Book

Enduring Otherwise delves into the complexities faced by Muslim sexual and gender minorities in Indonesia, as their lives are intertwined with ongoing violence and normative pressures. Drawing on affective ethnographic engagement in this predominantly Muslim country, the book turns toward how its protagonists relationally come to terms with the impasses and promises of inhabiting queer and trans religiosity. Some grapple with enduring difficulties, others attempt to engage with or distance themselves from religious practices and values, and some end up failing altogether. Yet, they all continue to find ways to keep on going.  Although these everyday experiences may seem mundane or insignificant for broader social change, they prefigure new forms of queer and trans worldmaking in Indonesia and beyond. Their stories signal the political potential of enduring otherwise.

By conceptualizing "enduring otherwise," the book emphasizes social projects that involve dwelling with, withstanding, and living through sufferings within entrenched normative structures, all while remaining faithful to the process of queer and trans worldmaking in its open-ended becoming. Here, endurance is not solely about survival or manifesting inner-strength, often characterized as ‘resilience’ in Global South contexts. Filled with moments of hope and failure as well as improvisation and exhaustion, enduring otherwise envisions a slow, drawn-out, and less heroic path toward creating a world where no one will ever have to endure the unendurable anymore.

This book, which is expected to be published by the end of January 2026, is part of NYU Press's Hauntings: Queer/Trans Studies in Religion series, edited by Ashton T. Crawley (University of Virginia), Tamara C. Ho (University of California, Riverside), and Melissa M. Wilcox (University of California, Riverside).