Senior student of Religious Studies

'I want to set things straight'

'I’m doing the specialization Religion and Culture in Conflict and Peace-Building, which is a specialization within the Research Master. Right now I’m focusing on the image formation of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The media often concentrate on the violent character of the conflict, and they frequently portray the Palestinians as terrorists. I want to help form an accurate representation of the facts. My motivation is idealistic: I want to set things straight. I don’t think the Israeli-Palestine conflict is about one of the parties being good or bad; it is all about social justice.

I chose the Religious Studies degree programme in Groningen because its approach is to the point, and their style is not as woolly and mystical as other programmes can be. Furthermore, a lot of interesting events are organized by and for students. Only recently the faculty society organized a student debate about the future of religion. They asked me to be the chairman. It was a good experience for me to chair a debate. It turned out to be great; it was an informative evening and the atmosphere was lively.

After completing my Master’s degree, I hope to go on to PhD research, although I might go back to studying Arabic so that I can contribute from Israel-Palestine.'

 

Watch the film [link to www.rug.nl/video/ba-godsdienstwetenschap] if you want to hear more from Willemijn.