Catharina de Pater successfully defended her PhD thesis at Wageningen University and Research on 16 April 2024

1. What is your research about?
   I did my PhD research on how forest spirituality is embedded in forest management, and what the implications are for forest management planning and practice. It was interdisciplinary research, drawing from both forestry science and religious scholarship. That enabled me to construct a conceptual framework to study forest spirituality in depth. My findings showed that forest spirituality is on the rise in the Netherlands and that it has practical consequences for forest management. Forest managers can facilitate harmless activities such as meditative walks by ensuring tranquillity and scenic beauty, but they draw the line when ecological values are threatened, e.g. by rituals disturbing animals or biodiversity. Forest managers see the need to learn and exchange more about forest spirituality and I recommend that this is taken up in formal and informal education
2. How did you experience your defence?
   My defence was exciting and overwhelming. It was scheduled in the last slot on the 16^th of April. My supervisors, Arjen Wals (ELS) and Bas Verschuuren (FNP), convinced me that it should be proceeded by a mini-symposium on the subject. I thought it would be too much for one day, but they argued that they would organize it, which they did. In the end, over 100 people attended the symposium and the defence, and there was a lot of press coverage afterwards. It was completely overwhelming! Thanks ever so much to Arjen and Bas, the support staff of FNP and ELS, and all the encouragement from colleagues and friends!
   
3. Do you have a nice anecdote from your time as promovendus?
   During our field research, we held a workshop with forest managers at a big national carousel event, the annual Area Managers’ Day. In that workshop we reported early results of our research, and did Mentimeter exercises to generate more data. In the end we asked them whether they would like to learn more about forest spirituality. Some participants wrote: “No” or “Not interested”. When we talked to one of them afterwards, he said: “I am the manager of a memorial forest, where people plant trees to remember their deceased loved ones. Spirituality is the main purpose of my forest!”
   
4. What are your plans for the future?
   At the moment I am starting up activities at FNP as a part-time guest researcher on a voluntary basis. I have been invited to co-operate with an upcoming research project on forest spirituality in Europe, and to supervise Masters students who would like to study forest spirituality in different areas in or outside Europe using my framework or related approaches. I am also contemplating to follow up on various loose ends in my thesis, inventorise cases of forest spirituality in the Netherlands, and contributing to further theorizing. I also envisage outreach activities such as workshops on forest spirituality with forest managers. And if I can be useful for ELS, let’s talk!
   
5. Do you have tips for future promovendi?

Tips for the last stretch:

• Start early with the preps, preferably as soon as the date is fixed.
• The procedures are clearly detailed by the PhD and Beadle Offices, read them carefully and don’t hesitate to ask questions (by mail). They are very helpful.
• Follow the courses ‘Last stretch of PhD’ and ‘Writing propositions’ as soon as the date is remotely in sight. They are very helpful.
• Make a time frame/action list with deadlines - the slides from the Last stretch course are a useful basis. Share the list with your paranymphs, and update it regularly.
• Think about propositions already now! I noted down ideas in my smartphone whenever I got them, so that I could reflect on them at any convenient moment.
• Thesis printing: keep a firm grip on the printer company (most likely WUR’s home supplier Proefschriftmaken.nl). They are congenial but their different work stations do not connect seamlessly:) It would be helpful if the secretariat keeps a recent paper sample catalogue, that saves time and efforts. Practice lay outing with advanced Word functions, doing it yourself pays off. NB: you will likely need an advanced PDF converter programme such as Adobe Creative Cloud. WUR-ICT issues licences for external PhD candidates for this purpose.
• Plan the mock defence well in advance, and let the paranymphs be in charge. Your mock opponents need time to prepare, and especially in busy months they may be called for other ‘mocks’ too.

• Opt for being a paranymph for at least one of your fellow PhD candidates. It helps to familiarize yourself with the place, proceedings, and the emotional experience.

  Tips for the whole PhD trajectory:

• Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, but show your commitment to whoever expects things from you. Better to send an incomplete draft to your supervisors than nothing at all.
• ·Keep up! It’s not easy to study an undiscovered area of research. Keep in charge but don’t hesitate to ask support from your supervisors and make use of the manyfold guidance opportunities provided by the university. In times of deep despair, I reminded myself that they had not engaged me for nothing, that they had expectations about the subject and trust in me. That helped.