Trine Brox

Trine Brox serves as Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department for Research at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen. She additionally directs the Centre for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, where she shapes research agendas at institutional and departmental levels through committee leadership, strategic planning, and research environment development.

Her academic foundation includes:

• PhD in Tibetan Studies, University of Copenhagen (2009)
• MA in Tibetan Studies, University of Copenhagen (2003)
• BA in Tibetan Studies, University of Copenhagen (1998)
• Cand. Mag. in Social Science, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø (1996)

Brox's research centers on contemporary Buddhism with particular emphasis on material culture, waste trajectories, and economic intersections. She leads three major projects: WASTE (Consumption and Buddhism in the age of garbage, 2021-2026), Buddhism Business and Believers (2016-2021), and Tibetan Materialities. Her scholarship uniquely bridges religious studies, anthropology, and discard studies to examine how religious communities navigate materiality and waste in modern contexts, particularly through Himalayan case studies.

Analysis of her 2025 publications reveals a concentrated scholarly trajectory examining Tibetan material culture through lenses of waste management, religious environmentalism, and object biographies. Her work increasingly connects Buddhist practices with ecological challenges, demonstrating how religious frameworks inform waste interventions and material transformations in Himalayan regions.

Brox has secured competitive research funding from:

• Veluxfonden (WASTE project, 2021-2026)
• Danish Council for Independent Research | Humanities (2016-2021)
• Carlsberg Foundation (postdoctoral support)

As an academic mentor, she works intensively with early-career researchers through the department's PhD program, career development seminars, and performance development reviews. She also participates in the University of Copenhagen's mentor corps supporting assistant professors. Her administrative leadership focuses on strengthening research environments and facilitating external funding acquisition.

She co-founded the international Tibetan Materialities Research Group with scholars from The University of Manchester and Universität Hamburg, evolving from their collaborative blog 'Object Lessons from Tibet & the Himalayas.' This forum has become a significant scholarly space for developing new conceptual frameworks in Tibetan material culture studies.