Professor Dorothea Schulz, PhD

• Anthropology of Religion
• Mental health and spiritual wellbeing
• Political Anthropology
• Islam in Africa
• Gender Studies
• Anthropology of Media

Academic Education

2005

Postdoctoral Degree (Habilitation), Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität (FU) Berlin (venia legendi for Anthropology)

08.1991 – 12.1996

PhD Yale University, Dept. of Anthropology

1984 – 1990

Study of Anthropology, Sociology and Biology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

1990

Master of Arts in Anthropology, Sociology and Biology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

1982 – 1983

Study of Art History, Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier (France)

Positions

since 03.2018

Professor of Anthropology, Institute of Ethnology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster

2008 – 2018

Professor of Anthropology, Department of Cultural & Social Anthropology, Universität zu Köln

2005 – 2008

Assistant Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington (USA)

1997 – 2004

Lecturer, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, FU Berlin

1993 – 1996

M.Phil. and Ph.D., Department of Social & Cultural Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven (USA)

1996

Lecturer, Frobenius Institute, Frankfurt am Main

Honors

2000

Visiting Scholar – Dept. of Anthropology, University of Chicago (USA)

2016

Fellow, Center for African Studies – Harvard University (USA)

2011

Fellow – Berlin Graduate School „Muslim Cultures and Societies“ (USA)

2010

Visiting scholar – Dept. of Anthropology, University of Oslo (Norway)

2010

Teaching Prize – Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Universität zu Köln

2005

Fellow – Society for the Humanities, Cornell University, Ithaca (USA)

1996

Frobenius Society’s Research Award – Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main

External Functions

since 2016

Member, Selection Committee, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

since 2013

Scientific Member of the Steering Committee, Initiative of Excellence of the Universität zu Köln

since 2010

Member, African Studies Association Germany (VAD)

since 2009

Co-Editor, Series „Mande Worlds“ (Lit Verlag)

since 2008

Academic Director, Research and Teaching Unit „Media, Culture and Society“, Universität zu Köln

since 2006

Advisory Board, Series „Ethnographien“ (Konstanz University Press)

since 2006

Member, American Academy of Religions (AAR)

since 1994

Member, American Anthropological Association (AAA)

since 1992

Member, African Studies Association (ASA)

