25/04/2024
How to rebuild a city with Karam Alkatlabe
This Thursday, as part of this year’s Wolfson Research Event, Susie will present her research about online Christian conversion during the pandemic, shedding light on a fascinating phenomenon.
“The pandemic offered more time for mindfulness gurus, TikTok dances, and Tiger King, but also for religion,” says Susie. “Two billion people use Tiktok, and on average they use it for 95 minutes a day. That’s a lot of time to see potentially religious content.
“For some, religion was part of their wellbeing, whether through explicitly practising a new faith, or through the lightness of something like #NunTok.”
Nuns, imams, and Buddhist monks were among those sharing successful videos and content on social media during the pandemic, with hashtags like #NunTok resonating with many people during a time when suffering, mortality, and spirituality were front and centre in the public consciousness.
These behavioural patterns closely aligned with Susie’s own research interests.
“I have always been really interested in religion and suffering,” she says. “It presents a tension between my disciplines: does suffering lead people to divinity, or is the problem of evil the biggest thing stopping belief? I saw the pandemic as an opportunity to ask this question in real-time.”
Susie completed fieldwork on the Christian Alpha Course, an evangelistic course which teaches the basics of Christianity. Alpha’s attendance tripled during the pandemic and so Susie started to research why this happened and whether it was to do with the suffering that was becoming so evident because of the impact of the disease.
“To my surprise, most people did not start doing Alpha because of the suffering they were going through. From those I spoke to, many people had been interested in religion before –the time, practicality, and privacy which the pandemic created simply enabled them to finally explore Christianity.
“So I became fascinated, perhaps obsessed, with how the pandemic has changed the landscape of evangelism. At the Wolfson Research Event, I’ll be discussing my Alpha research, but I’ll also be spotlighting people who converted over TikTok.”
Finding out about digital conversions first hand
Susie’s PhD work, which “sprouted surprisingly, organically and excitingly from my MPhil,” will rely heavily on fieldwork – on finding out about pandemic conversion from those who experienced it directly.
“In a couple of months, I will be departing the walls of Wolfson for a year to complete fieldwork in Bradford in Yorkshire,” she says. “Here, I will be asking people about how the pandemic has altered how they worship and evangelise.”
She will also turn her attention to her own family.
“My brother is a Christian videographer, travelling the world creating Christian content, evangelising and worshipping. The question is, is it loving or insane to undertake a PhD project about your brother?”
Understanding a global trend
Susie’s work is treading new ground, not only because so little work has been completed on digital conversion, but also because, she says, there is insufficient research on Christians in the north of England.
“I’m excited to be working across my subjects too,” she says, “because I know how much can be gained from interdisciplinary study in these areas. I am also excited to undertake this study as a Christian in my own country. Part of decolonising anthropology comes back to studying home and what’s going on here instead. Studying Christianity as a Christian also adds another level – I don’t start this research from the premise that belief is strange.
“I hope this research can be helpful to my faith community and to other faith communities. My own faith is really important to me. Globally, religion is growing at pace and the more we can understand about conversion and evangelism in this context the better.”
"I love people!"
Susie’s mum was a head teacher, and so she found herself moving around a lot as a child, though she says Cornwall is her heart-home. She studied Theology at Keble College in Oxford. After a year, she taught herself first year Philosophy and completed her finals in joint honours Theology and Philosophy. And now she’s excitedly embarking on a PhD in Theological Anthropology.
“I studied Theology to understand my own faith and Philosophy to get my fingers into my other assumptions. And Anthropology because I love people!” she says.
Like many students at Wolfson, her academic journey is not the standard one.
“I took a break from academia after my mum passed away from leukaemia after my finals. I returned in 2020 to complete a covid MPhil in Social Anthropology at Caius, Cambridge. Then, I took a year out travelling the world on my own in my roof tent.
“I started wild camping in Scotland in torrential rain, then went to Central America with my brother, to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Then I came back and drove myself across the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and more, before heading off to Corfu and Switzerland!”
"Hands down my favourite College"
Now, however, she has an academic home at Wolfson.
“Wolfson is my third Oxbridge college,” she says, “and it’s hands down my favourite. I immediately felt safe and comfortable here. The people are so kind, funny and down-to-earth. There is just this joyful energy about the place, which makes it such a productive place to work, but also exist! Everyone is allowed to be themselves… and human at Wolfson. There’s always someone around smiling at you, but you’re also very allowed to have a cry.
“I also love the variation of friends I’ve made here, particularly through Wolfson Choir. My two hours at choir are my favourite in the week and Queen Lyn, our Director, is actually sent from above! I also love the Wolfson gardens, which are looking particularly beautiful at the moment.”
Before she heads off to continue her field work, you can catch Susie’s presentation at the Wolfson Research Event 2023 on Thursday at 14:00 in the Lee Hall.
