• Researcher number

  70892909

Website(s) (URL(s))

• https://maritimeasiaheritage.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp

researchmap URL

• https://researchmap.jp/R.MichaelFeener

Research

Research Topics, Overview of the research

• Research Topics

  Indian Ocean History, Islamic Law and Society, Religion and Development, Southeast Asian Languages and Cultures, Maldives, Maritime Asia Heritage Survey

• Overview of the research

  
  The main focus of my work is in Islamic Studies, with a particular emphasis on the history of Muslim societies of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean World. Within that geographic area, my first two monographs dealt with the history of legal thought and practice in Indonesia. My research interests, however, extend beyond legal history and across the broader maritime world of Islam around the Indian Ocean littoral. I have also worked in a number of other areas, publishing on topics including Muslim networks, Qur’anic studies, Sufism, Shiism, trans-regional histories, and local histories - especially of Aceh and the Maldives.

Research Interests

• Indian Ocean History, Islamic Studies, Southeast Asian Literature and Languages, Law and Society, Religion and Development, archaeology, heritage Maldives, Indonesia, Brunei

Research Areas

• Humanities & social sciences, History - General, Indian Ocean History, Southeast Asian History, Islamic Studies, law and society, religion and development, archaeology, anthropology, heritage

Papers

• A 15th-Century Persian Inscription from Bireuen, Aceh: An Early ‘Flash’ of Sufism before Fanṣūrī in Southeast Asia

  Majid Daneshgar; Gregorius Dwi Kuswanta; Masykur Syafruddin; R. Michael Feener

  Malay-Indonesian Islamic Studies, 05 Dec. 2022, Peer-reviewed, Last author

  Access this paper :

  
• Challenges of Managing Maritime Cultural Heritage in Asia in the Face of Climate Change

  Patrick Daly; R. Michael Feener; Noboru Ishikawa; Ibrahim Mujah; Maida Irawani; Alexandru Hegyi; Krisztina Baranyai; Jedrzej Majewski; Benjamin Horton

  Climate, 25 May 2022, Peer-reviewed, Corresponding author

  
• Salem to Sumatra (and more improvised itineraries): Reflections on a quarter century of shifting tacks

  R. Michael Feener

  Fieldwork and the Self: Encounters, Confessions, and New Trajectories in Southeast Asian Research, Jun. 2021, Peer-reviewed, Invited, Lead author

  
• Impacts, Vulnerability, and Understanding Risks of Climate Change for Culture and Heritage

  Nicholas P. Simpson, Scott Allah Orr, Salma Sabour, R. Michael Feener, Joanne Clark, Maya Ishizawa, Christoper Ballard, Poonam Verma Mascarenhas, Patricia Pino, Jean-Baptiste Bosson

  ICOMOS White Paper 2 for the International Co-Sponsored Meeting on Culture, Heritage, and Climate Change 2022, May 2021, Invited

  
• The Maldives Heritage Survey

  R. Michael Feener; Patrick Daly; Michael Frachetti; Ibrahim Mujah; Maida Irawani; Jovial Pally Taran; Ahmad Zaki; Fathimath Maasa; Mohamed Shamran; Multia Zahara; Mariyam Isha Azees; Krisztina Baranyai; Paula Levick; Hala Bakheit; Jessica Rahardjo; Gabriel Clark

  Antiquity, 22 Jun. 2021, Peer-reviewed, Lead author

  
• Islamisation and the formation of vernacular Muslim material culture in 15th-century northern Sumatra

  R. Michael Feener; Patrick Daly; E. Edwards McKinnon; Luca Lum En-Ci; Ardiansyah; Nizamuddin; Nazli Ismail; Tai Yew Seng; Jessica Rahardjo; Kerry Sieh

  Indonesia and the Malay World, 02 Jan. 2021, Peer-reviewed, Lead author

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• Engineering transformations in the ‘religion-development nexus’: Islamic law, reform, and reconstruction in Aceh

  R. Michael Feener

  Religion, 02 Jan. 2021, Peer-reviewed, Lead author

  
• America's Encounters with Southeast Asia, 1800–1900: Before the Pivot by Farish A. Noor (A Book Review)

  R. Michael Feener

  Review of International American Studies, 08 Sep. 2019

  
• The Politics of Islamic Law: Local Elites, Colonial Authority, and the Making of the Muslim State

  Feener, RM

  Law and History Review, 2017

  
• Hamka's Great Story: A Master Writer's Vision of Islam for Modern Indonesia.

