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.

María Eugenia Funes is part of the Argentine team for the Nonreligion in a Complex Future Project. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France, and from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina, as well as an MA in Social Anthropology from the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM), Argentina. Currently serving as a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Torcuato di Tella (UTDT), Argentina, she was a doctoral and postdoctoral fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET) at the Society, Culture and Religion Program. With a focus on Argentina’s middle classes, her academic research delves into the connections between spiritual worldviews and other dimensions of social life, such as economic and residential practices. She led the research project “Spirituality and new economies. Towards an understanding of the relationships between spiritual sociability and new economic organizations in Argentina” funded by the National Agency for the Promotion of Research, Technological Development and Innovation, Argentina, and was project manager for the project “Assessing gender (in)equality in businesses: lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean” selected by BLab to receive funding from the IDRC, Canada. Her research was published in book chapters and journals specialized in religion. She co-authored the book “Businesses’ Contributions to Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality Across B Corps in Latin America and the Caribbean” (Emerald Publishing, 2023), and is actively engaged in an ongoing book project exploring the intersections between religion and racial capitalism, collaborating with fellow scholars from the USA, Latin America and Asia.

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.

Natalia Fernandez is a postdoctoral researcher on the Nonreligion in a Complex Future project at the University of Ottawa. Graduate in Social Sciences with a focus on Social Research (2012), Professor in Social Sciences (2015) from the Universidad Nacional de Quilmes (Argentina) and Doctor in Sociology (2020) from the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (Argentina). She is a member of the Society, Culture and Religion Program of the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CEIL-CONICET, Argentina) where she was a doctoral fellow (2016-2020) and postdoctoral fellow (2021-2024). In her doctoral theses she investigated the constructions of youth subjectivities, militancy and volunteerism in Catholic organizations and the trajectories of Catholic youths who capitalize the knowledge learned in Catholic spaces to build their own political party or professional careers. Her recent postdoctoral research focuses on youth activism and militancy for socio-environmental and climate justice based on a comparative analysis between Catholic and non-religious movements. Her research focuses mainly on the following themes: youth, Catholicism, non-religion, subjectivities, youth commitments, environment and climate crisis.

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.