Leonardo Vasconcelos de Castro Moreira

Leonardo Vasconcelos de Castro Moreira is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellow at KU Leuven’s Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Sciences. He holds a PhD from the University of Warwick (2019) and earlier degrees from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (BSc, 2012) and Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (MA, 2014). He won the Peter B. Clarke Essay Prize for his work on religious exorcism practices. His research focuses on Global South Pentecostalism in Europe, particularly diasporic communities' religious rituals and their sociopolitical implications. Current projects include analyzing exorcism rituals in London performed by Brazilian and Nigerian churches. Past work explored the New Atheism movement in Brazil and intersections between religion and politics, including Jair Bolsonaro’s ideology and pandemic responses. He temporarily taught in São Paulo public schools (2021–2022) before joining KU Leuven.

Research interests span religious identity formation, transnational religious networks, and the role of exorcism in multicultural urban settings. His work bridges anthropology, sociology, and theology to examine how religious practices mediate social integration and cultural adaptation.

• Education:
  • Bachelor’s in Social Sciences, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (2012)
  • M.A. in Religious Studies, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (2014)
  • PhD in Social Anthropology, University of Warwick (2019)
• Awards:
  • Peter B. Clarke Essay Prize (Socrel, 2022)

His articles critically address topics like demonic symbolism in Brazilian politics, exorcism rituals as identity tools, and the entanglement of Pentecostal theology with far-right ideologies. Future work expands on comparative studies of Global South Pentecostal communities in European cities.