Curriculum Vitae This website was last updated on 07.XII.2022
At the start of my academic career I studied Cuneiform, Hebrew, and History of Religions in Amsterdam and Paris. What I gathered in these places was bundled in a dissertation on the collective memory of Ancient Mesopotamia (The Topography of Remembrance, 1995).
Ever since, communicative memory has been on my agenda. In the course of years a large range of research projects was conducted that addressed the collective memory, and long durée perceptions of religious minorities in Europe. In focus were Muslim communities, European perceptions of Jews and Muslims, and Ahmadiyya mission in Berlin. During the last years I dug out a number of private archives, retracing the Jewish-Muslim encounter in interwar and postwar Berlin.
Photograph: Ekko von Schwichow
November 2020 we launched into researching mosque archives in Germany. Research starts from the example of the Ahmadiyya-Lahore Archive in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, the finding aid of which is now available in the National Archive of Berlin as LAB D Rep. 920-16. The Project is supported by the Interdisciplinary Working Group at EZIRE. We inquire into mosque archives as historical sources, asking what one sees differently when looking through this particular lens. The research is funded by the German Research Council (DFG).
I am affiliated as a senior researcher to the Erlangen Centre of Islam and Law in Europe (EZIRE) at Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen - Nürnberg.
Fields of Publication and Expertise
Modernisation of religion around 1900: Life Reform in Germany; Muslim Modernism in colonial India; Ahmadiyya mission in interwar Europe; Jewish-Muslim encounters; Mission libraries and - archives
Islam in Western Europe: Community building and collective memory; Sufism and Neo-Sufism in European contexts
The memory of a nation: The longue durée of history textbook narratives reflecting European perceptions of Jews and Muslims
Death and memory: Collective memory and remembrance practices in Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Israel; Death and mourning practices in the German diaspora
Research projects
2020 - 2022: Die Erforschung von Moscheearchiven in Deutschland / Researching Mosque Archives in Germany.
The Example of the Ahmadiyya-Lahore Archive in Berlin (DFG, Bonn)
2019 - 2020: Findbuch D Rep 920-16 (deutsch). Ahmadiyya Anjuman Lahore (AAL). Das Moscheearchiv in Berlin-Wilmersdorf
(Landesarchiv Berlin) / Finding aid D Rep 920-16 (English). Ahmadiyya Anjuman Lahore (AAL). The Mosque
Archive in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (National Archive of Berlin)
2016-2019: Ahmadiyya Mission in Interwar Europe (2) (DFG, Bonn)
2013-2016: Ahmadiyya Mission in Interwar Europe (1) (DFG, Bonn)
2011-2013: Ahmadiyya Mission History in Continental Europe (Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen)
2007-2008: Jews and Muslims Through the Lens of European Textbooks (ESF, Strasbourg)
2005-2011: www.1001Ideas.eu. The Production of Knowledge on Muslim History(-ies) & Cultures
(Aga Khan Foundation, London)
2004-2005: Living together post 9/11 (Thyssen Foundation / ESS, Rom)
2001-2003: Institutionalizing Islam in Europe (EU Fifth Framework, Brussels)
2001-2003: Communication Structures of Muslim Communities (DFG, Bonn)
1998-2001: Süleymanci in Europe (ZMO, Berlin)
1996-2000: Institutionalizing Islam in Germany (Thyssen Foundation)
1996: Religion from the Outside (Fellow at Rutgers University, New Jersey)
1994-1996: The Hour of the Women: Mourning and Memory in Migration (Research Council of the City of Berlin)
Ever since, communicative memory has been on my agenda. In the course of years a large range of research projects was conducted that addressed the collective memory, and long durée perceptions of religious minorities in Europe. In focus were Muslim communities, European perceptions of Jews and Muslims, and Ahmadiyya mission in Berlin. During the last years I dug out a number of private archives, retracing the Jewish-Muslim encounter in interwar and postwar Berlin.
Photograph: Ekko von Schwichow
November 2020 we launched into researching mosque archives in Germany. Research starts from the example of the Ahmadiyya-Lahore Archive in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, the finding aid of which is now available in the National Archive of Berlin as LAB D Rep. 920-16. The Project is supported by the Interdisciplinary Working Group at EZIRE. We inquire into mosque archives as historical sources, asking what one sees differently when looking through this particular lens. The research is funded by the German Research Council (DFG).
I am affiliated as a senior researcher to the Erlangen Centre of Islam and Law in Europe (EZIRE) at Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen - Nürnberg.
Fields of Publication and Expertise
Modernisation of religion around 1900: Life Reform in Germany; Muslim Modernism in colonial India; Ahmadiyya mission in interwar Europe; Jewish-Muslim encounters; Mission libraries and - archives
Islam in Western Europe: Community building and collective memory; Sufism and Neo-Sufism in European contexts
The memory of a nation: The longue durée of history textbook narratives reflecting European perceptions of Jews and Muslims
Death and memory: Collective memory and remembrance practices in Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Israel; Death and mourning practices in the German diaspora
Research projects
2020 - 2022: Die Erforschung von Moscheearchiven in Deutschland / Researching Mosque Archives in Germany.
The Example of the Ahmadiyya-Lahore Archive in Berlin (DFG, Bonn)
2019 - 2020: Findbuch D Rep 920-16 (deutsch). Ahmadiyya Anjuman Lahore (AAL). Das Moscheearchiv in Berlin-Wilmersdorf
(Landesarchiv Berlin) / Finding aid D Rep 920-16 (English). Ahmadiyya Anjuman Lahore (AAL). The Mosque
Archive in Berlin-Wilmersdorf (National Archive of Berlin)
2016-2019: Ahmadiyya Mission in Interwar Europe (2) (DFG, Bonn)
2013-2016: Ahmadiyya Mission in Interwar Europe (1) (DFG, Bonn)
2011-2013: Ahmadiyya Mission History in Continental Europe (Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen)
2007-2008: Jews and Muslims Through the Lens of European Textbooks (ESF, Strasbourg)
2005-2011: www.1001Ideas.eu. The Production of Knowledge on Muslim History(-ies) & Cultures
(Aga Khan Foundation, London)
2004-2005: Living together post 9/11 (Thyssen Foundation / ESS, Rom)
2001-2003: Institutionalizing Islam in Europe (EU Fifth Framework, Brussels)
2001-2003: Communication Structures of Muslim Communities (DFG, Bonn)
1998-2001: Süleymanci in Europe (ZMO, Berlin)
1996-2000: Institutionalizing Islam in Germany (Thyssen Foundation)
1996: Religion from the Outside (Fellow at Rutgers University, New Jersey)
1994-1996: The Hour of the Women: Mourning and Memory in Migration (Research Council of the City of Berlin)
