Research at the Institute of Religious Studies
Current Research Projects
Professor Susanne Gödde
- Speaker of the DFG Research Group: Aitiologien: Figuren und Funktionen begründenden Erzählens in Wissenschaft und Literatur ('Aetiologies: Founding Narratives in Literary, Scholarly, and Scientific Discourses')
- DFG project: Chronos und Chthoniê: Figuren des Anfangs und der Gründung in antiker Mythologie und moderner Mythentheorie ('Chronos and Chthoniê: Beginnings and Foundations in Ancient Mythology and Modern Theories of Myth') in the Research Group Aitiologien: Figuren und Funktionen begründenden Erzählens in Wissenschaft und Literatur ('Aetiologies: Founding Narratives in Literary, Scholarly, and Scientific Discourses')
- DFG project: Opfer und Maskerade: Der antike Abenteuerroman als Gattungshybrid ('Sacrifice and Masquerade: The Ancient Adventure Novel as a Hybrid Genre') in the Research Group Philologie des Abenteuers ('Philology of Adventure'), ongoing since April 2018
Professor Susanne Gödde & Dr Sebastian Zerhoch
- DFG project: Opfernarrative im antiken Griechenland: Rituelle Praxis, kulturelle Metaphorik, moderne Theorie ('Sacrifice in Ancient Greece: Ritual, Metaphor, Theory')
Dr Emrys Schlatter
- DFG project: Götterkonstellationen: Vielzahl und Gottesvorstellungen in der griechischen Antike ('A Multitude of Gods: Imagining Divine Pluralitiy in Archaic and Classical Greece')
Completed Research Projects (2000 to present)
Professor Susanne Gödde
- Initiative funding (Freie Universität Berlin) for the proposed project Opfernarrative im antiken Griechenland: Rituelle Praxis und kulturelle Metaphorik (grant proposal), Jan.–Oct. 2017
- Topoi, transitional funding for the proposed Topoi-group Aitiologie der Kultur ('The Aetiology of Culture'): Autochthonie und Migration: antike Gründungsmythen im Spiegel der modernen Mythenforschung ('Autochthony and Migration: Ancient Foundation Myths and Modern Interpretations'), Nov. 2017–Dec. 2018
PD Dr. Susanne Lanwerd
- Die Kategorie 'Geschlecht' in der Religionswissenschaft ('The Categorie of Gender in Religious Studies'; Berliner Programm zur Förderung der Chancengleichheit von Frauen in Forschung und Lehre), completed in September 2007 (further information in German >>)
Professor Almut Renger
- Topoi, B-5: The Personal Authorization of Knowledge
- SFB 980, TP C 2: Askese in Bewegung: Formen und Transfer von Übungswissen in Antike und Spätantike ('Asceticism in Motion: Forms and Transfer of Habitualized Knowledge in Antiquity and Late Antiquity'), completed in June 2016
- Fritz Thyssen Foundation: The Reception of Greek and Roman Culture in East Asia, completed in December 2016
- FU Innovationsfonds: Masters and Disciples, completed in August 2016
Professor Renate Schlesier
- SFB 644, TP B 8: Der differente Gott: Konstruktionen des Dionysos in der Moderne ('The Different God: Constructions of Dionysus in Modernity')
Sub-project 1: Religionshistorische Konstruktionen des Dionysos und die moderne Kultur ('Religio-historical Constructions of Dionysus and Modern Culture') (further information in German >>)
Sub-project 2: Literarische Konstruktionen des modernen Dionysos ('Literary Constructions of the Modern Dionysus') (further information in German >>)
- Topoi, C 2-4: The Symposion as a Space of Knowledge and Experience and as Medium of Metaphorizing Process
- SFB 626, TP C7: Inspiration und Subversivität. Künstlerische Kreation als äthetisch-religiöse Erfahrung ('Inspiration and Subversion: Artistic Creation as an Aesthetic and Religious Experience'), completed in December 2014
Sub-project 1: Poeta Creator as Poeta Doctus: Transformations of Inspiration in Modernity (Professor Renate Schlesier)
Sub-project 2: Inspiration, Language Mysticism, and Transpersonalism (Hans Stauffacher, MA, and Cornelia Temesvári, MA)
Sub-project 3: Clerical Concepts of Inspiration and Authorship: On Current Questions in Medieval Studies (Dr Beatrice Trinca)
- SFB 447, TP A7: Ritual und Risiko. Zur Performativität des Spiels zwischen Kulturanthropologie, Religion und Kunst ('Ritual and Risk: The Performativity of Play Between Cultural Anthropology, Religion, and Art'), completed in December 2010
Sub-project 1: The Risks of Ritualism: Ancient and Modern Anthropology Between Scholarship and Art
Sub-project 2: Play and Risk in Theories of Ritual in the Anthropology of Religion
Sub-project 3: The Maze as a Scope and Playground in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Ages
- BMBF project: Theater und Fest in der Antike ('Theatre and Festivals in Antiquity'), completed in June 2009
Professor Hartmut Zinser
- DFG project: Götter im Exil ('Gods in Exile'), completed 2016
- DFG project: Leben, Werk und Wirkung der deutsch-jüdischen Historikerin und Judaistin Marianne Awerbuch ('Life, Work, and Reception of the German-Jewish Historian and Scholar of Jewish Studies Marianne Awerbuch'), completed in January 2013
- DFG project: Die 'Rückkehr der Religionen' und die Rückkehr der Religionskritik - Der 'Neue Atheismus' in der deutschen und US-amerikanischen Gegenwartskultur ('The "Return of Religion" and the Return of the Criticism of Religion: The "New Atheism" in Recent German and American Culture'), completed in 2012
- VW-Foundation: Vom Imperialmuseum zum Kommunikationszentrum? Zur neuen Rolle des Museums als Schnittstelle zwischen Wissenschaft und nicht-westlichen Gesellschaften ('From Imperial Museum to a Centre of Communication? The New Role of Museums as a Meeting Point Between Academia and Non-Academic Communities), completed in October 2000 (further information in German >>)
- DFG project: Religiöse Polysemantiken im Kontext. Yoginiverehrung in Nord- und Zentralindien in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Religious Polysemy in Context: Past and Present Yogini-Worship in Northern and Central India), completed in September 2008
- Religion in Berlin (funded by the Berlin-Forschung of the FU und Radion multikulti), completed in 2003 (further information in German >>)
Reports
- Research and Teaching Report for 2000–2002 (available in German)