Between Faith and Fear

Scope:

How is religion misused for fearmongering, demonizing and dehumanizing others leading to irrational behaviors?

How does it polarize people and set them up against each other to serve the purpose of those in power?

Speaker:

She is educated as a Psychologist in Politics, Culture and Religion (Radboud University Nijmegen,1983). Her professional focus concerns the relationship and dynamics between the individual human being and her/his socio-political context. Her academic and professional knowledge and experience, relate to the realm of local, national, and global socio-political affairs and their influence on people’s personal lives in their emotional and rational form and frame.

In The Netherlands, her interest and experience concerned development, implementation, analyses and evaluation of migration policies and professional support to migrants seeking refuge in The Netherlands/Europe (since 1985 from The Horn of Africa, Asia, a.o. and, since 2023, Ukraine).

Since 1999, Marjan Lucas has worked in (post-)conflict areas globally. Her special interest and experience concerns Asia (Pakistan/Kashmir/India), the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia/Somalia) as well as the Balkans (Bosnia/Serbia). Next to being posted in the various regions of concern, she frequently visited the regions from Europe/The Netherlands onwards to support local civil society and build networks ‘on the ground’, liaise these networks with relevant political and/or diplomatic actors, and perform as speaker and moderator in international fora (Brussels, Geneva, Washington DC, New York, a.o.) and in national and international media (RTV, printed/digital media).  Ever since 2015, she has participated in various Election Monitoring missions of OSCE/ODIHR and EU in a wide variety of regions (e.g. Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Moldova, Kosovo, Montenegro, North-Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Türkiye, a.o.).

Her latest mission was to Ukraine as a Monitoring Officer in the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMMU), as part of the Kyiv Monitoring Team, up until the mission was closed down in June 2022.