Heisenberg Professorship for Religious Studies with a focus on Religious Media Practices

The Heisenberg Professorship of Religious Studies with a focus on Religious Media Practices in the Department of Religious Studies systematically examines – in both research and teaching - the interplay of religion and media. Specifically, we focus on historical and contemporary processes of convergence between religious and media practices in Islamic intellectual history and Muslim religiosity. Texts, images, and videos of contemporary Muslim actors on social media platforms and their reception are currently a particular focus.

As part of the Department of Religious Studies, we apply socio-cultural approaches to better understand how religious knowledge is produced, mediated, and negotiated through speech, text, and image, scrutinize performative aspects of religious practices, examine lived religion in local and global interrelationships, investigate processes of communitarisation and social identity formation, and examine religious authority. These interests are reflected in our courses, the researchof our team, as well as the many other activities of the professorship.