Deborah Kapchan is the new Hans Blumenberg Professor

US ethnographer and translator speaks in Münster about religious subcultures in Morocco – research on the connection between body and imagination – evening lecture “Face to Face with the Spirits: Embodying the Imagination” on 13 May at the Cluster of Excellence

Münster, 6 May 2025 (exc) 

The US ethnographer, translator and writer Deborah Kapchan is the new Hans Blumenberg Professor at the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster. “As part of the annual theme ‘Body and Religion’, she will be speaking about sacred cultures in Morocco, such as the religious practices of Sufism or the Moroccan women's song l'aîta”, announces social and cultural anthropologist Dorothea Schulz from the Cluster of Excellence. “Deborah Kapchan has spent more than thirty years analyzing ecstatic forms of cultural expression and the power of embodied performances in Morocco. One example are the so-called possession practices of the Gnawa, an ethnic minority in Morocco. People fall into a trance as, according to their own beliefs, spirits manifest themselves in their bodies and ‘rise up’.”

Deborah Kapchan is Professor of Performance Studies at the New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. “Kapchan's work has consistently bridged the boundaries between social and cultural anthropology, music and oral and written poetry,” says Dorothea Schulz. “This is particularly evident in her authored, translated and edited volume, “Poetic Justice: An Anthology of Contemporary Moroccan Poetry” (2020), which was shortlisted for the National ALTA Translation Prize for Poetry.” Kapchan's numerous publications include works such as “Travelling Spirit Masters. Moroccan Gnawa Trance and Music in the Global Marketplace” (2007) and the anthology “Theorizing Sound Writing” (2017). Kapchan has received numerous awards for her work, including grants from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Fulbright Hays Foundation and the American Institute of Maghrib Studies.

The evening lecture by the Hans Blumenberg Professor will take place on 13 May 2025 under the title “Face to Face with the Spirits: Embodying the Imagination” and ties in directly with the annual theme “Body and Religion”. The event begins at 6.15 pm in the Cluster of Excellence lecture theatre, room JO 1, Johannisstraße 4 in Münster. Participation via the video platform Zoom is possible after registration until the day of the lecture at veranstaltungenEXC@uni-muenster.de.

Hans Blumenberg Professorship for Religion and Politics

The “Hans Blumenberg Professorship for Religion and Politics” is named after Hans Blumenberg (1920–1996), a philosopher who worked at the University of Münster. It is intended to deepen interdisciplinary discussion at the Cluster of Excellence and to bring innovative ideas from international research to Münster. The professorship has been held in recent years by Kwame Anthony Appiah (New York University, USA), Sarah Stroumsa (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel), Linda Woodhead (King’s College, London, UK), Maribel Fierro (CSIC, Madrid, Spain), Jóhann Páll Árnason (La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia), and Mark Juergensmeyer (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA). (fbu/vvm)