Dr Maria Nita

Professional biography

I am a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Educational Academy in the UK. Having completed a BA in Letters and Theology in Romania, I came to live in the UK in 2000, where I gained an MA in Contemporary Religion (Distinction) and a PhD in Religious Studies. I am presently researching and writing on subjects intersecting cultural theory and the anthropology of religion, as I continue to be fascinated by language and folklore, as well as biosemiotic approaches to understanding culture. Before starting my permanent employment at The Open University, in 2021, I held different short- and long-term contracts at several universities in the UK, among which the University of Birmingham, the University of South Wales and Oxford Brookes University. My present research is focused on religious and cultural approaches to the ethics of sustainable food, climate activism and contemporary spirituality, Green Christian practices, public rituals, as well as art and performance festivals more broadly. 

Research interests

My current research is centred on climate activism, sustainability and storytelling, particularly in relation to food ethics and ritual. Past projects have looked at Extinction Rebellion activism in connection with funerary rites, as I have been interrogating new extinction rituals. More broadly I am interested in the British counterculture and the cultural processes that enabled its development, in the West. As such, I am interested in the early festival culture that developed during the late 1960s and early 1970s, in the UK. In my recent work I have investigated practices and discourses that facilitate cultural change by conducting ethnographic research inside the Extinction Rebellion Movement, via participant observation. I am particularly interested in the artistic and performative dimensions in this movement and the impact of these activities on both the rebels and the public. Other research interests include: Green Islam, interfaith environmental prayers and rituals, and spirituality in health environments.