New Participating Professors

In the last year, four professors joined the URPP Asia and Europe as participating scholars:

Prof. Dr. Annuska Derks

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Research interests

Migration, labour, and dependency; social change and development; urban life; material culture and commodity chains; gender, sexuality and kinship

Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam and Cambodia

Prof. Dr. Francine Giese

Institute of Art History

Research interests

Islamic art and architecture, artistic and cultural heritage of al-Andalus, cross-cultural exchanges (Iberian peninsula/ Istanbul/Central Asia), Mudéjar architecture, neo-Islamic architecture in the Islamic world and the West, Orientalism, Spanish national identity debate (20th–21st century), cultural heritage preservation in Spain and the Islamic world

Prof. Dr. Johannes Quack

Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology

Research interests

Hindu traditions; criticism of religion, (post) secularity and non-religion; ritual theory, action theory and practice theory; medical anthropology, religion and (mental) health / illness; qualitative social research, biographical research; history of the discipline of anthropology and religious studies

South Asia, particularly North India; Europe

Prof. Dr. Rafael Walthert

Institute of Religious Studies

Research interests

Sociology of religion, ritual theory, systems theory, practice theory

Research projects, among others, on the role of rituals in modern societies, on the Parsi Zoroastrians in Mumbai, on the conversion of church buildings in urban contexts and on alternative religiosity

(Asia & Europe Bulletin, 4/2015, p. 26)