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Wednesday Weekly 22 September 2021

Dear friends and colleagues,

Again, this Wednesday Weekly starts with an invitation to our colloquium next Wednesday – this time with our Senior Research Fellow Dietrich Jung. We also present a whole series of new publications for you. Besides that, we have a recommendation for a book talk and a job offer, and we would like to close with a note on the Leipzig Jazz Days 2021.

Enjoy and have a great week!

Anja & Lucy

Next week’s colloquium: Dietrich Jung on “Islamic Modernities in World Society”

Next Wednesday our Senior Research Fellow Dietrich Jung will give a presentation on his research project “Islamic Modernities in World Society. The Rise, Spread, and Fragmentation of a Hegemonic Idea”. His project explores the multiplicity of answers that Muslims have provided to the question “How is one ‘authentically’ modern?” These answers relate to ideas of citizenship, educational and moral cultivation, economic entrepreneurship, political institutions, scientific knowledge, bodily performances, and forms of consumerist and creative self-made identities. Drawing on different strands of social theory, he interprets this specifically Islamic discourse of modernity as an inherent part of global modernity, in conceptual terms understood as the emergence of world society.

As usual, you find the relevant readings in the member area. The colloquium will take place as a hybrid event. If you would like to attend in person, please register via e-mail. The number of physically present participants again is limited to 10 people. Please note that this time we will start at 10.15 a.m., one hour later than usual. In the member area, you will also find the zoom connection data in case you plan to join the colloquium online.

29 September | 10.15 a.m.–12.45 p.m. (CET)

Hybrid format | Strohsack, 4.55 and via zoom

New Publication: Edith Franke on „Digitale Inventarisierung. Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Provenienzforschung der Religionskundlichen Sammlung der Philipps-Universität Marburg“ (“Digital Inventory. Opportunities and Challenges for Provenance Research in the Religious Studies Collection of Philipps-University Marburg”)

We would like to point to a publication by our Senior Research Fellow Edith Franke. She and Susanne Rodemeier, Curator of the Religious Studies Collection at Philipps-University Marburg, contribute to the volume “Digitalisierung ethnologischer Sammlungen: Perspektiven aus Theorie und Praxis”, edited by Hans P. Hahn et al., with their article on „Digitale Inventarisierung. Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Provenienzforschung der Religionskundlichen Sammlung der Philipps-Universität Marburg“ (“Digital Inventory. Opportunities and Challenges for Provenance Research in the Religious Studies Collection of Philipps-University Marburg”).

Since 2001, the Religious Studies Collection has been using a digital database, which has replaced the system of handwritten or typewritten index cards used until then. The authors will show why a digital inventory system should be structured in such a way that the provenance history of objects is fundamentally called up, thus sensitising the user to gaps in provenance.

Rodemeier, Susanne, and Edith Franke. “Digitale Inventarisierung: Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Provenienzforschung der Religionskundlichen Sammlung der Philipps-Universität Marburg.” In Digitalisierung ethnologischer Sammlungen: Perspektiven aus Theorie und Praxis. Edited by Hans P. Hahn et al., 183–98. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2021.

New Publication: Bernd-Christian Otto on “Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination”

The new book of our Senior Research Fellow Bernd-Christian Otto and his co-author Dirk Johannsen on “Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination” will be published soon. Fourteen original case studies present material from late antiquity to the twenty-first century and explore these questions: To what extent were practitioners of magic inspired by fictional accounts of their art? In how far did the daunting narratives surrounding legendary magicians such as Theophilus of Adana, Cyprianus of Antioch, Johann Georg Faust or Agrippa of Nettesheim rely on real-world events or practices? By coining the notion of ‘fictional practice’, the editors discuss the emergence of novel, imaginative types of magic from the nineteenth century onwards when fiction and practice came to be more and more intertwined or even fully amalgamated.

Otto, Bernd-Christian, and Dirk Johannsen, eds. Fictional Practice: Magic, Narration, and the Power of Imagination. Aries book series 30. Leiden, Boston: Brill (forthcoming).

New Publication: Ina Merdjanova on “The Kurdish Women’s Movement in Turkey and Its Struggle for Gender Justice”

The new paper of our Senior Research Fellow Ina Merdjanova looks at the Kurdish women’s struggles for gender justice at the intersection of two diverse social movements in Turkey: the Kurdish national movement, on the one hand, and the Turkish feminist movement, on the other. It argues that the Kurdish Women’s Movement (KWM) has functioned as a powerful process of learning for both men and women in the Kurdish community and in the larger society. It has destabilized and transformed the feudal-patriarchal relations and norms in the Kurdish community, the lingering sexism in the Kurdish movement, and the majoritarian constraints in the Turkish feminist movement.

Merdjanova, Ina. “The Kurdish Women’s Movement in Turkey and Its Struggle for Gender Justice.” Histories 1, no. 3 (2021): 184–98.

More KFG Publications

Ulrich Haarmann Memorial Lecture Online: Book Talk with Christian Mauder on “In the Sultan’s Salon”, 23 September

In July we presented our Senior Research Fellow’s Christian Mauder latest publication on “In the Sultan’s Salon: Learning, Religion, and Rulership at the Mamluk Court of Qāniṣawh al-Ghawrī (r. 1501–1516)”. In the two volumes, he constitutes the first detailed study of the Egyptian court culture of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517). On 23 September, he will give a presentation of this book in an online talk, organised by the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg “History and Society during the Mamluk Era (1250-1517)” at the University of Bonn.

For registration and the zoom link, please send an e-mail.

23 September | 4.00–5.00 p.m. (CET)

Online via zoom

Job Opportunity: Junior Professorship in the History of Religions (W1 with Tenure Track to W3)

We would like to draw your attention to a relevant job opportunity announced by Leipzig University’s Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies: The Institute for the Study of Religions seeks to fill a tenure track professorship, funded by the Tenure Track Programme of the German Federal Government and the Federal States, from 1 October 2022. Applicants must hold a master’s degree and a PhD in religious studies or in a discipline relevant to the study of religions. Teaching experience, commitment and teamwork skills are also expected. Applicants must demonstrate a research specialisation in at least one area of the history of religions. Special expertise in the field of entangled and/or global history, preferably with reference to pre-modern East Asia, would be desirable.

More about the offer, work tasks and requirements

Leipzig Jazz Days (Leipziger Jazztage) 2021

Our director Monika Wohlrab-Sahr is recommending a closer look at The Leipzig Jazz Days (Leipziger Jazztage) 2021, that will take place from 30 September to 9 October at a variety of venues throughout the city of Leipzig. With the overarching theme “Body Time” the festival in its ten-day programme focuses on the human body. Local and national musicians highlight aspects of physicality in the context of music production and reception. Leipzig Jazz Days wants to invite you to experience the basic mechanisms of human existence in general and the experience of music in particular with a heightened awareness of reflection and sharpened senses.

Advance booking for the festival has begun and here you can find the programme information.

The international Leipzig Jazz Days is one of the oldest and most renowned jazz festivals in Germany. Every autumn, the Jazzclub Leipzig presents well over 100 musicians over 10 days. Big names and pioneers of jazz, but also innovative newcomers, play in the venerable opera house and theatre, in the historic congress hall and in churches, but also in numerous clubs and in the oldest cinema hall in the city.

Festival Website

If you have any content that you think suits the purpose of the weekly, please feel free to send it to us at multiple-secularities@uni-leipzig.de.

Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities"
Nikolaistraße 8-10, 04109 Leipzig
Mail: multiple-secularities@uni-leipzig.de

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