Jonthon returned to Indonesia to explore the country’s educational spaces, which are increasingly affected by both foreign entrants and governmental decentralization. His particular focus was on the role education plays in the formation of identity, wherein Jonthon examined how educational experiences lead religious and national identities to emerge, converge and diverge. In using education as a lens, Jonthon looked far beyond schools and schooling to the public pedagogies, endangered languages and subaltern knowledge that he hopes will offer others insight into “becoming-Indonesia.” The world’s fourth-most populous country (and largest population of Muslims in the world) remains a relatively unknown archipelagic nation that is changing rapidly—in ways that have implications for the regional and the global community. Jonthon took a leave of absence from his doctoral program at Columbia University Teachers College to accept the ICWA fellowship. He previously lived in Indonesia as a Fulbright Scholar and U.S. State Department English Language Fellow.