Meet Your Professor: Dr Jacqueline Borsje
In Meet Your Professor we will introduce you to the new teachers of seminars and courses at NOSTER. In this seventh episode, we introduce Dr Jacqueline Borsje (University of Amsterdam), who will teach the Research Seminar on Anthropology and History of Religions (together with Prof. dr Ab de Jong).
1. How did you get to where you are today, academically? What path did you walk?
My career felt for a very long time like jumping from ice floe to ice floe. I started out at the Vrije Universiteit where I studied Theology, with Religious Studies as my main subject, and Feminist Theology (as it was then called) as my subsidiary subject. I also earned my PhD (about monsters and the Christianization of Ireland) there, thanks to a grant from N.W.O. Thereafter, I moved to Dublin to take up a four-year research position at the School of Celtic Studies of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. I continued the Dublin project (about Fate and its attendants in medieval Irish texts) as a postdoc at the Medieval History Department of Utrecht University, which was again funded by N.W.O. When this contract expired, I was employed by Ulster University as a Research Lecturer in Traditional Medieval Irish and European Cultures for two years. During this lectureship, I was awarded a Vidi Grant from N.W.O. It was at the University of Amsterdam, Religious Studies, that I took up this research project. This contract expired after about six years and was followed by a five-year position as an Assistant Professor for the Cultural History of Christianity. When I started the last job, I also became Full Professor of Medieval Irish Culture and Religion at the University of Ulster for one day a week over a period of two years. All in all, I have been employed at the University of Amsterdam as a temporary member of staff for ten years, but then, at last in 2017, I became a permanent member of staff. At the moment I am working there as an Associate Professor and am the head of the Religious Studies team.
2. What kind of research do/did you do and why? Which result do you remember the most?
For as long as I can remember, I have loved myths, fairy tales and all kinds of other narratives. When I studied theology, one of my favourite topics was exegesis, which combined very well with my love of stories. Analysing texts closely is so rewarding: you keep discovering layers and layers of meaning while your understanding of culture increases. As a scholar of religion, I have specialized in medieval Irish texts, a research area that is part of Celtic Studies. Combining these two (multi)disciplines is very fruitful. My Vidi project was my favourite project because it expanded my research from narrative texts to performative texts and proved to be fascinating and important. I still do research in this area and also teach about the power of words, objects, and rituals. With the topic of ‘words of power’ we study all layers of society, not just the elite, and we engage with an area that has always been of existential value for people.
3. Which themes are covered in your module/seminar at NOSTER?
Our seminar is concerned with the Anthropology of Religion and Religious Studies. Last year, we started reading A Century of James Frazer’s The Golden Bough: Shaking the Tree, Breaking the Bough, edited by Stephanie Lynn Budin and Caroline J. Tully. Although Frazer’s work has been substantially criticized, we cannot deny that his ideas have left traces in many studies of religion and culture. It has been enlightening and quite interesting to read what various authors published on this scholar and his legacy. We will continue reading this work, and discuss it, in addition to reading and commenting on the work of the participants of the seminar, the teachers included. Ab and I have taught this seminar now for about nine years, and we still enjoy it very much. Judging from the students’ evaluations, we are not the only ones!
4. Why is your module at NOSTER so fun/interesting? What appeals to the participants in the module?
Like Anthropology, Religious Studies (and Celtic Studies!), our field is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, and so is our seminar. We may dive into historical studies, literary texts, material culture, film studies, sociology, education and so on; we are never limited to a single religion, culture, or phenomenon. Our students bring in such a wealth of topics. Although Ab is a specialist in Iranian studies and I in Celtic studies, we have published in other areas too. The past year we discussed the relationship between Philosophy and the study of religion, and we studied a dilemma within the study of religion, between data-driven research on the one hand and theory-driven studies on the other. The last word has not yet been said about these issues. Last but not least, we always start with a round in which everybody tells us how they are doing, if there are problems or challenges to overcome, or achievements to applaud. Also during this round, everybody helps each other by giving tips and being supportive.
5. What do you notice about your students? Do you notice certain interests, perspectives or working methods that are characteristic of this generation of theologians/religious scholars?
As mentioned above, the diversity in topics, methods, and students is great. I am always impressed with the students’ knowledge, their ability to express their views orally and their enthusiasm.
6. What advice would you like to give to young researchers in religious studies/theology?
Academia is a great place to be, but it is not an easy area to find a place for yourself, whether you are at student level or looking for a job. I sometimes hear young people talking about how difficult things in our present world can be. One of the reasons that I described my bricolage career (and I did not even mention the various times that I have been unemployed) is that things were not so easy in the past either. Find out what you really like to do and follow your heart. The result may not conform to your initial plan, but doing things that make you happy is so important for the quality of your life. And we have only one life. Or not?