Louise K. Gramstrup

PhD Candidate and Tutor in Religious Studies

Biography

Background

I am currently writing up my doctorate in Religious Studies. My thesis is an ethnography of Daughters of Abraham, an American women's interfaith book group that engages Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women at monthly meetings where texts, fiction and non-fiction, about the "Abrahamic religions" are discussed using members' personal experiences with these religious traditions. 

I also  tutor on undergraduate courses in Religious Studies. I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and am currently working towards Fellowship by undertaking the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Academic Practice. 

I hold a first-class MA (Honours) in Religious Studies (2012) from The University of Edinburgh and a MSt in Women's Studies (2013) from The University of Oxford.

Undergraduate teaching

Global Religions A: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism

Global Religions B: Indigenous African Religions and Religions of Asia

Research summary

My research is centered on women's interreligious dialogue and identity formation. It is situated in the burgeoning field of ethnographic works in the study of interreligious encounters and the rethinking of methods in the study of interreligious understanding. My current doctoral research focuses on the impact on individual understandings of religious and gender identities from participating in Daughters of Abraham, an American women's interfaith book group comprised of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim women. The methods informing this research are based in cultural anthropology and women's studies. 

Current research interests

Interreligious encounters; "Abrahamic religions"; Religious and gender identities; Ethnography

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

Provisional doctoral thesis title: "Choosing to Actively Engage with Religious Diversity: The Influences of Participating in an American Women's Interfaith Book Group on Religious Self-Understanding and Perception of Religious Others"​.

Currently I am in the process of writing my doctoral dissertation following undertaking fieldwork with Daughters of Abraham, a Jewish-Christian-Muslim women’s interfaith book group located in the Greater Boston Area. My fieldwork involved participant observation of monthly book group meetings and individual interviews about members' experiences with participating in a formalized interreligious encounter. 

 

PhD Supervisors: Dr. Hannah Holtschneider and Dr. Naomi Appleton.

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