Dr. Katharina Wilkens

Since 2023

Tenured lecturer, Institute for the Study of Religions

University of Tübingen, Germany

2023

Research Fellowship

Käthe-Hamburger-Kolleg “Dis:Connectivity in Processes of Globalisation”, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

2022

Guest professor, Institute for the Study of Religion

Universitäy of Leipzig, Germany

2021

Senior Research Fellow

Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences “Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities”, University of Leipzig, Germany

2020

Guest Professor for the Study of Religion with a focus on Africa

University of Bayreuth, Germany

2015-2018

Co-Speaker of the DFG-netzwork "AESToR.NET - Aesthetics of Religion"

since 2013

Guest lecturer at various universities

Münster, Zürich (Switzerland), Munich, Bayreuth, Salzburg (Austria)

2008-2018

Lecturer

Study of Religion, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany

2007

Doctorate (Dr. Phil.)

University of Bayreuth, on the topic Religious Healing in East Africa. A Case Study of the Marian Faith Healing Ministry

2003-2008

Assistant researcher and lecturer

Institute for Religious Studies, University of Heidelberg, Germany

2003

Magistra Artium (M. A.)

Undergraduate studies in the study of religion, anthropology and Islamic studies at the universities of Bayreuth, Germany, and Edinburgh, UK.

Research areas and teaching

Islam, Christianity and indigenous religions in Africa and the diaspora (especially East Africa and West Africa)
global and decolonial approaches to African history of religions and historiography, possession rituals and exorcism as therapeutic practice
ancestors and ancestor veneration as memorial cultures
non-Western travelogues as sources for global history
religion and secularity in Africa (African Socialism)
Catholicism and Marian veneration in the global South
aesthetics of religion/material religion
methods and theories of anthropology of religion
qualitative methods
current theorizations of religion

Co-speaker of the working groups “Africa” and “Aesthetics of Religion” of the German Association for the Study of Religion (DVRW), member of the working group “Religion and Medicine”

Publications

Monographs

With Koch, Anne, Petra Tillessen (2013): Religionskompetenz. Praxishandbuch im multikulturellen Feld der Gegenwart. Anhang: CD mit Übungen, Münster: Lit (Lehr- und Studienbücher zur Religionswissenschaft 2).

(2011): Holy Water and Evil Spirits. Religious Healing in East Africa, Berlin, Münster: Lit (Beiträge zur Afrikaforschung 47).

Edited volumes and special issues

With Marian Burchardt, Magnus Echtler (eds., forthcoming 2024): Multiple Secularities in Africa, special issue of the Journal of Religion in Africa.

With Koch, Anne (eds., 2020): The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Cultural and Cognitive Aesthetics of Religion. London: Bloomsbury.

With Kugele, Jens (eds., 2011): Relocating Religion(s). Museality as Critical Term for Aesthetics of Religion, in: special issue of the Journal of Religion in Europe 4 (1).

Book reviews

Judith Bachmann (2017): Hexerei in Nigeria zwischen Christentum, Islam und traditionellen Praktiken. Globale Verflechtungen und lokale Positionierungen bei den Yoruba (Bayreuther Studien zu Politik und Gesellschaft in Afrika 8), Baden-Baden: Nomos, for Crosscultural Studies of Religion and Theology 1.2023.

Jon P. Mitchell, Michael Bull and David Howes (Hg.) (2016): Ritual, Performance and the Senses, New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, für Reading Religion 2020.

Joel Cabrita (2018): The People’s Zion: Southern Africa, the United States, and a Transatlantic Faith-Healing Movement. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press für African Studies Review 63.2020,1, E29-E31.

Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati (Hg.) (2015): Religion in Cultural Imaginary. Explorations in Visual und Material Practices, Baden-Baden: Nomos (Religion – Wirtschaft – Politik 13) for Journal of Religion in Europe 9.2016, 97-98.

Ruy Llera Blanes (2014): A Prophetic Trajectory Ideologies of Place, Times and Belonging in an Angolan Religious Movement, New York, Oxford: Berghahn, for Journal of Religion in Europe 8.2015, 486-488.

van der Heyden, Ulrich und Andreas Feldtkeller (Hg.) (2012): Missionsgeschichte als Geschichte der Globalisierung von Wissen. Transkulturelle Wissensaneignung und ‑vermittlung durch christliche Missionare in Afrika und Asien im 17., 18. und 19. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner (Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv Bd. 19) for Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 22.2014, 1, 145-147.

Bräunlein, Peter J. (2012): Zur Aktualität von Victor W. Turner. Einleitung in sein Werk, Wiesbaden: Springer (Reihe Aktuelle und klassische Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaftler/innen) for Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 22.2014,2 (im Druck).

