Claudia Gialousis

• 2013 – 2017: Bachelor of Arts Lehramt für katholische Religionslehre und Deutsch für Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen at RWTH Aachen University
• 2017 – 2021 Master of Education Lehramt für katholische Religionslehre und Deutsch für Gymnasien und Gesamtschulen at RWTH Aachen University
• 2017 – 2021: Master of Arts Theologie und globale Entwicklung at RWTH Aachen University
• 2017 – 2024: Student Assistant at the Institute for Catholic Theology at RWTH Aachen University
• 2024 – 2025: Research Assistant at the Institute for Catholic Theology at RWTH Aachen University
• Since June 2022: PhD project: The Religious Meaning-Making Potential of Technology. A Multi-Perspective Examination, Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Erfurt under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Patrick Becker, funded by Bischöfliches Studienwerk Cusanuswerk e.V.

The Religious Meaning-Making Potential of Technology. A Multi-Perspective Examination

The PhD project posits that technology serves as a significant source of meaning due to its deep cultural embedding and cognitive influence on epistemological understandings of the world. To access its efficacy, it is essential to explore the narratives associated with technology, particularly those surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) that circulate in Western contexts with great popularity. Drawing from cultural studies, this work asserts that narratives function as a vital cultural practice in constructing collective identities and beliefs. They play a crucial role in facilitating shared experiences of meaning, thereby creating coherence and continuity between past events and future possibilities and as such carry epistemological value. This research examines how these narratives act as binding agents for (religious) convictions within communities, highlighting their relational nature and contextual grounding. Consequently, narratives related to AI provide valuable insights into how individuals and groups in contemporary Western societies negotiate visions of (an ultimate) future alongside prevailing sets of convictions.

Building upon a broad study conducted at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge which examines the negotiation and content of AI narratives, this research takes a further step. Its primary focus is not only to comprehend the prevailing visions regarding AI but also to explore how these narratives offer an insight of collectively shared belief systems and sets of convictions. By integrating findings from cultural studies on narratives with postmodern epistemological concepts from the philosophy of religion, this study seeks to illuminate both the functions of narratives and their implications for existing theories within postmodern pragmatist perspectives on truth and reason. Consequently, this research aims to demonstrate that narratives provide valuable means to approach conviction sets and modes of belief in contemporary society through a lens applicable as a hermeneutical concept within theological thought.

Book chapters

• Die Anerkennung des Mehrdimensionalen. Achtsamkeit als Zugang zu modernen Gesellschaften und ihrer (Nicht-)Religiosität, in: Simone Paganini/Claudia Gialousis (Eds.): Achtsamkeit und Mitgefühl in religiösen Weltbildern. Eine Festschrift für Annette Meuthrath. Düren (Shaker) 2024. 241–249.
• With Alexander-Maximilian Gialousis: Das Tutorium als synchrone Veranstaltung im Umgang mit dem digitalen Raum. Ein Beispiel zur „Einführung in die Theologie“, in: Patrick Becker/Christina Kumpmann (Eds.): Habitusbildung in der Studieneingangsphase. Reflexionen zu einem hybriden Modell (Theologie und Hochschuldidaktik, Vol. 12). Münster (Lit) 2021.
• With Alexander-Maximilian Gialousis: Problembasiertes Lernen im Propädeutikum, in: Patrick Becker/Andreas Herrler/Steffen Jöris (Eds.): Problem Based Learning (PBL) in der Theologie (Theologie und Hochschuldidaktik, Vol. 10). Münster (Lit) 2020.

Editorships

• Simone Paganini/Claudia Gialousis (Eds.): Achtsamkeit und Mitgefühl in religiösen Weltbildern. Eine Festschrift für Annette Meuthrath. Düren (Shaker) 2024.

Further Publications

• Technik ist Tomate, Transistor und …eine Idee? Ein Zugang zum Technikverstehen jenseits des Artefaktischen, in: Simone Paganini et al. (Hg.): Einführung in die Theologie. Aachener Perspektiven. 3. revised edition. Düren (Shaker) 2024, 189–194.
• Europäische Visionen, in: „Leonardo“-Lecture 2018 unter der Schirmherrschaft des Rektors der RWTH Aachen University. Vertraute Fremdheit – Fragiles Europa? Karlspreisträger Emmanuel Macron an der RWTH. Aachen 2018.