Pieter Coppens new member of the KNAW The Young Academy 

Pieter Coppens is a researcher and lecturer in Islamic sciences at the Centre for Islamic Theology (CIT) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research focuses on the history of Qur'anic exegesis and the history of Sufism. In 2018 he received a VENI grant for his project on the genesis, growth and development of Salafi Quranic exegesis since the 19th century.

Islamic intellectual history 
How have communities formed over the centuries around the sacred source texts of Islam? Coppens studies Islamic intellectual history. He is currently working on a monograph on the rise of Salafist hermeneutics at the beginning of the twentieth century. In it he describes a reorientation towards stricter rules of interpretation of the most important Islamic sources: the Qur'an and the Sunna. He shows how the rapid advance of education and readily available books led to a narrowing and hardening of religious discourse. This supplanted the traditional broader orientation to the Islamic tradition.

Ten new members for The Young Academy 
Like previous years, this year there will be ten new members. They come from the full breadth of science and conduct research on a variety of topics ranging from climate justice to cellular interactions or Islamic intellectual history.

The ten researchers will be officially installed as members of The Young Academy on Tuesday 28 March 2023. During their five-year membership, they are committed to projects in the field of science policy, interdisciplinarity, internationalisation and the relationship between science and society.

About The Young Academy 
The Young Academy is a dynamic and innovative platform of researchers from different disciplines with a vision on science and science policy. She organises inspiring activities for various target groups in the field of interdisciplinarity, internationalisation, science policy and science and society. The fifty members had been promoted less than ten years ago at the time of appointment. Together, these scientists represent a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines, and they work at Dutch universities and many research institutes. Their membership lasts five years, every year ten members flow in and out. The Young Academy is part of the KNAW.