Prof Dr. Caroline Vander Stichele
Professor dr. Caroline Vander Stichele is program leader of this research project. She has expertise in the field of biblical studies, especially early Christian literature, religious studies, social sciences, gender studies, and the use of visual artefacts in art and popular culture. She is interested in how secular and religious groups that are active on social media in the Netherlands and abroad make rhetorical use of religious texts, images, and scenarios in the context of climate change discourse. She hopes that researching religiously informed motivations of climate activists, can lead to a better grasp of what is at stake for them and that this improves the communication and collaboration between all parties involved.
Dr. Frank Bosman
Dr. Frank G. Bosman is a Dutch cultural theologian, specialized in the cultural persistence of the Christian narrative complex in our modern society, mainly as materialized in pop music, novels, television and streaming series, and digital (video) games. He has published widely on the theology of secular society and culture, both conceptually and in case studies. Bosman is interested in the religious and spiritual dimensions of the popular climate debate in the Netherlands and abroad, especially regarding the intertwining of spirituality, conspiracy (‘conspirituality’), and ecology. He argues that we need to understand these implicit religious vocabularies in order to penetrate deeper in the climate debate as it develops in our world.
Dr. Deborah de Koning
Dr. Deborah de Koning works as postdoctoral researcher in the Apocalypse and Climate Change project. She has a passion for Eastern Religions (specifically Hinduism and Buddhism) and focusses in her academic work on contemporary religious practices. She loves being ‘in the field’ to conduct ethnographic research and has a passion for diversity.
The climate crisis affects our world and the ways we look at it. Religious traditions offer specific worldviews – including language – to provide interpretations of crises. Deborah is interested in how religious traditions are reappraised in the climate discourse. In her research she specifically looks at how religious (climate) communities contribute to climate positive living and how they (selectively) employ religious traditions for this. She mainly focusses on practices, for instance climate rituals: meaning-making practices in response to the climate crisis. By looking at people's practices emerging ideas of post-secular sacralitiy within the climate discourse are disclosed.
Dr. Ömer F. Gürlesin
Ömer F. Gürlesin is a researcher with a background in sociology of religion and an interest in Islamic perspectives on global challenges. He has an interdisciplinary background in Islamic philosophy and theology which allows him to bring a unique perspective to his research. Gürlesin has extensive experience in critical discourse analysis, quantitative research methods, and data mining techniques, which he will use to analyze the discourse surrounding climate change in the Netherlands. His past research on Islamic environmentalism and identity development in interfaith spaces will also inform his analysis of the project. This research will be conducted as part of a larger project aimed at understanding the role of religious vocabularies in discussing climate change in the Netherlands. With his diverse skills and background, Gürlesin is well qualified to make a significant contribution to this project and to increase our understanding of how religious perspectives contribute to the debate on climate change.
Nikki Apeldoorn
Nikki Apeldoorn is a student at the Free University of Amsterdam, where she is doing a master's degree in theology with a focus on ecofeminist theology. She spent years living and studying in Guatemala, where she was introduced to indigenous spirituality and ecofeminism. She is an aspiring lay Dominican and core resident of the Jeannette Noel House community - part of the Catholic Worker movement - where she lives and works with undocumented migrants from different parts of the world. In her spare time, Nikki is a yoga teacher, an organiser of ecofeminist circles and active in the climate and peace movement as an activist. She is interested in decolonial, queer and ecofeminist perspectives that resist the underlying ideologies of hegemonic worldviews that underpin the ecological crisis. She is looking for dissenting voices and alternatives from the margins that can help us in decolonising our Western way of life and creating a new climate for religion.
