Arts: Visual and Performing

Maho, Ishiguro, PhD

Assistant Professor, EMORY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, Music

Gifts from the Waves: Acehnese Dance and Music in Post-Tsunami Aceh, Indonesia and Beyond

Where are the voices of female Acehnese performing artists living under Aceh’s current Sharia law? My research focuses on the performing arts from Indonesia’s Aceh province, an understudied area due to its 30-year political and military struggle with the central government of Indonesia (1976 - 2004). Since the resolution of the conflict, only achieved through a devastating tsunami in 2004, political scientists have produced scholarly works which focus on male-dominated political and religious spaces. Overlooked is how Muslim women have been marginalized by Aceh’s recent move away from a traditionally matrifocal society to an increasingly patriarchal and conservative society governed under Sharia law. My book project, Gifts from the Waves: Acehnese Dance and Music in Post-Tsunami Aceh, Indonesia and Beyond, is the first monograph on the Acehnese performing arts, exploring facets outside its male-dominated spaces that rarely include women’s voices. I argue that the changing relationship between Acehnese performing arts, discourses on gender and localized forms of Islam in Indonesia have shaped unique spaces for their creative and devotional practices, transforming the ways Muslim women dancers navigate their artistic, religious, and social worlds. Based on ethnographic research conducted in Indonesia, my project foregrounds the voices of arts practitioners in order to illustrate a manifold world of profound artistic expressions and powerful religious belief in Acehnese society. The URC award will assist me in completing this book project by granting the time for revisions and for conducting a two months period of fieldwork in Indonesia.

Tanju Ozdemir, MFA

Assistant Professor, EMORY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES, Film & Media

Border

This proposal seeks funding for Border, a short narrative film exploring the escalating crisis of migrant influx through the perspective of Richard Turner, a conservative landowner in Jacumba Hot Springs on the US-Mexico border. Turner, not only a legal citizen but also a landowner expecting state protection as migrants daily cross his property. Initially pursuing legal solutions, Turner is thwarted by the expiration of Title 42 in May 2023 and California law limitations on local enforcement. His breaking point comes with the destruction of his land and trees, leading Turner to craft a trap to safeguard his property. The film pivots at this moment when a group of Turkish and Kurdish migrants, including a pregnant woman, falls victim to the trap. Eschewing the language of victimization, "Border" is instead interested in the clashing of claims to civic and humanitarian rights, with migrants on one side and Turner on the other, both seeking protection from the state, and both equally justified. In doing so, the film delves into the complexities surrounding immigration, human desperation, and the unforeseen consequences of one man's attempt to secure his land. Considering the escalating global migration crises prompted by political turmoil and environmental disasters, it is crucial to depict the vicissitudes of the migrant condition with ethical considerations. In collaboration with established film producer Mehmet Gungoren (Netflix) and Award-winning woman cinematographer Idil Eryurekli, We plan to produce it in early 2025, aiming to ready it for the festival circuit before offering it to worldwide streaming services.