August 2022 to present

Professor Department of Cultural Anthropology, Utrecht University. Chair: Anthropology of Religion and Security 

September 2023 to present

Coordinator of the Research Master: Cultural Anthropology Sociocultural Transformation, Utrecht University

Research

September 2019 to present

PI of the ERC Consolidator research project: Sacralizing Security in Mega-Cities of the Global South.

December 2013 to December 2018

Co-director NWO research project: The Popular Culture of Illegality: Criminal Authority and the Politics of Aesthetics in Latin America and the Caribbean (Vrije Competitie Geesteswetenschappen). Utrecht University and University of Amsterdam (1 Postdoc, 2 PhDs).

September 2013 to November 2017

Co-director NWO research project: Van Voetbalvrouwen tot Vrouwenvoetbal (Women’s soccer in the Netherlands and Belgium). NWO program Sport: Meedoen. Utrecht University, Leiden University, Mulier Institute for Research on Sports in Society (2 PhDs, 3 researchers).

June 2014 to October 2015

Co-director NWO (Alfa Meerwaarde) project: ‘Meiden, voetbal! Een pps-gestuurd onderzoek naar de impact en impactmeting van voetbal op de sociale ontwikkeling van meiden (‘Girls, Play Ball! A collaborative public-private research on the impact of soccer on the development of adolescent girls). Together with Women Win (Amsterdam), Atria Kennisinstituut (Amsterdam), De Sportbank/SOVIC (Den Haag).

2011-2013

Cooperating partner of the international research program: ‘Global Prayers, Redemption and Liberation in the City’, executed by the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, the Europa-Universität Viadrina Institut and metroZones - Center for Urban Affairs, Berlin. Funded by the Forum Transregionale Studien.

2006 - 2009

Postdoc at the department of Practical Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen. Member of the NWO research project New Media, Public Sphere and Urban Culture, headed by Prof. dr. René Boomkens. This project was part of the NWO research domain ‘Transformations in Art and Culture’.

2000 - 2006

PhD-Student/AIO (Junior Researcher) at the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research (ASSR), University of Amsterdam. PhD dissertation titled: “Divine Mediations: Pentecostalism, Politics and Mass Media in a Favela in Rio de Janeiro” The research was part of the NWO PIONIER project Modern Mass Media, Religion and the Imagination of Communities. Different Postcolonial Trajectories In West Africa, Brazil, The Caribbean And India, headed by Prof dr. Birgit Meyer. Supervisors: Prof. dr. Birgit Meyer and Prof. dr. Michiel Baud. Date of dissertation defense: 10 May 2006.