I am a medical anthropologist and global health researcher with interests at the intersection of queer theory, transgender studies, and science and technology studies.
I am the author of The Made-Up State: Technology, Trans Femininity, and Citizenship in Indonesia, published by Cornell University Press.
Awarded the 2023 Anne Bolin & Gil Herdt Book Prize in Human Sexuality
by the American Anthropological Association
Many of these publications are Open Access but do contact me if you cannot access them.
Hegarty, B. (2022). The Made-Up State: Technology, Trans Femininity, and Citizenship in Indonesia. Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press. [Awarded the 2023 Anne Bolin & Gil Herdt Book Prize in Human Sexuality by the American Anthropological Association]
Wolter, A., Hegarty, B., Susetyo, I., Sugiharto, L., Mallay, R., Kaunang, J., & Wardhana, A. (2025). The structural violence of cisgender norms: a participatory qualitative study of access to health and social welfare for older transgender women in Indonesia. International Journal of Transgender Health Online First: 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2024.2443749
Hegarty, B., Thajib, F., Handayani, A. P., Mallay, R., & Marischa, A. (2024). ‘Research, HIV/AIDS, and Turning Waria into a Key Population in Indonesia: An Ethnographic Oral History.’ Medical Anthropology Online First: 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2024.2425042
Hegarty, B., Boli-Neo, R., Aeno, H., Newland, J., Jops, P., Pukali, J., & Kelly-Hanku, A. (2024). ‘Stakeholder views on the relationship between human rights and the law in addressing the HIV epidemic in Papua New Guinea.’ Global Public Health, 19 (1): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2024.2405976
Hegarty, B. (2024) ‘A Queer Footnote: The Anthropology of Containment.’ American Ethnologist 51 (1): 84-89. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.13231 [Invited contribution for: What Good Is Anthropology? Celebrating 50 Years of American Ethnologist]
Hegarty, B. (2023). ‘Identity Cards, Semiotic Instability, and Signs of State Recognition for Indonesian Warias.’ Visual Anthropology Review 39 (1): pp. 178-198. https://doi.org/10.1111/var.12274
Hegarty, B. (2022) ‘Sex, Crime and Entertainment: Images of LGBT in the Indonesian news media.’ Indonesia and the Malay World 50 (146): pp. 33-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2022.2035074
Hegarty, B., Handayani, A., Nanwani, S., Praptoraharjo, I. (2021) ‘Chasing Targets in a Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on HIV Outreach Workers for MSM (Men Who Have Sex with Men) in Jakarta, Indonesia.’ Global Public Health 16 (11): 1681–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2021.1980599.
Hegarty, B. (2021) ‘Governing Nonconformity: Gender Presentation, Public Space and the City in New Order Indonesia.’ Journal of Asian Studies 80 (4): 955-974. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911821000747
Mallay, R., Hegarty, B., Nanwani, S., Praptoraharjo, I. (2021) ‘One Transgender Community’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia.’ TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 8 (3), pp. 386-393. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-9009003
Hegarty, B., Nanwani, S., and Praptoraharjo, I. (2020). ‘Understanding the Challenges Faced in Community-Based Outreach Programs Aimed at Men Who Have Sex with Men in Urban Indonesia.’ Sexual Health 17 (4): 352–58. https://doi.org/10.1071/SH20065
Hegarty, B. (2019) ‘Liminal Masculinity: Narratives of Class and Sexuality in Postauthoritarian Indonesia.’ Journal of Intercultural Studies 40 (3). pp. 334-346. https://10.1080/07256868.2019.1598955
Marshall, D., Aggleton, P., Cover, R., Rasmussen, M.L., Hegarty, B. (2019) ‘Queer Generations: Theorizing a Concept.’ International Journal of Cultural Studies 22 (4): pp. 558–576. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877918821262
Hegarty, B. (2019) ‘The Perfect Woman: Transgender Femininity and National Modernity in New Order Indonesia, 1968-1978.’ Journal of the History of Sexuality 28 (1): pp. 44–65. https://doi.org/10.7560/JHS28102
Hegarty, B, Marshall, D, Rasmussen, ML, Aggleton, P, Cover, R. (2018) ‘Heterosexuality and Race in the Australian Same-Sex Marriage Postal Survey.’ Australian Feminist Studies 33 (97): pp. 400–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2018.1536441
Hegarty, B. (2018) ‘Into the Lights, Onto the Stage: Becoming Waria Through Gender Performance in New Order Indonesia.’ Transgender Studies Quarterly 5 (2): pp. 355–375. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-6900738
Hegarty, B. (2017) ‘The Value of Transgender: Waria Affective Labor for Transnational Media Markets in Indonesia.’ Transgender Studies Quarterly 4 (3): pp. 78–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3711553
Hegarty, B. (2017) ‘“No Nation of Experts”: Kustom Tattooing and the Middle-Class Body in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia.’ The Australia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 18 (2): pp. 135–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2016.1269833
Hegarty, B. (2017) ‘‘When I Was Transgender’: Visibility, Subjectivity, and Queer Aging in Indonesia.’ Medicine Anthropology Theory 4 (2): pp. 70–80. http://doi.org/10.17157/mat.4.2.399
Hegarty, Benjamin. 2024. ‘Bureaucracy and Sex.’ In The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 1–7.
