Maria Nita is a Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University. Her recent research and publications have been focused on climate activism and protest rituals, as well as theoretical approaches to understanding cultural change in the age of climate change. More broadly she is interested in the British counterculture and the cultural processes that enabled its development, in the West. She is also conducting ethnographic research inside the Extinction Rebellion Movement, via participant observation. She is particularly interested in the artistic and performative dimensions in this movement and the impact of these activities on both the rebels and the public.