Isla Diane

Isla Diane is a TVO (Talent for Research Honours programme) student working at SSAB.

 

Isla’s research interests lie in political and religious history, the relationship between religion and politics, and the role of the media in the construction of political and religious identities.

 

For her Bachelor’s paper, she studied catholic moral and political discourse in the United States, focusing on the Knights of Columbus and their involvement in the American culture wars. Her previous research also explored the politicisation of abortion in Belgium from a comparative international perspective.

 

Alongside her academic work, Isla has worked in archival research and digital heritage through positions at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) and the Belgian State Archives. Her work included digitising seventeenth-century archival documents and improving public access to nineteenth-century historical newspaper collections.

 

This year, her research will examine the role of a catholic figure in the American press of the 1920s and 1930s, focusing on how she influenced the construction and expression of women's identities. 

Additionally, she will collaborate with dr. Niels de Nutte on a project researching anti-secularisation in the United States during the Culture Wars from a catholic standpoint.