International Summer School “Religious Belonging and Digital Media” (Erfurt, 22.09.2025–26.09.2025)

Concept

In the contemporary world, the idea of formally belonging to a religious community is coming increasingly under scrutiny. This is due, on the one hand, to processes of individualisation, meaning that individuals become less ready to acknowledge an external authority for moral choices and existential explanations. Individualisation can also drive believers away from communities, as they may prefer to practice religion in solitary and unique ways. On the other hand, the direct availability of all kinds of knowledge due to digital media of various characters has changed the way people interact with religious organisations and other religious practitioners. This leads to some considerations regarding religion and digital media – or, as scholar Heidi Campbell put it: “Digital Religion”. First, technological advances are not readily embraced by religious actors on a large scale. This is because of both their typical age structure and the inertia inherent in religious debates that operate across centuries. In some cases, religious communities may also refuse media technologies because of their ethical and moral convictions. Second, digital media, especially interactive social media, open up the field of religious expression that defy traditional definitions and conceptualisations. Meanwhile, users may use digital spaces to enter or experience community, which may serve as an extension or alternative to belonging to an offline religious community.

This summer school will gather participants and experts from different disciplines and various geographical, cultural, and religious contexts in order to explore and develop different and new approaches to the conceptualisation of religious belonging in the contemporary world, flush with digital media.

The summer school will explore issues of technology, gender, and religious conversions, along with reflections about research methods and toolkits. We welcome case studies (both qualitative and quantitative) focusing on the following aspects of the topic:

• How do religious organisations and actors use digital media to interact with and attract new members?
• How do digital media influence the way individuals relate to traditional religious authorities?
• How does (a sense of) community emerge and/or change due to social media, empirically as well as theoretically?
• How does the religious field change due to digital media?
• How does the tendency of digital media to create “social bubbles” influence religious organisations and religious identities?

Call for Papers

We invite advanced MA and PhD students from a variety of disciplines (e.g., Religious Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, History, Political Science, Media and Communications, and others). For confirmed participants, all expenses are covered, including travel (up to € 750), accommodation and food.  It will take place in Erfurt, Germany from 22 to 26 September, 2025.

The participant presentations may be an overview presentation of your research topic or a relevant aspect of it, but it may also be the presentation of a particularly tricky (methodological) issue you are grappling with or an intriguing source. We expect presentations of 15-20 minutes which are followed by a discussion.

In order to participate, please send a motivation letter of 1-2 pages (not AI-generated) to religious-belonging@uni-erfurt.de by 31 March 2025

The letter must include

• your educational background and command of English
• your current affiliation and place of residence (to calculate travel costs)
• your current research field and how this relates to the topic of the summer school
• the title of your presentation for the summer school, including a short abstract

We look forward to the Summer School, which will hopefully be an opportunity for a fruitful exchange of ideas and perspectives and bringing the study of religion and digital media forward!

Sebastian Rimestad, Christoph Günther, Anna Neumaier, and Giulia Evolvi

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Funding

Funding for this event is generously provided by the German Research Foundation's (DFG) Heisenberg Programme (Grant No. 443239708).