Heleen Murre-Van Den Berg appointed as new dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies

Heleen Murre-van den Berg will become the new dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies. She will succeed Christoph Lüthy, who will be focusing all his attention on research as of 1 July 2020. Murre has been a member of the Faculty Board as vice dean since June 2019. The procedure to appoint a new vice dean will begin soon.

Rector Magnificus Han van Krieken: “We are pleased to have Professor Heleen Murre as the new dean. Her appointment means that the faculty will have a strong scholar with extensive administrative experience at its helm, which will enable it to face the future with confidence.”

Heleen Murre-van den Berg: “In recent years — including the turbulent year just now behind us — I have come to know the faculty as a very active and involved academic community. As far as I am concerned, this provides an excellent foundation for me as dean to contribute to strengthening and expanding this exceptional faculty in the coming years.”

Director

Heleen Murre-van den Berg is professor of Global Christianity and has extensive management experience. She was previously a board member of the Faculty of Theology at Leiden University and vice dean of the Faculty of Humanities. She was also director of NOSTER, the national research school for Theology and Religious Studies. She is currently the director of the Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, but will resign after accepting the dean position.

Researcher

Murre is an internationally recognised specialist in the field of Christianity in and outside of the Middle East between 1500 and the present day. She is regularly asked to talk about the position of contemporary Christians in the Middle East. In 2019 she received an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council for the research project Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Christianity in Europe between 1970 and 2020. With the research team, she investigates how oriental immigrant churches — Syrian Orthodox, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Copts, and Armenians — have built up their communities in the Netherlands and Europe over the past 50 years. In 2017 Murre was appointed as a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2021 she became a member of the KHMW.

Faculty Board

The faculty board consists of a dean, a vice dean, an administrative director and a student assessor. The latter represents the students and has an advisory vote.