Workgroup for Empiric Research of Religion (AGER)

Karine Landgren Hugentobler

My research has focused on comparative religion and the ethnographic/empirical study
of religious practice. In 2004, I earned a Master’s of Social Anthropology from University College London. I've conducted field research on the religious cosmologies and healing rituals of an African Indigenous Church in South Africa, as well as worked with the therapeutic cosmologies of Liberian and Burundian refugees in the US. I joined the department of Theology at University of Bern in 2013 as a doctoral student in empirical religious research. My research
is focused on the real-world effects of contemplative practices on personal and
religious cosmologies, attitudes and behavior.

Contact: e-mailkarineland@hotmail.com

Curriculum Vitae

• 2013    (current) Joined the department of Theology at University of Bern as a doctoral student
• 2008-2011 Research assistant at the University of Zurich, department of Social Anthropology
• 2007-2009 Ethnographer/Project coordinator at the University of Illinois at Chicago – Chicago, IL
• 2004 MSc Social Anthropology from University College London – London, England
• 2002 B.A. Comparative Religion from Long Island University – England, Thailand, New Zealand

Research areas

Contemplative practices and contemplative states
Religious health and healing cosmologies
Ethnographic research of religious practice
Qualitative methods of data collection and analysis

Presentations

“Receptions of risk and anxiety to get to belief – Praise Dance in a South Side community of Chicago”. Paper presented at the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee on Religion conference on Religion and Politics in the Age of Globalization, held at El Colegio Mexiquense, A.C., Zinacantepec, State of Mexico, Mexico. March, 2005.

“A Practical Guide for Using Ethnography in working with Refugees and Migrants”. Co-presented at the 2007 Refugee and Immigration Conference: Strengthening Refugee Families, held at the Holiday Inn Chicago-Mart Plaza, Chicago, IL. October 2007. Manuscript for publication in progress