Blokhuis-Koopman, R. (Rachel), MA

Rachèl Blokhuis-Koopman (1989) is a PhD student at the Meertens Institute and the VU. She completed her research master’s degree (cum laude) in Religious Studies & Theology at the VU in 2015, during which she spent a year studying American Christianity at Duke University, North Carolina. After several years working in Christian media and at national policy level at the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, Rachèl is currently conducting research within the international project Makebelief on religious theme parks in the United States under the supervision of Dr Ernst van den Hemel and Prof. Irene Stengs. In this research, she focuses on the religious and cultural impact of theme parks such as the Creation Museum in Kentucky and Dollywood in Tennessee and the use of immersive media in them. She is interested in lived religious practices, medialisation of religion, the complex relationship of religion and politics in America, as well as the role and meaning of religion in the public sphere.

Key publications

• Koopman, R. N. (2013). A “Visible Monument” of grace or displeasure? Jonathan Edwards on the Jewish Identity in the Puritan New England imagination. Jonathan Edwards Studies, 3(2), 201-214.