Anne Kirstine Rønn Sørensen is doing her PhD research on anti-sectarian social movements in the Middle East and the Balkans. Her main objective is to contribute to the nascent literature on de-sectarianization by exploring the role of civil society in opposing sect-based politics and promoting new political identities and communities that transcend sectarian boundaries. Her dissertation investigates anti-sectarian social movements in Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the opportunities and constrains they face when attempting to mobilize supporters and resources. More specifically, she explores the movements’ choices of framing, internal organization and repertoires of contention and analyzes how such strategic choices affect the developments and outcomes of specific anti-sectarian campaign initiatives.

Anne Kirstine is a PhD fellow at the Department of Political Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from University of Copenhagen and a master’s degree in International Studies from Aarhus University. Academically, she has a great interest in inter-communal conflict, sectarianism, de-sectarianization, social movements in divided societies and Middle Eastern studies. During her master, she spent a year in Lebanon, specializing in Middle Eastern politics at the Lebanese American University in Beirut and conducting research for her master’s thesis on the Lebanese anti-sectarian social movement.