Dr. Fouad Gehad Marei

I am a scholar of Middle East Politics and Religious (Islamic) Studies. I joined the University of Erfurt in 2026 as a Lecturer of Religion and Media Practice and a member of the Heisenberg Professorship for Religious Studies (Religion and Media Practices) team.

My research and teaching focuses on Material Religion, Digital Religion, decolonial approaches to the study Religion, and religion in immersive virtual environments. I am also a scholar of Middle East politics with a research focus on state-society relations, geopolitics of the Middle East, Shiʿi transnational movements, sectarianism and sectarian conflict, insurgency, and conflict transformation.

I obtained a PhD in International Studies from Durham University in the United Kingdom in 2013. Since then, I have held several academic and policy consulting posts in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Lebanon, Türkiye and Morocco.

I teach graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Erfurt. For an overview of my teaching activities at the University of Erfurt, please see E.L.V.I.S.

Prior to that, I taught at the Free University of Berlin, University of Birmingham, Lund University, and the École de Gouvernance et d’Economie in Rabat. Courses I instructed included taught and research courses on “State-Society Relations in the Middle East”, “Islam and Politics”, “State and Society in Lebanon”, “Global Islam”, and “Comparative Politics of the Middle East.” I also instructed the “German-Moroccan Exchange Programme” at the (2015 – 2016), and I partook in the instruction of the “German-Egyptian-Jordanian Summer School” (2014) and the “Iran-Berlin Summer School” (2015).

In addition to teaching in higher education, I am also involved in designing and teaching professoinal and train-the-trainer programs on “Journalism in Conflict”, “Countering Violent Extremism (CVE)”, “Civilian Administration and Transition (PCAT)”, and decentralization and local governance.

• Material Religion
• Digital Religion and religious digital media practices
• Religion in immersive virtual environments
• Material (tangible) and immaterial (intangible) religious heritage
• Shiʿi Islam 
• Geopolitics of the Middle East
• Religio-political movements
• Sectarianism and sectarian conflict
• Decolonial approaches to religion and politics

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For a comprehensive list of publications, including conference papers and events and workshops organized, please visit my ORCID, Academia.edu or Research Gate pages.