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Since September 2011 Head of
the Department of Comparative and Historical Study of Religion at the
University
of Groningen.
Responsibilities: Head of the Department of
Comparative and Historical Study of Religion; director of the Faculty
Research Colloquium; member of the Groningen Centre for Religious Studies;
chair of the committee Internationalization and Mobility of the Faculty of
Theology and Religious Studies; chair of the committee Research Master and
Ph.D. program of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies; member of
the University Committee for Academic Practice (UCW); member of the
University Thinktank "Sustainable Society."
Since February 2011 Honorary
Professor of the Study of Religion, Aarhus
University.
Since September 2009 full professor
of Religious Studies and since January 2010 head of the Department of Religious Studies and the
History of Christianity, University of Groningen.
April 2003 - August 2009 assistant
professor at the University of Amsterdam, chair for "History of Hermetic Philosophy
and Related Currents" April 2002 - February 2003 visiting professor at the University of Bayreuth, chair for "Contemporary Religion".
July 2002 Habilitation at the University of Bremen,
Habilitationsschrift: "Die Figur des Schamanen. Kulturgeschichtliche
Betrachtungen zur Ambivalenz wissenschaftlicher Kategorien und ihrer
Popularisierung im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert".
July 2001 - March 2003 research project "The Formation of Shamanic Discourses in Religious Studies and Esotericism"
(funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) at the University
of Bremen.
July 2000 - June 2001 academic coordinator of the application process for a collaborative research center
(Sonderforschungsbereich) "Religious Pluralism in Europe",
Universities of Erfurt and Bremen.
June 1999 - June 2000 PostDoc-scholarship from the
University of Bremen.
June 1999 - June 2000 faculty member at the University of Erfurt, department of the History of European
Polytheisms.
1998-1999 visiting student at the
"Max-Weber-Center for Advanced Studies" at the University of
Erfurt.
1997-2002 lecturer for Religious Studies
(Religionswissenschaft) at the University of Bremen.
1997-1999 PhD scholarship from the University of
Bremen. PhD thesis "Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity".
Studies of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and
Jewish Studies at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne (M.A. 1995).
Born on 6 April 1966 in
Kpandu/Ghana.
Service in Professional Organizations:
- Nederlands Genootschap voor Godsdienstwetenschap (Dutch
Association for the Study of Religion NGG,
since September 2011 President; 2008-2011 General Secretary and member of the
Executive Committee)
- American Academy of Religion (AAR), 2002-2008 co-chair,
2008-2011 member of the steering committee of the "Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion" Group;
2007-2011 member of the steering committee and since November 2011
co-chair of the "Religion in Europe" Group
- International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and
Culture (ISSRNC, 2006-2009 President-Elect, 2009-2011 President,
since September 2011 member of the board)
Other Memberships:
-
Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in
Theology and Religion (NOSTER)
-
Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft
(DVRW)
- European Association for the Study of Religion
(EASR)
- International Association for the History of
Religions (I.A.H.R.)
- European Society for the Study of Western
Esotericism (ESSWE,
founding member and 2005-2009 member of the board and webmaster)
- Christian Knorr von Rosenroth Gesellschaft
(website)
Congress Organization (Conference Director)
- Religionswissenschaft and Theology
(University of Erfurt, 1999)
- Religious Pluralism in Europe (University
of Erfurt, 2000)
- Horoscopes and History (University of
Amsterdam, 2004)
- Western Esotericism and Polemics (as part
of the meeting of the International Association for the History of
Religions I.A.H.R., Tokyo, 2005)
- Kabbalah and Modernity (University of
Amsterdam, in collaboration with the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,
Beer Sheva, Israel, 2007)
- Religion, Nature, and Progress: Third
International Meeting of the International Society for the Study of
Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC) (University of Amsterdam,
2009)
- The Gods as Role Model: Imitation,
Divinization, Transgression (University of Groningen, 2011)
- Religious Authority between 0 and 1: Power
and Authority in the Times of Internet (University of Groningen,
2011, in collaboration with the University of Bremen and the Jacobs
University Bremen)
- Religion and Social Cohesion: Challenges and
Perspectives (Annual Meeting of the Dutch Association for the Study
of Religion NGG, University of Groningen, 2012)
- Religion and Pluralities of Knowledge
(Joint Meeting of the European Association for the History of Religions
EASR and the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion NGG, University
of Groningen, 2014)
Supervision of PhD Projects (as Promotor or
Co-Promotor, other supervision not mentioned here):
- Sebastian Krebel: Zwischen den Welten – Eine
lebensweltliche Ethnographie des neuen Heidentums (University of
Erfurt, 2012-2015)
- Klaran Visscher: Jozef Rulof and the
Revelations of the "Age of Christ": New Religiosity in the Netherlands and
the Crisis of Modernity in the Twentieth Century (external project,
University of Groningen, 2010-2016,
see description)
- Tsila Rädecker: Modernization and the
Formation of the Jewish Identity, 1793-1848 (University of Groningen,
2010-2014,
see description)
- Lea Schulte-Droesch: Understanding Santal
Cosmology through the Annual Hunting Ritual (University of Groningen,
2010-2014)
- Brenda Bartelink: Analyzing Discourses and
Practices on Religion and Development (University of Groningen,
2007-2012,
see description)
- Irene Dietzel: Religion, Culture and
Environment of an Island Society – Exploring the Ecology of Ethnic
Coexistence and Conflict in Cyprus (University of Erfurt, 2008-2012)
Focus of Research Interest:
- European history of religion from antiquity
through today
- Method and theory in the study of
religion
- Esoteric discourses in Western culture, with special
emphasis on astrology and kabbalah
- Religion, philosophy, science, and nature
- Religion and modernity
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