• Hoffmann, M, Lichtenberger, A, and Schulz, D. 2026. “The temporalities of artifacts. Drafting a research agenda.” Münster Working Paper Series in Social and Cultural Anthropology № 1. Münster: Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology. University of Münster.
• Schulz, Dorothea, and Kovač, Uroš. 2026. “‘Joining the church’ as a Form of Future-making? Il Chamus Christians’ Futural Orientations in Baringo County, Northern Kenya.” in African Futures in the Making, edited by Detlef Müller-Mahn and Michael Bollig. Oxford: Future Rural Africa.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2024. “Secularity and Muslim-Christian Relations in Uganda.” Journal of Religion in Africa 54: 407–436. doi: 10.1163/15700666-12340319.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2023. “Aspiration and activism: Muslim students’ efforts of future-making in Mbarara, Southwestern Uganda.” in Religiosity on University Campuses in Sub-Saharan Africa. , Vol. 64 of Afrikanische Studien/African Studies, edited by Abdoulaye Sounaye and Frédérick Madore. Münster: LIT Verlag.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2023. “Introduction: Rifle, Quill, Prayer Beads. Constructing Political Legitimacy in Mali.” Africa Today 70 (1): 1–10.
• Schulz, Dorothea E., and Diallo, Souleymane, eds. 2023. “Special Issue on Rifle, Pen, and Prayer Beads: Constructing Political Legitimacy in Mali.” Special Issue Africa Today 1.
• Diallo, and and Dorothea E. Schulz, Souleymane. 2023. “Fragments of Legitimacy: Symbolic Constructions of Political Leadership in Twenty-First Century Mali.” Africa Today 70 (1): 12–37. doi: 10.2979/at.2023.a905848.
• Schulz, Dorothea, and Diallo, Souleymane. 2022. “Islamic Renewal, Muslim Divorce, and Gender Relations in Mali.” in Islamic Divorce in the 21th century. A Global Perspective, edited by Erin Stiles and Ayang Utriza Akin. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2022. “Media, the digital, and new connections.” in Routledge Handbook of Islam in Africa, edited by Terja Østebø. London, New York: Routledge.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2022. “Religious practice and/ as future making in Africa: some cautionary remarks.” in African Futures, edited by Clemens Greiner and Steven Bollig Michael van Wolputte. Leiden: Brill.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2021. Western Africa Series, Vol. 17, Political Legitimacy in Postcolonial Mali London: James Currey.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2021. “Introduction. Studying Muslim minorities in Subsaharan Africa. Preliminary Remarks.” Islamic Africa 12 (2): 173–185.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2021. “"Trusting is a Dicey Affair". Muslim Youth, Gender Relations, and Future Making in Southwestern Uganda.” in Waithood: Gender, Education, and Global Delays in Marriage., edited by Marica Inghorn and Nancy Smith-Hefner. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2021. “The hunter hype. Producing "local culture" and particularity in Mali.” in Ethnicity, Commodity, In/corporation, edited by George Meiu, Jean Comaroff and John L. Comaroff. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2016. “"Shari’a’ as a moving target? The reconfiguration of national and regional fields of debate in Mali.” in Shari’a Law and Modern Ethics, edited by Robert Hefner. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2016. “Scholarship on Gender Politics in the Muslim World. Some Critical Reflections.” in Islamic Studies in the Twenty-first Century: Transformations and Continuities, edited by L. Buskens and A. van Sandwijk. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. doi: 10.2307/j.ctt1zxsk97.9.
• Schulz, Dorothea, and Diallo, Souleymane. 2016. “Competing Assertions of Muslim Masculinity in Contemporary Mali.” Journal of Religion in Africa 46 (2-3): 219–250. doi: 10.1163/15700666-12340085.
• Schulz, Dorothea, and Janson, Marloes. 2016. “Introduction: Religion and Masculinities in Africa.” Journal of Religion in Africa 46 (2-3): 201–209. doi: 10.1163/15700666-12340078.
• Röschenthaler, Ute, and Schulz, Dorothea, eds. 2015. Cultural Entrepreneurship in Africa New York: Routledge.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2015. “Mediating authority: Media Technologies and the Generation of Charismatic Appeal in Southern Mali.” Culture and Religion 16: 125–145. doi: 10.1080/14755610.2015.1058525.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2013. “What makes a good minority Muslim? Educational policy and the paradoxes of Muslim schooling in Uganda.” Contemporary Islam 7 (1): 53–70. doi: 10.1007/s11562-013-0246-y.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2013. “(En)gendering Muslim Self-Assertiveness: Muslim Schooling and Female Elite Formation in Uganda.” Journal of Religion in Africa 43 (4): 396–425. doi: 10.1163/15700666-12341268.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2012. Culture and Customs of Africa, Culture and Customs of Mali Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishers.
• Desplat, Patrick A., and Schulz, Dorothea, eds. 2012. Globaler lokaler Islam, Prayer in the City. The Making of Muslim Sacred Places and Urban Life Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2012. “Dis/embodying Authority: Female radio ‚preachers‘ and the ambivalences of mass-mediated speech in Mali.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 44 (1): 23–43. doi: 10.1017/S0020743811001231.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2011. Muslims and New Media in West Africa. Pathways to God Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Schulz, Dorothea, and Seebode, Jochen, eds. 2010. Argument Sonderband, Vol. 309, Spiegel und Prisma. Ethnologie zwischen postkolonialer Kritik und Deutung der eigenen Gesellschaft Hamburg: Argument Verlag.
• Schulz, Dorothea. 2001. SzK Studien zur Kulturkunde, Vol. 118, Perpetuating the Politics of Praise. Jeli Singers, Radios, and Political Mediation in Mali Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.