M. (Manoela) Carpenedo Rodrigues, PhD

Carpenedo is a social scientist and ethnographer committed to exploring grassroots Christian movements and their complex intersections with culture, identity, and politics, particularly within the Global South. Her regional focus is on Latin American societies and Latin American–African connections. Throughout her career, she has conducted extensive ethnographic research across diverse religious communities, including fundamentalist Christian groups in Brazil, migrant churches in Europe, and Afro-Brazilian temples. Trained in traditional ethnographic methods, Carpenedo has recently broadened her focus to encompass the anthropology of media and digital ethnographic methods.

Carpenedo's broader research interests encompass cultural change, religious syncretism, religious violence, the Anthropology of moralities, the Anthropology of Christianities, and Digital Anthropology. She specializes in examining the rise of Christian Zionism, the proliferation of Judaizing forms of Christianity, Christian activism and political mobilization, as well as emerging forms of Christian extremism. Her work also extends to Afro-Diasporic religions in Latin America, investigating how these groups advocate for religious freedom within increasingly hostile environments.

Before joining the University of Groningen, Carpenedo was a fellow at the Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. She has also taught courses at the University of Kent and the University of Cambridge. Carpenedo studied at UFRGS (Brazil), the University of Tübingen (Germany), the University of Oviedo (Spain), and Central European University (Hungary). She holds an MPhil and a PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK). Carpenedo is a member of the Young Academy Groningen.