Curriculum Vitae
| Since July 2008 | Ph. D. Student at the graduate school of the cluster of excellence ˝Religion and Politics in Modern and Pre-Modern Cultures˝ |
| 2007 | Degree in Sociology (Diplom) at Philipps Universität Marburg Thesis: “On the Construction of National Identity in Israeli Society. A Sociological Analysis” |
| 2002-2007 | Studies of Sociology, Psychology and Ethnology at Philipps Universität Marburg and the University of Prague |
Ph. D. Project
Integration, Pluralisation and Change?
A Religious Sociological Study of Jewish Communities in Germany after 1990
The social significance of religions, religious phenomena and movements has attracted increasing media and academic attention in recent years. Among other things, this interest is owed to global migration movements which have helped religion (and, thus, religious sociology) to become socially relevant to an increasing degree.
The dissertation project is concerned from a religious sociological point of view with Jewish communities whose identity is characterised by tensions between ethnic and religious components – and whose positioning in the symbolic structure of the Federal Republic of Germany is shaped by the history of the Shoah. The Jewish minority is extensively affected by migration while its religious development is shaped by conflicting tendencies.
Since the beginning of Jewish immigration from the succession states of the former Soviet Union, the Jewish communities in Germany have been discovered and studied by Social Sciences from a migration sociological perspective since 1990. Immigration has tripled the members of the communities, turning the long-time residents in many communities into the minority as far as numbers are concerned. This not only put a heavy structural strain on the communities. It also came to conflicts as to what a Jewish community was.
A central finding of studies on the topic is that that the issue of the significance of religion in Jewish communities is a core matter of conflicts between the community members of different provenance. In many cases, Jewish immigrants turned out to have a secular attitude so that the hoped-for revival of religion in the communities failed to unfold. It is beyond dispute, however, that Jewish communities are so far also religious communities.
The increased organisation of non or only partially religious offers and activities (primarily caring services, cultural activities), however, resulted in the need for a new definition of the meaning and the significance of Jewish religion for the communitisation of Jews in Germany. The careful consideration of this conflict has become interesting precisely because the issue of religion has become a problem.
The emerging religious pluralisation of Judaism in Germany since the 1990s gives additional relevance to a religious sociological examination of Jewish communities. The establishment of liberal Judaism in Germany – which to some extent caused the formation of independent communities – is the most striking development attesting to the fact that immigration and “ethnic” pluralisation of the Jewish communities are not the only dynamic factors in the development of Jewish communities in Germany.
This is where my dissertation project starts with a qualitative empirical study, asking for the individual and collective meanings of Jewish religions that are constructed by the members of Jewish communities – and for the meaning Jewish religion has for the self-conception of several Jewish communities in Germany. The method to develop the topic is to compare selected Jewish communities.
The research study asks how practised religion has been changing since the onset of immigration. Does its meaning transform itself? Has it been marginalised by political, social and cultural tasks of the communities? Does the religious orientation of a community or its members make a difference for the construction of the meaning of Jewish religion?
The dissertation is concerned with the discourse about Jewish religion in Jewish communities in present-day Germany.
Research Interests:
- Comparative Sociology, Sociology of modernisation, Social Psychology, ethnological research methods
- Migration and religion, ethnic and religious minorities
- Jewish communities, Middle Eastern societies
Function within the Cluster/Membership in Projects and Groups:
- Member of the study group Comparison and Transfer
- Member of the study group Concepts of the Enemy - Formation, Development and Reception
- Member of the study group Sociology of religion
- Member of the study group Emic and etic perspectives on Religion and Politics
Publications
- Israel: Identitätskonstruktion im Spannungsfeld von Staat, Religion und Nationalismus. 419-437.
- Der Zionismus: Eine (Trans-)Nationalbewegung (gemeinsam mit Antje Thul). 115-133.
Both: Schlicht, Daniela/ Saleem, Shazia/Robert, Rüdiger (2010): Kollektive Identitäten im Nahen und Mittleren Osten. Studien zum Verhältnis von Staat und Religion. Münster, New York, München, Berlin.
(August 2010)
Contact:
Eva-Maria SchrageJohannisstraße 1-4
Room 108
D-48143 Münster
Germany
Tel.: +49251 83-23378
Fax: +49 251 83-23340
eschr_01 @uni-muenster.de
Supervisor
Prof. Dr. Detlef PollackInstitute of Sociology
Scharnhorststraße 121
Room 556
D-48151 Münster
Germany
Tel.: +49 251 83-25301
Fax: +49 251 83-29930
pollack@uni-muenster.de
