Heritage and Religion

Hence, for my master's, I decided to switch disciplines. I was constantly surprised by the breadth and the depth of knowledge of the professors, even in areas where they are supposedly not an expert in. The teachers also made extra effort to make the assignments interesting and to incorporate skills that we could use in the future if we were to work in the heritage field. They always taught interesting subjects and made the assignments fun and they tried to apply them to real life situations. I also liked the obligatory internship as it forces you to reach out and approach professionals in the field. I completed my internship at Stichting Oude Groninger Kerken (Old Churches in Groningen Foundation). I did preliminary research for an art project related to the Abrahamic Faiths, with a focus on three locations: Cordoba, Sicily, and Thessaloniki. All three places had a past history where Christians, Muslims and Jews coexisted together. The current plan is to sponsor artists to stay in these three locations, to live and interact with people of the three faiths in the local area and at the end create art pieces that will tour around Europe, spreading the message of religious tolerance. My research was to create a report which summarizes the field of the study of Abrahamic faiths, the history of the three locations when the people of the three faiths coexisted, and to make initial contact with professionals or locals who would be involved in the local Abrahamic scenery. The project is currently moving to the next phase and I am still involved in it.

Due to a constant decrease of attendance, these buildings find themselves in a crossroads: Finding a new purpose and meaning in the context of a secularized society, or become obsolete.In order to save a church in its material and historical authenticity, the buildings can sometimes be devoid of their religious function. In consequence, churches become bookshops, bakeries, hotels, or cultural centers, providing a space for meetings and coexistence for specific communities.I feel grateful for the support that I have received during this process from the people of both UNAM and the UG. I am especially thankful to my tutors: Professor Elsa Arroyo Lemus and Clara Bargellini Cioni (UNAM), who suggested and encouraged me to do this exchange; and Professor Todd Weir (UG), who allowed me the freedom to look for what was best for me, in order to make the most of my academic stay, and who showed concern for my well being from the first day.I hope the collaboration UNAM-UG will continue growing, not only through the exchange of master and PhD students, but also with the establishment of new and multidisciplinary research projects concerning cultural heritage.

More specifically, this was a comparative study of the ethical aspects surrounding such exhibitions in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. What does the law say about displaying human remains in the Netherlands? And how does that differ compared to regulations in the United Kingdom? As well as holding in-depth interviews with museum curators, I observed how human remains were displayed. What I found was that the United Kingdom has a more strict and extensive policy regarding these type of exhibitions, whereas the Dutch law seems significantly less comprehensive on this topic. In my conclusion, I wrote a piece of advice on how the Netherlands could implement a more expansive policy. My supervisors were very enthusiastic and at the moment, we are looking for ways to bring my thesis to the attention of policymakers.Finally, what I loved during both my Bachelor’s and my Master’s degree was the atmosphere at our beautiful faculty. The fact that it’s a small faculty contributes to a positive study experience as a whole, as both staff and students are very dedicated to their course units and to one another!

Some monks changed religious denomination and became Protestant, some resisted until they died, some fled and some were killed. The exhibition ran from August until December 2017. For my Master’s thesis, I am researching the changing relationship between the Coca Cola Company and religion. The Coca Cola Company has always been connected with religion and religious expression, but this relationship appears to be changing. I am doing research into these changes and what the implications are.I love living in Groningen! There is so much to do and see. In my spare time, I take long walks in the Noorderplantsoen, or at a recreational area called Hoornse Plas, in the south of the city. My evenings are filled with activities in the small bars or cafés in the city centre. I agree with the slogan: Nothing tops Groningen!

Church visions are part of a national programme (The Future of Religious Heritage/ Toekomst Religieus Erfgoed) of the Cultural Heritage Agency (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed). At the time of my internship there were hardly any Groningen municipalities that were going to adopt a church vision. The province was curious why this was, so I looked for an answer during my internship by conducting interviews. Ultimately, through the contacts I made during my internship, I came to my current job: drawing up a church vision for and at the Westerkwartier municipality. Because of my internship, my thesis and of course the courses from the master, I was well aware of how a church vision works and which dynamics play around (religious) heritage. This combination has ensured that I have received a good foundation that certainly helps me in my work. It is also just great fun to see the topics that emerged in the master's in practice.

