Ernst van den Hemel
Religiewetenschapper gespecialiseerd in verknopingen van religie, erfgoed, politiek en populaire cultuur.
I received my PhD in 2011 from the University of Amsterdam with a dissertation on the literary and political dimensions in the work of John Calvin. Since then, I have taught at the University of Amsterdam and Utrecht University. I was a research fellow at Université Paris 8, UC Berkeley, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and at the Centre for the Humanities at Utrecht University. Since 2016, I have been working at the Meertens Institute, and since 2019 with the interdisciplinary research group NL-Lab, which conducts research on Dutch culture and identity in the past and present. Since 2022, I have been the president of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion. In 2023, I received an ERC Consolidator Grant for research on Religious Theme Parks. See www.makebelief.nl/en
My work is about (national) identity and religion. In particular, I focus on the role of emotions and the use of media. For example, in "Passion for the Passion: The Matthäus, The Passion and other passion plays in secularized Netherlands" (Ten Have 2020), I analyzed the remarkable popularity of various types of passion plays. Additionally, in the project "Populism, Social Media, and Religion," I investigate how the religious past is given new meanings by 'populist' movements. Previous projects I have worked on include: "HERILIGION: The heritagization of religion and sacralization of heritage in contemporary Europe" (HERA), "RELSEC, Religion, Secularism and Political Belonging" (CHCI / Mellon Foundation), and "The Future of the Religious Past" (NWO).
Recent publications
Ernst van den Hemel & Irene Stengs ‘Pre-enacting The Passion: Restaging Religious Heritage’, Producing Unruly Audiences’ in: The Future of Religious Heritage Entangled Temporalities of the Sacred and the Secular, Routledge 2023.
Managing Sacralities: Competing and Converging Claims of Religious Heritage. Edited by Ernst van den Hemel, Oscar Salemink, and Irene Stengs
(Berghahn 2022)
Passie voor de Passie: De Matthäus, The Passion en andere passiespelen in ontkerkelijkt Nederland, Ten Have 2020. (inleiding is hier te lezen).
‘Distributing thickness of skin: of calloused minorities and fragile majorities’ in: Patterns of Prejudice.
‘Tis the season to be outraged’ blogpost over politiek van Kerstfilms op Religious Matters.
Recent media appearances
Ernst van den Hemel awarded ERC Consolidator Grant
Medialogica, 5 juni 2023:
NRC 8 april 2023:
OVT, 9 april 2023:
Trouw, 2 april 2023:
Mediastorm, 19 februari 2023:
https://www.npostart.nl/mediastorm/19-02-2023/VPWON_1349106
https://www.ntr.nl/Atlas/439/detail/Atlas/VPWON_1335383
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