Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

Summer School: Performing Religion in the City – Urban Spaces, Interactions and Media

Summer School of the Humanities Centre for Advanced Studies/Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe  (KFG): “Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations” (FOR 2779), kindly funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Preparatory meetings

April 9, May 14, June 11, 2025, 10-12 a.m. (online)

Summer School

June 30-July 4, 2025

Closing date for applications March 15, 2025

Course description

The concept of “Performing Religion in the City – Urban Spaces, Interactions and Media” refers to the manner in which religious practices and expressions occur and are experienced in urban environments. Erfurt will serve as a starting point for this exploration. This approach examines the interaction between religion and urbanity and the role that urban spaces play in shaping religious identities and communities through the material and digital spaces. We argue for the importance of a performance-oriented approach by suggesting that a performative, rather than normative, conception of religion is more appropriate, given that it is shaped through interactions in the public sphere.

In this international interdisciplinary summer school, you will work with leading specialists dealing with textual, material, and embodied sources of performed urban religion. You will be equipped to develop your own approach to the study of performative religiosity in the public sphere. The instructors will give master classes from their own fields of research (e.g. history, religious studies, art, liturgy, digital religion, media studies, and others), in an integrated program that takes seriously the challenge of how to study “performed urban spaces” of peoples past and present. Excursions in religious and historical spaces in the city of Erfurt and its surroundings complete a full-immersion experience.

The summer school will be offered on site. MA students who are interested in the recognition of the credits are requested to take part in three preliminary online meetings.

Image: thom masat on Unsplash

Course leaders

Dr. Elisabeth Begemann, Dr. Martin Christ, Dr. Isabella Schwaderer

Target group

This summer school is designed for advanced MA students and Ph.D. researchers in the fields of Religious Studies, History, Media Studies, Art History, Cultural History, Architectural History, Archaeology, Dance and Music Studies, as well as neighbouring disciplines.

A BA in the humanities is required, preferably with a background in history and religious studies.

It is expected that the participants have a sufficient command of the English language to actively participate in the discussions and to present their own work in English.

Course aims

After this course you will be able to:

– identify challenges and approaches to performative aspects of religion and urbanity on the basis of examples from more than one discipline;

– discuss and refine your own projects with specialists and peers;

– situate your research, especially your own, in current scholarly, societal, and cultural debates;

– critically reflect on the uses of contemporary approaches to religion and urbanity as well as to the study of history and religions and apply these creatively in your research;

– enrich your own research fields through active engagement with multi- and interdisciplinary research on urban religion;

– propose new avenues of research and critically assess (material and written) sources and scholarship in connection with their own research projects.

What we offer:

  • Lectures by specialists: Prof. Dr. Susanne Rau, Prof Dr. Jörg Rüpke and Dr. Christoph Günther
  • Intensive discussions
  • Small groups
  • Individual coaching

Application details

The documents to be submitted are a cv, a letter of motivation and, if available, a description of the project to be presented.

Please submit you applications to both Isabella.schwaderer@uni-erfurt.de and martin.christ@uni-erfurt.de until March 15, 2025.

Image: Caro Paulick on Unsplash

Credits info

6 ECTS

Preparation: 60 hours

Lectures: 50 hours

Presentation: 1-2 hours

Paper:  60 hours

Upon successful completion of the program, the summer school offers a Certificate of Attendance that mentions the workload of 180 hours. Students can apply for recognition of these credits to the relevant authorities in their home institutions, therefore the final decision on awarding credits is at the discretion of their home institutions. We will be happy to provide any necessary information that might be requested in addition to the certificate of attendance.

Fee info

EUR 150: For participation, including lunches, coffee, a dinner, and excursions. For transfer inside the city and the surroundings you might use your Deutschland Ticket.

Image: Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
urbrel (January 15, 2025). Summer School: Performing Religion in the City – Urban Spaces, Interactions and Media. Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations. Retrieved March 19, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/1337i


You may also like...

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.