I studied whether this was a new religious phenomenon, and concluded that the answer to this question is yes. ‘Michaeling’ is a typical example of the various forms that religion can take in our modern, post-secular society. And there is no doubt that this is a genuine pilgrimage, a spiritual experience of the kind that we associate primarily with the Middle Ages. For my research, I studied the experiences of eleven pilgrims and the Michael Jackson shrine in Germany.According to his fans, Michael Jackson’s core message was to ‘Heal the World’ through love. Some fans feel that Michael Jackson can be seen as a new Messiah, sent by God to show people what is really important, namely love. Michael Jackson is placed by his fans within a very broad spiritual context. The followers I spoke to call themselves spiritual, but they are reluctant to commit to a specific religion. What is remarkable is that most of these fans express very Christian ideas. For his followers, Michael Jackson acts as a kind of mediator, clarifying their prior religious allegiance. It is as if Michael Jackson helps them to transition from theory to religious practice. They integrate Michael Jackson into their belief system, where he comes to play a key role as a spiritual guide, offering his fans concrete guidelines for distinguishing between good and evil and giving shape to their lives. His followers believe that Michael Jackson was severely persecuted and that he suffered tremendously as a result. However, this did not stop him from fighting for his ideals and for his fans, which makes him a true martyr in their eyes.After I graduated, I went straight to work for the University of Groningen Humanities Support Desk, where I helped organize educational projects for secondary schools. One of the projects I was working on was De Kerk: maak er wat van!, which we set up together with the Historical Groningen Churches Foundation and which focuses on redesignation of church buildings that are no longer used as such. A year after graduating, I started as a PhD-student at the Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society of the University of Groningen, further researching the fascinating phenomenon of ‘Michaeling’.

On top of this, heritage practices themselves (such as walking the Camino, or keeping a local dance tradition alive) are ways of preserving “the chain of memory” in community - they are, in other words, perhaps another way of “doing” religion. According to current estimates, over 300 million tourists visit religious sites every year. The vast cultural, political, religious, economic, and environmental impact of these visits - whatever their motivations may be - is attracting the attention of governmental bodies on all levels, of private foundations and museums, and of industry specialists in tourism and infrastructure. This has leant urgency to the question: How do we engage, preserve and communicate the remains of our religious past? For these reasons, it is critical that graduates in religious studies and theology be equipped to facilitate and contribute informed voices to public debate about the future of religious heritage. It is also vital for the academic research and faith communities to learn about the ways in which “lay” and “non-expert” participants actively re-appropriate religious spaces, objects, and practices formerly perhaps too narrowly defined as the domain of adherents to religious beliefs on the one hand and trained experts on the other.Groningen’s MA in Heritage and Religion is unique in preparing you for this crucial bridge role. You will bring rigorous and critical training in theology and religion to the table in public and private discourse about religious heritage. At the same time you will learn to contribute to the academic study of religious history and to faith communities by communicating and analyzing the interests, questions and challenges that arise from the broader public’s engagement with its own and other peoples’ religious heritage.I teach courses that engage with material aspects of religion: visual arts, liturgical rites, books, music, and objects, material culture, architecture and archaeology. The courses will provide you with training and hands-on experience of observing, describing, comparing, and analyzing religious objects, spaces, and practices from the past, and in thinking about and questioning what is at stake in their preservation, use, and adaptation in the present. Studying material religious cultures helps us to think outside the box about the nature of lived religious belief itself.My research centers on the intersection between book history and the history of Christian worship. In Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, books comprise perhaps the largest group of religious artefacts that survive. I study the design and production of liturgical manuscripts, and, in particular, the material evidence for their intended and actual use. In this way, we can examine a religious book as if it were an archaeological site. By identifying and peeling back layers of evidence of repeated use and adaptation of single book objects sometimes over centuries, we can learn to re-consider what a religious book is for, how it works, and what it might tell us about the communities and individuals that made and used it. It is this careful and patient approach to sustained engagement with all material aspects of religion that I aim to bring to the classroom, fieldwork, and student-lead research.