Hegarty, B. (2024) ‘HIV outreach for men who have sex with men during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia, 2020–2021.’ In The HIV and COVID-19 Pandemics: Viral Times, edited by Peter Aggleton, Maurice Nagington, and Jaime Garcia Iglesias, pp. 193-206. London; New York: Routledge.
Hegarty, B. (2023). ‘Transgender citizenship and public gender in Indonesia.’ In Gender Equality and Diversity in Indonesia: Identifying progress and challenges (ANU Indonesia Update Series), edited by Angie Bexley, Sarah Dong, and Diahhadi Setyonaluri. pp. 53-69. Singapore: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.
Hegarty, B. (2022). ‘An Inter-Asia History of Transpuan in Indonesia.’ In Queer Southeast Asia, edited by Shawna Tang and Hendri Yulius, pp. 15–32. London; New York: Routledge.
Hegarty, B. and Annisa R. Beta, special issue editors. (2023) ‘The politics of knowledge after reformasi.’ Inside Indonesia, May 11 (Edition 151). https://www.insideindonesia.org/the-politics-of-knowledge-after-reformasi
Hegarty, B., (2023) ‘Diffracting Trauma in the Global South between biology and culture / Difractar La Noción de Trauma en el Sur Global entre biología y cultura.’ Somatosphere: Science, Medicine and Anthropology, March 16. http://somatosphere.net/2023/diffracting-trauma-in-the-global-south-between-biology-and-culture-difractar-la-nocion-de-trauma-en-el-sur-global-entre-biologia-y-cultura.html/
Hegarty, B. (2022) ‘PrEP on Trial: The Future of HIV in Indonesian Policy Worlds.’ Platypus: The CASTAC Blog, August 23. https://blog.castac.org/2022/08/prep-on-trial-the-future-of-hiv-in-indonesian-policy-worlds/
Handayani, A., Hegarty, B., Nanwani, S., Praptoraharjo, I. (2020) ‘Community responses to HIV during the Covid-19 pandemic.’ Indonesia at Melbourne, September 22. https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/community-responses-to-hiv-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Hegarty, B. (2020) ‘A Place Apart.’ Somatosphere: Science, Medicine and Anthropology, July 15. http://somatosphere.net/2020/a-place-apart.html/
Hegarty, B., Sandeep Nanwani. (2020) ‘Providing Hope through HIV Outreach in Jakarta.’ Inside Indonesia, 139 (special issue on sexuality in Indonesia). https://www.insideindonesia.org/providing-hope
Hegarty, B. (2019) ‘The Traffic in Hierarchy: Masculinity and Its Others in Buddhist Burma, by Ward Keeler’ Asian Studies Review 43 (3): 570–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2019.1632163 (book review)
Hegarty, B. (2018) ‘Intimate Navigations, Refracted Perspectives: Gender on the Edge, edited by Niko Besnier and Kalissa Alexeyeff).’ TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 5 (1): 151–56. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-4291860 (book review)
Hegarty, B. (2017) ‘Sex and sexualities in contemporary Indonesia: sexual politics, health, diversity and representations, edited by Linda Bennett and Sharyn Davies.’ Asian Studies Review 41 (4): 683–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2017.1317614 (book review)
Hegarty, B. (2017) ‘Accounting for the Future: Masculinity, Sex and Work in Urban Indonesia.’ International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) The Newsletter. 78 (Autumn). p. 14. https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/accounting-future-masculinity-sex-work-urban-indonesia
Hegarty, B. (2016) ‘Seeking a “zone of safety.”’ New Mandala, April 18. https://www.newmandala.org/seeking-a-zone-of-safety/
The Made-Up State investigates the relationship between technology and the globalization of transgender knowledge from the mid-century onwards in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation but one that is often positioned as marginal to the world system.
Drawing on a rich and varied archive of trans cultural life, the book argues that waria, one Indonesian term for trans femininity established via a novel engagement with the modern gender binary, transformed the relationship between gender, sexuality and technological modernity.
2023 Anne Bolin & Gil Herdt Book Prize in Human Sexuality (American Anthropological Association)
“The Made-Up State is a breakthrough. Hegarty's detailed historical and ethnographic analysis links trans femininity in Indonesia to the interplay of urban governance and emerging technologies of gender. This book will be invaluable to queer studies, Southeast Asian studies, Science and Technology Studies, and beyond.”
Tom Boellstorff, University of California, Irvine, author of The Gay Archipelago
“Conceptually rigorous and built upon a stunning historical examination, this book is a much-needed and timely contribution to queer and trans studies in Indonesia. Hegarty connects the politics of 'being seen' and 'acceptance' of Indonesian trans women with the broader idea of a nation's progress, spatial governance, and citizenship. His trenchant analysis highlights various creative agencies of trans women in navigating the state's regime throughout history.”
