Telephone number:	+31 (0)71 527 2580
E-Mail:	a.m.schwencke@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department:	Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Leids Instituut Godsdienstwetenschappen
Office Address:	Witte Singel-complex Matthias de Vrieshof 1 2311 BZ Leiden Room number 102C

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Anne Marieke Schwencke is a PhD student at Leiden Institute for Religious Studies (Leiden University).  Her research explores Islamic sustainability discourses and the intriguing blends of thought and practice that are currently emerging worldwide fusing contemporary Islamic and environmentalist discourses. The ‘green’ of Islam - its symbolic color – is merging with the ‘ green’ of  environmental sustainabilty. In this research Anne Marieke combines her expertise as a professional policy researcher and sustainability specialist with her academic interests in the field of religious studies.

‘Sustainability’ has been an influential driver of social change affecting policies, business and individual life styles worldwide. It served as a rallying point for new global social movements, including many faithbased movements. Islamic sustainability discourses emerged alongside, but on the whole have received remarkedly limited academic attention to date, with the notable exception of the subfield of religion and ecology. A preliminary survey, subsidized by the Leiden University Fund (LUF) uncovered a rich variety of Islamic sustainability discourses and practices, and highy intriguing blends of contemporary Islamic and environmentalist discourses (Globalized Eco-Islam, Schwencke 2011).
This project aims to characterize, delineate and contextualize Islamic sustainability discourses, arguing that these can be understood as products of the dynamic interplay of contemporary environmentalist discourses and  Islamic discourses.

Background
Anne Marieke Schwencke (1967) has an MSc in Physics (‘doctoraal’ 1992) and a Master in Environmental Business Administration (1995). She has worked as a professional policy researcher and consultant in the environmental sector since 1996, and as a climate change specialist in the developmental and fairtrade sector since 2010. She combined her profession with a bachelor in world religions at Leiden University. This drew her attention to Islamic discourses about sustainability issues. Her BA thesis on the Islamic environmental ethics of Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1933-)  was awarded a cum laude in June 2009 and as the best bachelor thesis of world religions in 2010 by the Leiden Institute of Religious Studies (Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Islamic Esotericism, Traditionalism and Environmental Ethics, Schwencke 2009).
In 2007/8 she was also employed by the Leiden Institute for Religious Studies (LIRS) as an interim student advisor, organizer of two conferences and assistant editor (for The Study of Religion and the Training of Muslim Clergy in Europe: Academic and Religious Freedom in the 21st Century; Drees & Van Koningsveld, 2008).
A research grant from the Leiden University Fund (LUF pilot study) and a part time position as a researcher and teaching assistant with professor W.B. Drees enabled her to continue this line of research with an explorative survey on Islamic environmentalism (between 2009 and 2011).
She is currently registered as an unfunded PhD student.

Preliminary research (unpublished):
Schwencke, A.M. Globalized Eco-Islam: a survey of Islamic contributions to the sustainability debates, final report to Leiden University Fund pilot study, March 2011.
Schwencke, A.M., Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Islamic Esotericism, Traditionalism and Environmental Ethics. Bachelor thesis, Leiden University Institute of Religious Studies, supervised by prof. dr. A.F. de Jong, June 2009. 
Schwencke, A.M., Global Ethics in a Globalizing World, Searching for Common Grounds, Tracing the fo