Dr. Martijn Oosterbaan

Biography

Martijn Oosterbaan studied Cultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and completed his PhD at the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research. He held a Postdoc position at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen, working on an NWO research project focusing on New Media, Public Sphere, and Urban Culture. In 2014, he became an Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University, and in August 2022, he was appointed Professor with a chair in Anthropology, Religion, and Security. Oosterbaan has published extensively on topics such as religion, media, security, and urban culture, with a particular focus on Brazil and Europe. His research interests include urban religious transformations, the impact of mass media, and popular culture phenomena like carnival and telenovelas. He is also the Principal Investigator for the ERC Consolidator project 'Sacralizing Security: Religion, Violence, and Authority in Mega-Cities of the Global South' and has co-directed various NWO funded research projects examining the intersection of popular culture, criminal authority, and women's football. Oosterbaan is involved in an international research program, Global Prayers: Redemption and Liberation, that ran from 2010 to 2014.

Research Interests

Experience