Daan Beekers

Biography

Daan Beekers conducts ethnographic research into religious pluralism, religious experience and Christian heritage in the Netherlands, with an emphasis on Christianity and Islam. He studied social and cultural anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Oxford. In 2015, he was promoted to the Free University on a comparative ethnographic research into religious commitment among young Sunni Muslims and Reformed Christians in the Netherlands. Since June 2014, he is postdoctoral researcher at this department, first within the HERA project Iconic Religion and from September 2016 in the research project Religious Matters in an Entangled World. Building upon his research on previously restored churches, he is currently busy with churches that have recently been closed or about to be closed. He focuses on the reactions, discussions, emotions and practices surrounding those church closures at various stakeholders, including church communities, neighborhood residents, action committees, heritage organizations, consultants and municipalities. The focus is on Utrecht, Amsterdam and smaller places in the area. Particular attention is given to the question of how the interaction with church closure is influenced by, on the one hand,the apparently increasing approach of Christianity as a cultural heritage (instead of living faith) and, on the other hand, the dynamic religious multifaceted society of today - characterized by the presence of Islam and its built environment, (post) secular beliefs and practices , and changes within Christian communities and their use of buildings.

Research Interest

Christianity