Rachel Rinaldo is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.
She received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago in 2007. She was previously a
Kiriyama postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Pacific Rim, University of San Francisco. In 2007-2008, she was a
postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute.
Rachel's sociological interests include culture, gender, religion, and politics. Her research uses ethnography
to comprehend the social consequences of broad transformations such as modernity and globalization.
Rachel's dissertation, "Mobilizing Piety: Women, Islam, and the Public Sphere in Indonesia," is
an ethnographic study of Muslim and secular women activists in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is now
working on a book manuscript about women, Islam, and the public sphere in Indonesia.
Rachel has lived and traveled in Southeast Asia and East Africa, and has written for
magazines, websites, and newspapers. Her documentary, "Division + Western," was shown on
WTTW Chicago public television and screened at a number of film festivals.