Postdoctoral Fellows

Guilherme Borges is a postdoctoral researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). He holds a Master’s and PhD in Sociology from the University of São Paulo and a Bachelor’s in Social Sciences from the same institution. During his PhD, he served as a Research Assistant for the Nonreligion in a Complex Future (NCF) Project. Currently, in addition to participating in the NCF as a postdoctoral fellow, he is part of the Religious Pluralism and Diversities in Post-Constituent Brazil project, linked to CEBRAP. Within these two projects, he has developed comparative studies on Religious Education in public schools in Brazil and Canada. These studies are funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation. His researches focus mainly on the following themes: political-religious mobilizations, education, pluralism, and multiculturalism.

Henrique Fernandes Antunes is part of the Brazilian team for the Nonreligion in a Complex Future Project. He is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). He received his B.A. in Social Sciences (2008) from Paulista State University Júlio de Mesquita Filho (UNESP-FFC), his M.A. (2012) and Ph.D. (2019) in Anthropology from the University of São Paulo. In 2016, During his Ph.D., he worked as a Visiting Scholar at the Anthropology Department at the University of California Berkeley. His last research focused on regulation processes of the religious use of Ayahuasca in Brazil and in the United States. He is also a Member of the research groups Religion in the Contemporary World at CEBRAP, and the Interdisciplinary Group for Psychoactive Studies. He is also interested in the areas of Urban Anthropology, Anthropology of Religion and Anthropology of Secularism.

Mathieu Colin holds a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Montreal. He’s currently a lead researcher on a TransAtlantic Platform funded project on Covid-19 and religion, involving Canada, Ireland, Poland and Germany. He’s also a postdoctoral fellow at the UNESCO Chair in prevention of radicalization and violent extremism, and focuses on accelerationist groups and neo-nazism.

Mathilde Vanasse-Pelletier is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa, under the supervision of Nonreligion in a Complex Future’s project leader, Lori G. Beaman. She received her B.Sc. in Anthropology and Religious Studies (2013), as well as her Ph.D. in Religious Studies (2019) from the University of Montreal. Mathilde’s postdoctoral research focuses on the media coverage of NFL players’ protests of the US national anthem, in relation to the concept of civil religion. Her previous research, including her Ph.D. thesis, discussed the representation of monogamous and polygamous Mormons in mainstream media, and the legitimation strategies put forward by these groups throughout their history.

Bertrand Lavoie holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Sociology, and a Doctorate in law. He is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Sherbrooke and at University of Ottawa. His research interests focus on the study of value pluralism in health care services and in emergency rooms. He also conducts research related to the respect of human rights in the Quebec context. He is an Associate Fellow at the Center for Society, Law and Religion at University of Sherbrooke and at the Centre for Public Law at the University of Montreal. He is also a member of the Montreal Intercultural Council.

Dr. Maximiliano Campana is a Research Fellow at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, where he completed his Doctorate in Law and Social Sciences in 2017. Campana’s doctoral research, titled “The right to have rights: strategic litigation campaigns in the recognition of rights to LGBT groups in Argentina and the United States” explored the role of the law and legal remedies as a strategic instrument for social and political change, and how it helped the LGBT movement to receive legal recognition (such as same-sex marriage and recognition to the gender identity for transgender individual).

His latest research has been focused on Sociology of Law, Strategic and Interest Public Litigation, as well as impact of social policies and sociology of religion, especially about the emergence and strengthening of conservative and religious groups. Since 2018, Campana’s work has been focused on how conservative groups act to limit and revert the advancement of rights in Argentina and the region. His post doctoral research has been funded by CONICET (the Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council). He is also part of Sexual Policy Watch, working on the project named “anti-gender politics in Latin America” examining the role of conservative groups in the region and their actions against the advancement of sexual and reproductive rights.

Dr. Rebecca Banham is a Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania, where she completed her PhD in 2018. Rebecca’s doctoral research, titled ‘Seeing the forest for the trees: Ontological security and experiences of Tasmanian forests’ (2018), explored the emotional and ontological connections that people form with forests, reflecting her interest in the ways that emotion, ontology, and experiences of vulnerability and relationship shape how people relate to both other people and to the nonhuman world.

Her research has been primarily within the field of qualitative environmental sociology, complemented by a keen interest in the intersections between (non)religion and the nonhuman. Rebecca is currently working as part of the Australian Research Council funded project ‘Religious diversity in Australia: Maintaining social cohesion and preventing violence’, which aims to identify strategies that prevent violent responses to religious diversity.