Interdisciplinary approaches. How might the anthropology of religion and cultural geography come together to help describe regional religious complexities?
Environmental change. In what ways do environmental hazards create precarity, change rural lifeways, and challenge pathways to community resilience?
Rural spaces and rural religion. How is material religion, symbology, and religious ritual practiced and expressed in distinctly rural contexts across Peru?
Embodiment in a world of change. Which ecological or spiritual Andean practices are expressed through bodily relationships to the natural world? How may these shift in response to environmental change?
Peruvian Evangélicos. In what ways are Evangelical groups in Peru influencing the social fabrics and religious landscapes of rural communities?
Meaning Making. How do individuals reason with change and create meaning during and after hazard events? In what ways might people relate environmental hazards to beliefs or worldviews?
Current Research
My doctoral research looks to explore the embodied religious responses of Andean Christians towards a variety of environmental hazards. Previously, my work was based in the Peruvian Amazon.
[In review] Van Caulart, J. A. (2027). Sanctuaries of the swollen river: Rural Christianity and resilience in the Peruvian Amazon. In Rethinking Religion: Critical Studies and Perspectives on Religion and Culture. De Gruyter Brill.
[In review] Van Caulart, J. A. (2026). Showers of blessings and curses: Environmental hazards according to an Israelita in Ucayali, Peru. The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology.
[Draft] Van Caulart, J. A. & Abizaid, C. God and water in two rural Amazonian communities.
[Draft] Aechtner, T., Hewko, S., Van Caulart, J. A., Weiland, W., & Phail, J. Rethinking Decline: Revisiting the Story of Secularization in Canada.
Joycelin Van Caulart 