This dataset contains the raw data of my PhD research about Dutch women who converted to Judaism, Christianity or Islam, which resulted in the PhD dissertation 'Questioning the Conversion Paradox: Gender, Sexuality, and Belonging amongst Women Becoming Jewish, Christian, and Muslim in the Netherlands.' The research explores the intersections of gender and religion in the process of conversion and in female converts' everyday religious practice. In order to investigate this question in the three groups comparatively, qualitative research methods were employed: participant observation and (in-depth) semi-structured interviews. In different (Modern Orthodox and Liberal/Progressive) Jewish, (Pentecostal) Christian and (Sunni) Islamic communities, data was collected via participant observation and informal conversations. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were undertaken with forty participants. These participants identified with the notion of 'conversion' (or localised terminology such as 'giyur' for the Jewish case), meaning that they were socialised in a largely secular environment and decided to undertake to become Jewish, Christian or Muslim later in life. In addition, I interviewed nine religious leaders of the communities studied. The twenty Jewish and seven Muslim interlocutors were white; ten Christian interlocutors were white, three were people of colour. The socio-economic background of the participants varied, so did their age (ranging from 20 to 72 years old at the time of research). The majority identified as heterosexual, two identified as lesbian and one as queer. Whilst some had joined their religion forty years ago, others had only recently converted or were in the process when we met. All interviewed people signed a consent form. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using NVivo software (version 12, 2018).
The PhD research was a subproject of the NWO project 'Beyond 'Religion versus Emancipation': Gender and Sexuality in Women’s Conversions to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Contemporary Western Europe.' This project was led by prof. dr. Anne-Marie Korte and hosted at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Humanities, UU. The PhD was a joint doctorate with the Centre for Research on Culture and Gender, Ghent University.
Other supervisors were:
dr. Katja Rakow (UU)
prof. dr. Chia Longman (UGent)
The dissertation can be found here: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/421532
Other publications include:
Journal articles, DOI: 10.1080/14755610.2018.1444655 and 10.1177/0037768620901664
Book publications, ISBN: 9780367407285 and 9780367649555
