Andreas Önver Cetrez

Professor at Department of Theology; Social Sciences of Religion and Practical Theology

Telephone:
+46 18 471 26 83
E-mail:
onver.cetrez@teol.uu.se
Visiting address:
Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3 B
Postal address:
Box 511
751 20 UPPSALA

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CV:
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Short presentation

My research asks how people hold on to resilience, meaning, and hope when life is disrupted — by war, displacement, pandemic, or climate change.

For over two decades, I have studied the psychological and existential dimensions of migration: how refugees rebuild their lives, what role faith, ritual, and community play, and what societies can do to support — or hinder — that process.

Keywords

  • migration and integration; refugee mental health; resilience; existential health; meaning-making; psychology of religion; ritual and identity; intergenerational trauma; climate mobility; mixed methods.

Biography

Background

I am a Professor of Psychology of Religion (2022) at the Faculty of Theology, Uppsala University, where I also earned my PhD in Psychology of Religion and Cultural Psychology (2005) and became an Associate Professor/docent (2017). My dissertation, a three-generation study of meaning-making and ritual among Suroyo (Assyrian/Syriac) migrants in Sweden, was supervised by Valerie DeMarinis (Uppsala) and Anthony J. Marsella (University of Hawai‘i). In 2014–2016 I served as Deputy Director of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul.

What I research

My work sits at the meeting point of psychology, religion, health, and migration studies. Three questions run through it: What enables resilience — in individuals and families, and in connection with communities and institutions — under extreme stress? How do people create meaning in crisis, through religious, spiritual, and secular practices? And how do reception and integration policies shape migrants’ psychosocial and existential health? I have pursued these questions among refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan in Sweden and Turkey, among university communities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden and Iran, in studies of the Sayfo genocide’s legacy across generations, and, currently, in research on climate-related mobility across nine countries. I work with mixed methods — surveys and in-depth interviews.

Leadership and assignments

I coordinated the EU Horizon 2020 programme RESPOND (2017–2021; 14 partners in 12 countries; EUR 3.3 million), which examined migration governance and migrants’ experiences after 2015 and produced more than 85 open-access reports; the European Commission’s final review judged the project to have “delivered exceptional results with significant impact”. I was the co-coordinator of the Horizon Europe project GAPs on return migration (2023–2026) and project leader of the Belmont Forum project PHOENIX on human mobility and resilience (2023–2026). I serve as scientific secretary at the Swedish Ethical Review Authority and as trustee for good research practice at Uppsala University.

Teaching and supervision

I teach across all levels in the psychology of religion, including courses such as Existential Health and Migration, Religion, and Health, and I supervise doctoral students in existential health and meaning-making. My teaching builds on critical reflection: examining the assumptions behind the theories and methods we use.

Engagement with society

Research on people in crisis carries a responsibility beyond academia. While researching in Istanbul, I co-founded Qnushyo, a community centre run with and for refugees, offering pre-school activities and language courses (www.qnushyo.com). With the National Museums of World Culture, I developed the Gilgamesh exhibition, a project bringing the overlooked traumatic experiences of refugee minorities to museum audiences, funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. In the project Footsteps (Swedish Research Council, 2023–2024), I worked on communicating migrants’ experiences of integration to the wider public. I have trained the Swedish Police Service on religion and culture and evaluated diversity programmes for Swedish civil society.

Research

Selected ongoing and completed projects:

  • PHOENIX – Human Mobility, Global Challenges and Resilience in an Age of Social Stress (Belmont Forum/Swedish Research Council, 2023–2026). How climate change, demographic shifts, and social stress shape human mobility in nine countries. Project leader. https://www.phoenix-climatemobilities.com
  • Footsteps – To Understand Other People’s Experiences of Integration (Swedish Research Council, 2023–2024). Research communication that lets the public step into newcomers’ experiences. Project leader. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/our-footsteps/id6738654484
  • Strengthening Emergency Response to Societal Crisis (Swedish Research Council, 2022–). Intercultural health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm. Participating researcher.
  • GAPs – De-centring the Study of Migrant Returns and Readmission Policies in Europe and Beyond (Horizon Europe, 2023–2026; EUR 5.5 million, 17 partners). Why do return policies so often fail, and what do they mean for the people affected? Co-coordinator. www.returnmigration.eu
  • RESPOND – Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond (Horizon 2020, 2017–2021). Coordinator. Migration governance and migrant experiences across 11 countries; 85+ open-access reports, surveys with 1,400+ Syrian newcomers in Sweden and Turkey, and the edited volume RESPONDing to Migration (2021). www.respondmigration.com
  • Integration and Tradition: The Making of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Sweden (Swedish Research Council, 2018–2022). How a diaspora church is built, and what it means for integration. Researcher. https://www.ctr.lu.se/en/forskning/forskningsprojekt-vid-ctr/integration-and-tradition-the-making-of-the-syriac-orthodox-church-in-sweden/
  • Gilgamesh – Mental Health, Meaning-Making, and Integration among Iraqi Refugees (Swedish Research Council, 2010–2014). Project leader. Mixed-method study in Södertälje, Stockholm, and Uppsala.
  • Mental Health Pilot Study among Assyrian Christian Refugees from Syria in Istanbul (Impact of Religion programme, 2013–2016). Researcher.

Media

I contributed regularly to public seminars and media conversations through newspapers, radio and television.

Andreas Önver Cetrez

Publications

Selection of publications

Recent publications

All publications

Articles in journal

Books

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Collections (editor)

Conference papers

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