Erik Meinema wins Gerardus van der Leeuw Dissertatieprijs
Lecturer Erik Meinema has received the Gerardus van der Leeuw PhD Dissertation Award of the (NGG) for his dissertation Regulating Religious Coexistence: The Intricacies of 鈥業nterfaith鈥 Cooperation in Coastal Kenya. It offers insights into religious pluralism within the context of a secular government, colonial and post-colonial. In particular, Meinema explored how religion and political secularity develop in opposition to each other.
鈥淎 majestic achievement鈥
The jury, consisting of Johanneke Kroesbergen, Peter-Ben Smit, and Eric Venbrux, unanimously decided to award the dissertation prize to Meinema. According to them, his thesis best met the criteria: innovative research, thorough analysis of original material, critical approach to established theories, and clarity of wording and style.
鈥淭he thesis is based on solid historical research, admirable language skills, over a year of anthropological field research, and an excellent command of relevant anthropological and religious studies literature and theory,鈥 the jury writes. 鈥淲hat also weighed heavily is that the idea for the project and the approach were developed by the researcher himself. It is a bold project, complex in nature, but it does not succumb to that complexity. On the contrary. And that is a mega achievement.鈥
鈥淎 great honour鈥
鈥淚t is a great honour to receive this PhD Award鈥, Meinema responds. 鈥淚 want to thank the jury for their kind words, my PhD supervisors Birgit Meyer and Lucien van Liere, my colleagues from the in which my research was embedded, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for funding my project, and above all, the colleagues and interlocutors from Kenya from whom I have learned so much during my research.鈥
About his research, he says: 鈥淭his research shows that in the Kenyan context, Christian morality and the strategic interests of Western donors and political elites often set the standard of what is understood by (desirable forms of) 鈥榬eligion鈥.鈥 It also shows how each of the three studied religious groups formulates its own response to requested civic ideals (peace, morality, and national unity) and to the desires of Western donors concerned with 鈥榠nterfaith鈥 cooperation and deradicalisation.
The NGG
The Dutch Association for the Study of Religion is one of the oldest national organisations for the study of religion worldwide. NGG was founded in 1947 on the initiative of Gerardus van der Leeuw (1890-1950), professor of Phenomenology of Religions at the 木瓜福利影视 of Groningen as of 1918. In 1945, van der Leeuw became Minister of Education, Arts, and Sciences (Onderwijs, Kunsten en Wetenschappen) under the first Dutch government after World War II.
The Gerardus van der Leeuw PhD Dissertation Award is the NGG鈥檚 biennial award granted to a PhD dissertation that has made a substantial contribution to the academic study of religion.