  Feener, RM

  Journal of Religion, 2017

  
• Configuring Catholicism in the anthropology of Christianity

  Brown, B; Feener, RM

  Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2017

  
• Religion and Reconstruction in the Wake of Disaster

  Feener, RM; Daly, P

  Asian Ethnology, 2016

  
• Rebuilding Asia following natural disasters : approaches to reconstruction in the Asia-Pacific region

  Daly, Patrick T.; Feener, R. Michael

  2016

  
• Islam and the limits of the state : reconfigurations of practice, community and authority in contemporary Aceh

  Feener, R. Michael; Kloos, David; Samuels, Annemarie

  2016

  
• 'Abd al-Samad in Arabia: The Yemeni Years of a Shaykh from Sumatra

  Feener R. Michael

  Southeast Asian Studies, 2015

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• Shiʻism in Southeast Asia : ʻAlid piety and sectarian constructions

  Formichi, Chiara; Feener, R. Michael

  2015

  
• Religion and the politics of development

  Fountain, Philip; Rickard, Robin Bush; Feener, R. Michael

  2015

  
• Penultimate predecessors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh, Sumatra: Stratigraphic, archeological, and historical evidence

  Sieh, K; Daly, P; McKinnon, EE; Pilarczyk, JE; Chiang, HW; Horton, B; Rubin, CM; Shen, CC; Ismail, N; Vane, CH; Feener, RM

  Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth, 2015

  
• The Golden Wave: Culture and Politics after Sri Lanka's Tsunami Disaster

  Feener, RM

  Asian Ethnology, 2014

  
• Shiʻism in South East Asia : 'Alid piety and sectarian constraints

  Formichi, Chiara; Feener, R. Michael

  2014

  
• Official Religions, State Secularisms, and the Structures of Religious Pluralism

  Feener, RM; Finucane, J

  Proselytizing and the Limits of Religious Pluralism in Contemporary Asia, 2014

  
• Muslim Religious Authority in Modern Asia Established Patterns and Evolving Profiles

  Feener, RM

  Asian Journal of Social Science, 2014

  
• A Wall in the Woods Note on the Recently Discovered Site at Kreung Jeureungeh, North Aceh

  Feener, RM

  Bijdragen Tot De Taal- Land- En Volkenkunde, 2014

  
• Shariʻa and social engineering : the implementation of Islamic law in contemporary Aceh, Indonesia

  Feener, R. Michael

  2013

  
• Aceh setelah tsunami dan konflik

  Daly, Patrick T.; Feener, R. Michael; Reid, Anthony

  2013

  
• From the ground up : perspective on post-tsunami and post-conflict Aceh

  Daly, Patrick T.; Feener, R. Michael; Reid, Anthony

  2012

  
• Memetakan masa lalu Aceh

  Feener, R. Michael; Daly, Patrick T.; Reid, Anthony

  2011

  
• Mapping the Acehnese past

  Feener, R. Michael; Daly, Patrick T.; Reid, Anthony

  2011

  
• Islamic connections : Muslim societies in South and Southeast Asia

  Feener, R. Michael; Sevea, Terenjit; Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.,

  2009

  
• A Javanese Muslim Life of Learning: Professor Dr. Haji Mohamad Koesnoe (Indonesian Legal Scholar)

  Feener, RM; Trix, F; Walbridge, J; Walbridge, L

  Muslim Voices and Lives in the Contemporary World, 2008

  
• The open gate of ijtihad

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• The new 'ulama'

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• Technology, training, and cultural transformation

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• Shari'a Islam in a Pancasila nation

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• Preface: Toward an intellectual history of modern Indonesian Islam

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• Next generation fiqh?

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• New Muslim intellectuals and the "re-actualization" of Islam

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• MUSLIM LEGAL THOUGHT IN MODERN INDONESIA Conclusion

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• Islamic law in contemporary Indonesia : ideas and institutions

  Feener, R. Michael; Cammack, Mark E.

  2007

  
• Islam and state in Sumatra: A study of seventeenth-century Aceh

  Feener, RM

  International Journal of Middle East Studies, 2007

  
• Constructions of religious authority in Indonesian Islamism 'The Way and the Community' reimagined

  Feener, RM; Reid, A; Gilsenan, M

  Islamic Legitimacy in a Plural Asia, 2007

  
• An "Indonesian madhhab"

  Feener, RM

  Muslim Legal Thought in Modern Indonesia, 2007

  
• Islam in world cultures : comparative perspectives

  Feener, R. Michael

  2004

  
• A re-examination of the place of al-Hallaj in the development of Southeast Asian Islam

  Feener, RM

  Bijdragen Tot De Taal- Land- En Volkenkunde, 1998

  

Misc.

• A. C. S. Peacock and Annabel Teh Gallop, eds. From Anatolia to Aceh: Ottomans, Turks, and Southeast Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015, xvi+348p.

  Feener R. Michael

  Southeast Asian Studies, Dec. 2016

  Access this misc :

  

Books and Other Publications

• Political theologies and development in Asia : transcendence, sacrifice, and aspiration

  Bolotta, Giuseppe; Fountain, Philip; Feener, R. Michael

  Manchester University Press, 2020

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Buddhist and Islamic orders in Southern Asia : comparative perspectives

  Feener, R. Michael; Blackburn, Anne M.