Hendri Yulius Wijaya, author of Intimate Assemblages
“Scholars working in fields such as transgender studies, critical gender studies, and the anthropology of gender and sexuality have defined gender as a multifaceted concept that surpasses the binary model and seeks to resist modes of essentializing gender. Hegarty's findings enrich this approach by underlining how gender operates as a technological means for categorizing human differences, but with outcomes that necessarily remain incomplete, open-ended, and emergent.”
“Benjamin Hegarty’s The Made-Up State is a sharp intervention into the ‘global’ and ‘local’ dimensions of what has become a near-universal concern with the politics of gender identification and recognition – many countries now grapple with the demands of legal change… The very mapping of gender as an effect of technology is itself remarkable, as is the articulation of the failures of a state to sanction cisgender normativity as the condition for full belonging.
I have introduced some of the material that I expand at length in the book in my other writing in addition to the following seminars:
I discussed my book on the Cornell University Press 1869 Podcast (November 2023).
I held a book discussion and readings of The Made-Up State with commentary from Dr Chris Hanssmann, Professor Carla Jones, and Dr Alegra Wolter at Deakin University in Melbourne (September 2023).
I held a book discussion to launch The Made-Up State with Professor Dennis Altman and Dr Annisa R. Beta at Carlton Readings (April 2023).
I spoke with Professor Michele Ford on the New Books in Southeast Asian Studies podcast (January 2023).
I spoke to the BBC World Service on their Weekend Program about the history of waria and its ongoing relevance to understanding limits on trans and queer peoples’ public participation (December 2022).
I was quoted in a Guardian UK article about the impact of Indonesia’s revised criminal code passed in December 2022 on gender and sexual minorities (December 2022).
I presented new work emerging from the book about warias’ use of identity cards at the University of Cambridge Center of South Asian Studies (October 2022). (recording available)
I presented on the implications of trans recognition via the category waria during the New Order for reformasi-era politics of decentralisation at the ANU Indonesia Update (September 2022). (video available)
I presented on the relationship between colonial histories of race and gender in the Dutch East Indies at the TransASIA STS group (January 2022). (video available)
I presented on the book manuscript at the Cambridge University Social Anthropology Society (February 2022).
I spoke with Annisa Beta (The University of Melbourne) about the book on the Talking Indonesia podcast (April 2021). (recording available)
I presented on the book manuscript at KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (September 2019).
I presented on histories of queer visibility in Indonesian politics at the Deakin University Gender and Sexuality Studies Seminar Series (August 2018). (recording available)
I published an essay about the medicalisation of transgender bodies during the New Order for Remotivi in Bahasa Indonesia (August 2017).
Here’s where you will find links to some of my talks and media appearances, past and future. There are links to the recording where it is available.
I am a medical anthropologist working at the intersection of transgender studies, queer theory, science and technology studies and global health. My research has investigated how sexual subjectivity and gendered embodiment shape the distribution of health, illness, and inequality. My research is based on ongoing fieldwork in Indonesia.
I am a Senior Research Associate in the Asia and Pacific Health Program at the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney and a Research Affiliate at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford.
For the 2024-2025 academic year, I am on leave from the Kirby Institute while I take up a French Institutes for Advanced Studies (FIAS) Fellowship at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study, hosted by Professor Frederic Keck at the Laboratoire d’anthropologie sociale (CNRS/Collège de France/EHESS/EPHE).
Prior to taking up my current position, I was McKenzie Fellow at the University of Melbourne (2019-2022). I have held funded visiting fellowships in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine (2018-19) and the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge (2022).
I am a member of the Editorial Board of American Ethnologist, an Associate Editor of History of Anthropology Review and a Reviews Editor at Medicine Anthropology Theory. I am the Associate Editor for Gender and Sexuality for the International Encyclopedia of Anthropology. I was Treasurer of the Australian Anthropological Society (2021-2023).
My first book, The Made-Up State: Trans Femininity, Technology, and Citizenship in Indonesia, was published by Cornell University Press in 2022. It was awarded the 2023 Anne Bolin and Gilbert Herdt Prize by the Human Sexuality Interest Group of the American Anthropological Association.
My research appears in journals such as: Medical Anthropology, American Ethnologist, Visual Anthropology Review, The Journal of Asian Studies, Medicine Anthropology Theory, Ethos, The Journal of the History of Sexuality, Global Public Health, Transgender Studies Quarterly, Sexual Health and The International Journal of Transgender Health.
My qualifications are:
McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship in Anthropology, University of Melbourne (2019-2022)
PhD in Anthropology, Australian National University (2013-2018)
Master of Asian Studies, Monash University (2010-2012)
Bachelor of Arts, Griffith University (2001-2005)
Please get in touch via email, bhegarty@kirby.unsw.edu.au
Other contact details can be found on my UNSW profile page or Oxford Anthropology profile page.
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