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

Tagged: Urbanity

Announcements / Billets / The Mediterranean

A New Publication on Early priesthood

A fellowship of Francesca Fulminante within the Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe „Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formation“ led to a research project on the relationship of political and religious authorities in the proto-urban phase of central Italy. The resulting article, published in theJournal of Roman Archaeology, examines three early Roman priesthoods, the Vestal virgins, the Salii, and the Flamines, through the lens of their visual and symbolic prerogatives…

Billets / Europe / The Mediterranean

Eine Inschriftenreise nach Chur und Meran

Bei der Abschlusstagung der Kollegforschungsgruppe „Religion and Urbanity“, Anfang Juni 2026, habe ich in meinem Beitrag „Stability in transit? Inscriptions as markers of the sacred landscape of the ancient province of Raetia“ die sehr wenigen lateinischen Sakralinschriften aus dem hochalpinen, südlichen Teil der römischen Provinz Raetia unter die Lupe genommen. Es ging dabei um Fragen wie: Wer ließ diese Steine vor rund 2000 Jahren zum einen am Fuß der Bündner Pässe auf 1.800 m Höhe im Engadin und zum anderen im Vinschgau nahe Meran aufstellen? Was waren die Beweggründe für diese individuellen, öffentlich aufgestellten religiösen Zeichen an Orten fernab jeglicher urbanen Strukturen? Wer sollte diese Bekenntnisse und Interaktionen mit übergeordneten Mächten sehen?

Billets / Podcast

„Healthy Living” Stufu Podcasts (2/2)

Physical and mental health is (and was) an essential dimension of the liveable city. I explored this idea in a Studium Fundamentale (“Stufu”) which I offered in the summer term 2025 with my colleague Dr. Colleen Kron. This Stufu entitled “Healthy Living: History of Spatial Design for Health and Well-being” was opened to students in pedagogy and education, history, religious studies and other Bachelor’s programs of the Erfurt University…

Announcements / Billets

New publication by Jörg Rüpke

Publilius Syrus was one of the most successful mimes on the stages of 1st century BCE Rome. His plays were transmitted as Sententiae of Seneca and were subject to constant re-editing and agglomeration. It is hardly possible to isolate an original core, free of imperial or late ancient additions. In a reception perspective, however, a hermeneutical approach of this widely read corpus is possible. This chapter argues that the maxims formulated are not just a cynical commentary on contemporary society, but the proposal of a multi-faceted value “urbanity”, even if the very term urbanitas is not used in the text.

Book Reviews & Exhibitions / Case Studies / Concepts & Theory / Personal Reflections / Talks & Papers

Reflections on the Globality of Religion and Urbanity

Since 2018, the ‘Religion and Urbanity: Reciprocal Formations’ (FOR 2779) research group within the Max-Weber-Kolleg of Universität Erfurt has hosted over 100 fellows from all over the world to investigate how these two concepts intertwined with one another in more than 80 cities across space and time in Europe, the circum-Mediterranean, and South Asia. After 8 years, the research group has entered its final phase and has invited all former fellows and members back to Erfurt to take stock…

Case Studies / Europe / Talks & Papers

“Lost Places” – 16th City Walk

Our group discovered lost places and urban memory culture within the city of Erfurt during our 16th City Walk on the 15th of April 2026. We visited three former religious or urban places and explored how they are still present, remembered or otherwise used within the urban space of Erfurt today…

Personal Reflections / South Asia / Talks & Papers

Performance of Classical Indian Dance at the KFG Closing Conference by Yashoda Thakore

As part of the closing event of the KFG Closing Conference 2026 Dr. Yashoda Thakore will present Dancing as Memory, Memory as Resistance: The Living Repertoire of the Kalavantulu — a performance lecture that speaks directly to the conference’s central concern with the reciprocal formations of religion, urbanity, memory, and social worlds…

Book Reviews & Exhibitions / Case Studies / Europe / Personal Reflections

„Hier gibt es kein Auferstehn“ – Religion und Urbanität in der Oper ‘Die tote Stadt’ (1920) von Erich Korngold

Von weitem ertönt Kindersang, die Kirchenglocken läuten. Feierliche Erwartung macht sich in der festlich geschmückten, mittelalterlichen Stadt breit. Der Gesang schwillt an, Frauen stimmen mit ein, lateinischer Mönchsgesang mischt sich in die hellen Stimmen. Immer lauter wird die Musik, die Prozession zieht heran. Auf dem Höhepunkt schreiten die Priester mit dem goldenen Schrein vorbei, in der sich die kostbare Heilig-Blut-Reliquie befindet. Der Gruppe folgt eine bunte Menge in liturgische Gewänder gehüllter Menschen, rote Chormäntel und Banner stechen hervor. Dieser ekstatische Aufzug lässt niemanden der Umstehenden kalt…

Billets

„Healthy Living” Stufu Podcasts (1/2)

Physical and mental health is (and was) an essential dimension of the liveable city. I explored this idea in a Studium Fundamentale (“Stufu”) which I offered in the summer term 2025 with my colleague Dr. Colleen Kron. This Stufu entitled “Healthy Living: History of Spatial Design for Health and Well-being” was opened to students in pedagogy and education, history, religious studies and other Bachelor’s programs of the Erfurt University…

Case Studies / Personal Reflections / South Asia

Kalimpong as Tibet’s Penumbra: Shangri-la, Lhasa, Delhi and Beijing

My interest in writing the hook-ups between the Chinese, Tibetan and Indian towns/cities was to map out the exchanges— politico-historical as well as socio-cultural— between them. Setting up my theodolite, taking measurements as it were,  Kalimpong the border town offered a unique vantage point in the eastern Himalayas…