  University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2019

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Challenging cosmopolitanism : coercion, mobility and displacement in Islamic Asia

  Gedacht, Joshua; Feener, R. Michael

  Edinburgh University Press Ltd, 2018

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Rebuilding Asia following natural disasters : approaches to reconstruction in the Asia-Pacific region

  Daly, Patrick T.; Feener, R. Michael

  Cambridge University Press, 2016

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Islam and the limits of the state : reconfigurations of practice, community and authority in contemporary Aceh

  Feener, R. Michael; Kloos, David; Samuels, Annemarie

  Brill, 2016

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Religion and the politics of development

  Fountain, Philip; Rickard, Robin Bush; Feener, R. Michael

  Palgrave Macmillan, 2015

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Shiʻism in Southeast Asia : ʻAlid piety and sectarian constructions

  Formichi, Chiara; Feener, R. Michael

  Oxford University Press, 2015

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Shiʻism in Southeast Asia : ʻAlid piety and sectarian constraints

  Formichi, Chiara; Feener, R. Michael

  Hurst, 2015

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Proselytizing and the limits of religious pluralism in contemporary Asia

  Finucane, Juliana; Feener, R. Michael; Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

  Springer, 2014

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Shariʿa and social engineering : the implementation of Islamic law in contemporary Aceh, Indonesia

  Feener, R. Michael

  Oxford University Press, 2013

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• From the ground up : perspectives on post-tsunami and post-conflict Aceh

  Daly, Patrick; Feener, R. Michael; Reid, Anthony; Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

  ISEAS, 2012

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Mapping the Acehnese past

  Feener, R. Michael; Daly, Patrick T.; Reid, Anthony

  KITLV Press, 2011

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Memetakan masa lalu Aceh

  Feener, R. Michael; Daly, Patrick T.; Reid, Anthony

  Pustaka Larasan,KITLV-Jakarta, 2011

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Islamic connections : Muslim societies in South and Southeast Asia

  Feener, R. Michael; Sevea, Terenjit

  Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Islamic law in contemporary Indonesia : ideas and institutions

  Feener, R. Michael; Cammack, Mark E.

  Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School,Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2007

  Find Kyoto University's collection of books :

  
• Muslim legal thought in modern Indonesia

  Feener, R. Michael

  Cambridge University Press, 2007

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• Islam in world cultures : comparative perspectives

  Feener, R. Michael

  ABC-CLIO, 2004

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External funds: others

• アジアにおける新たな海洋遺産の探求:トランスナショナルな概念的枠組み構築に向けて (2022年度分)

  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), 二国間交流事業共同研究・セミナー

  From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2023

  代表者

Education

Teaching subject(s)

• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  History of Islam in Southeast Asia

  1325, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture I

  1351, Spring, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture IV

  1354, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture III

  1353, Spring, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture II

  1352, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2023, To 31 Mar. 2024

  History of Islam in Southeast Asia

  1325, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2023, To 31 Mar. 2024

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture II

  1352, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2023, To 31 Mar. 2024

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture I

  1351, Spring, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2023, To 31 Mar. 2024

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture IV

  1354, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2023, To 31 Mar. 2024

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture III

  1353, Spring, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2023

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture II

  1352, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2023

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture I

  1351, Spring, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2023

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture III

  1353, Spring, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3
• From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2023

  History of Islam in Southeast Asia

  1325, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 2
• From 01 Apr. 2022, To 31 Mar. 2023

  Research Seminar on Environment, Society and Culture IV

  1354, Fall, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, 3

Administration

Faculty management (title, position)

• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  安全衛生委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  情報セキュリティ委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  研究公正委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  自己点検・評価委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  MAHSプロジェクト長
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  東アジア／海外研究ネットワーク委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  SEASIA委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2024, To 31 Mar. 2025

  相関地域研究部門　部門長
• From 01 Apr. 2021, To 31 Mar. 2024

  英文誌編集委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2021, To 31 Mar. 2024

  出版委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2021, To 31 Mar. 2022

  広報委員会
• From 01 Apr. 2021, To 31 Mar. 2022

  東南アジアセミナー委員会

Academic, Social Contribution

Committee Memberships

• From Jun. 2022, To Present

  Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
• From Jan. 2020, To Present

  Advisory Panel, Endangered Wooden Architecture Programme
• From Jan. 2020, To Present

  Editorial Board, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society
• From Jan. 2019, To Present

  Advisory Board, OpenHeritage3D
• From Jun. 2012, To Present

  Editorial Board, Royal Asiatic Society Monographs
• From Jan. 2012, To Present

  Editorial Board, Asian Ethnology
• From Jan. 2018, To Dec. 2019

  Core Committee, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
• From Jan. 2016, To Dec. 2019

  International Scientific Committee, Global History Institute,, L’université de recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, Paris
• From Jan. 2011

  Advisory Board, Islamic Law and Society