I did not begin with a clear academic agenda. My interest in Islam grew from a curiosity about how religion is actually lived in everyday life. I was drawn not only to what Islam teaches, but to how it is practiced, performed, and experienced in the spaces people inhabit—homes, streets, mosques, and increasingly, screens. This curiosity deepened when I began to notice how strongly media shapes religious life. Sermons were no longer confined to pulpits; they appeared on television, circulated through YouTube, and traveled across social media feeds. Dakwah was no longer just a form of preaching—it had become part of a broader cultural and media landscape. I found myself asking: what happens to religious authority when it enters these spaces? How does Islam change when it is mediated, broadcast, and consumed as part of everyday culture?

These questions eventually shaped my intellectual path. Rather than treating Islam as a fixed or purely textual tradition, I approach it as something dynamic—formed through interaction, negotiation, and adaptation. My work sits at the intersection of Islamic studies, media studies, and anthropology, where I explore how religion takes shape within contemporary media environments, especially in Indonesia. Some of my research looks at television dakwah programs, where religious messages are intertwined with entertainment formats. Other work examines digital platforms, where new voices, styles, and interpretations of Islam emerge. Across these different contexts, I am interested in how religious knowledge is produced, who gets to speak with authority, and how audiences engage with and reinterpret what they encounter.

Methodologically, I am drawn to approaches that stay close to lived experience. I pay attention to everyday practices, conversations, and cultural forms—because it is often in these ordinary moments that larger transformations become visible. This perspective allows me to see Islam not as something abstract, but as something continually shaped by people, technologies, and social conditions. At the same time, my work is not only about analysis. I see research as part of an ongoing conversation—one that extends beyond academia. Through writing, teaching, and public engagement, I try to make discussions about Islam and media more accessible, while also opening space for reflection on how religion continues to evolve in a rapidly changing world.

In many ways, my intellectual journey is still unfolding. But it remains anchored in the same guiding question that first drew me in: how do people live their religion, and how is that experience reshaped in a world increasingly mediated by technology and culture?