Katrien Hertog
CRDC Research Fellow
Dr. Katrien Hertog is developing new conceptual contributions of peace research to the emerging field of religious peacebuilding. She has just completed her dissertation on Religious Peacebuilding: Resources and Obstacles in the Russian Orthodox Church for Sustainable Peacebuilding in Chechnya at the Centre for Peace Research at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium. Her interests are currently mainly focused on spiritual peacebuilding, that is, how internal spiritual changes may become the foundation for sustainable peace. She has an MA degree in Eastern European Languages and Cultures from the Catholic University of Leuven, an MA degree in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford, UK, and has studied and lived in St. Petersburg and Moscow for several years.
As a practitioner she is involved in the Flemish section of the Catholic peace organization Pax Christi, both in board functions and working groups on peace spirituality and Eastern Europe. She has been closely involved in track II diplomacy related to the Russian-Chechen conflict. She is also the national coordinator for Belgium for an international humanitarian NGO and teaches courses for prisoner rehabilitation.