Olivier Servais

Olivier Servais is Professor at the University of Louvain where he teaches anthropology of religion, of symbolic systems and of virtual worlds. His current research interests are focused on values, religions and their relation to the digital environment and digital universes. On religion, his historical project focuses on anthropology of Ojibwas resistance to christianization and modernization (Canada). He realized some field and archives works, that have been published partly in a book entitled "Des jésuites chez les Amérindiens ojibwas. Histoire et ethnologie d’une rencontre," Karthala, 2005. He also developed projects in socio-anthropology of religion in Belgium with surveys on religious practices. In that context, he coordinated recent studies on catholicism and pentecostalism in Belgium. Since 2009, he has developed a research interest on virtual worlds and digital practices. For this project he observed a guild in World of Warcraft for 3 years and followed some of the members inside other actual worlds.