Cam Vercoe Groenen is a PhD student in the Department of Religious Studies. His research focuses on disinformation in Indigenous communities and the intersection of knowledge, power, and religion in Māori communities in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Cam’s PhD research will build on themes he identified in his master’s thesis, “Billy Te Kahika: Use of Religious Authority to Construct Conspiracy Theory.” Amongst these themes are the ways that marginalised communities make knowledge claims that can run in opposition to dominant or official narratives and the structures that support these claims. By understanding the relationship between knowledge, power, and religion, Cam is motivated to understand how Māori develop and reclaim knowledge-making in a “post-colonial context.” His research combines Kaupapa Māori (Māori research values) with the methods and language of Religious Studies—tradition, ritual, storytelling—to understand the complexities of Māori sovereignty movements.
Cam is a registered member of Ngāti Maniapoto and Tainui and aims to produce scholarship that is beneficial to both the academy and Indigenous communities.