Hermkens, Anna-Karina, Willy Jansen und Catrien Notermans (Hg.) (2009): Moved by Mary, The Power of Pilgrimage in the Modern World. Farnham: Ashgate, for Culture and Religion, 14.2013,2, 248-250.

Conferences

25.-28/09/2023	Double panel “Religion and De-Colonization in Africa”, DVRW conference Bayreuth, convened together with Anne Beutter, University of Lucerne, and Ulrike Schröder, University of Rostock.
16.-17/09/2022	“Concepts from the Global South: New Directions for the Study of Religions in Africa?”, Workshop of the working group “Africa”, University of Rostock, convened together with Ulrike Schröder and Anne Beutter, University of Lucerne.
01.-03/06/2022	„Multiple Secularities in Africa and the Diaspora“, conference at the CASHSS Multiple Secularities, University of Leipzig, convened together with Magnus Echtler and Marian Burchardt.
10.-12/11/2017	„Methodology in Aesthetics of Religion / Author Workshop Handbook for Cultural and Cognitive Aesthetics of Religion”, AestorNet meeting, University of Munich, convened together with Anne Koch.
23.–29/08/2015	Double panel „The Dynamics of Material Text Practices and the Somatics of Sacred Scripture“, IAHR-conference, University of Erfurt, convened together with Isabel Laack, University of Heidelberg.
03/2010	„Relocating Religion(s). Museality as Critical Term for Aesthetics of Religion”, Author workshop of the working group “Aesthetics of Religion”, University of Marburg, convened together with Jens Kugele, Katja Triplett and Sebastian Schüler.
15.-16/03/2009	„Ortswechsel“: Religion als Exponat – “’Ortswechsel’”: Religion als Exponat – Zur Entwicklung religionsästhetischer Grundbegriffe am Beispiel ‘Musealität’”, workshop of the working group “Aesthetics of Religion”, University of Munich, convened together with Jens Kugele, Anne Koch, and Alexandra Grieser.
25.-27/05/2001	“Internationalen Symposium of Students in the Study of Religion”, University of Bayreuth, convened together with Ilinca Tanaseanu and others, and editor of the proceedings.

Outreach

Research blogs

(2023): „Religion, African Socialism and Pan-African Dis:connections in the Cold War Era”, Blog of the Käthe-Hamburger-Kollegs Dis:Connectivity in Processes of Globalisation, 25/07/2023.

Entries in museum catalogs

(2018): „Masken und Skulpturen in afrikanischen Religionen“, in: Kathrin Baumstark, Franz Wilhelm Kaiser, Magdalena M. Moeller und Christiane Remm (eds.): Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff – expressiv, magisch, fremd, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg 27. Januar – 21. Mai 2018, München: Hirmer, 44-53.

(2007): „Tanzende Geister. Rituelle Heilung bei den Muslimen in Tansania“, in: Ralf Schulte-Bahrenberg (ed): Tansania – Glaube, Kult und Geisterwelt. Collection Ralf Schulte-Bahrenberg. Beiträge über Kulte und jüngste Feldarbeit, Kultobjekte, Märchen und Sprichwörter, Steinheim: Edition Phaistos, 35.

(2007): „Rituelles Heilen in Tansania. Ein Beispiel aus der katholischen Kirche“, in: Ralf Schulte-Bahrenberg (ed): Tansania – Glaube, Kult und Geisterwelt. Collection Ralf Schulte-Bahrenberg. Beiträge über Kulte und jüngste Feldarbeit, Kultobjekte, Märchen und Sprichwörter, Steinheim: Edition Phaistos, 32-34.

Expertise

02/03/2021	Culturally significant differences in Christian practices with a focus on Africa, teacher training module for teachers of Catholic religions at special education schools, Archbishop’s Ordinariate Munich.
03-04/05/2019	Religious Competence – Simulation games as method in political education, Workshop “Religion in political education” of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) and the Eugen Biser Foundation, Berlin.
10/04/2018	Presentation on the history of Nigeria, incl. the history of religions, and its relevance for understanding local concepts of illness and healing, working group “Counseling and guiding people from African countries”, further training seminar series of the department Migration and Health, Division of Health and Environment, State Capital Administration Munich.
26/02/2018	Participant in round table discussion “Does the Devil really exist?” of the Catholic Academy in Bavaria, Munich, as part of the Faust Festival 2018.
23/09/2015	Presentation on the history of Africa, especially colonization and the history of religions, and its relevance for concepts of health and illness, working group “Counseling and guiding people from African countries”, further training seminar series of the department Migration and Health, Division of Health and Environment, State Capital Administration Munich.

Media

Expert interview BR2 RadioWissen – Kultur und Religion der Massai (author: Margarete Blümel), 12/10/2022 and 18/05/2023.