Kocku von Stuckrad

Curriculum Vitae
 
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Narrative Summary (March 2013):

Kocku von Stuckrad is full professor of Religious Studies and head of the Department of Comparative and Historical Study of Religion at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. He has published extensively on topics related to the history of religion in Europe, method and theory in the study of religion, discursive study of religion, esoteric and mystical discourses in Western intellectual history, religion and (philosophies of) nature, as well as on religion and modernity. He wrote seven monographs (translated into five languages) and published eight edited volumes, including two leading dictionaries of religion. He is founding editor of the Journal of Religion in Europe (Leiden: Brill), as well as co-editor of the Numen Book Series (Leiden: Brill) and the Religion and Society series (Berlin: De Gruyter).

Professor von Stuckrad served as president of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC) and was a founding board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). Currently he is president of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG). He was co-chair of the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group and is currently the co-chair of the Religion in Europe Group of the American Academy of Religion.

Download CV (November 2012) as PDF


As of September 2013 Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen.

Since September 2011 Head of the Department of Comparative and Historical Study of Religion at the University of Groningen.

Responsibilities (March 2013): Head of the Department of Comparative and Historical Study of Religion; director of the Faculty Research Colloquium; member of the Groningen Centre for Religious Studies; member of the University Committee for Academic Practice (UCW); director of the inter-faculty research program "Diversity, Inclusion and Pluralism" within the University of Groningen Focus area "Sustainable Society"; board member of the Institute for Integration and Social Efficacy (ISW), University of Groningen; chair of the committee Research Master and Ph.D. program of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies; chair of the Admissions Board for the Research Master "Religion and Culture"; director of the Master program "Concealed Knowledge: Gnosticism, Esotericism and Mysticism".

Since February 2011 Honorary Professor of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University.

Since September 2009 full professor of Religious Studies and since January 2010 head of the Department of Religious Studies and the History of Christianity, University of Groningen.

April 2003 - August 2009 assistant professor at the University of Amsterdam, chair for "History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents" (2006-2008 member of the Executive Committee of the Department of Religious Studies).

April 2002 - February 2003 visiting professor at the University of Bayreuth, chair for "Contemporary Religion".

July 2002 Habilitation at the University of Bremen, Habilitationsschrift: "Die Figur des Schamanen. Kulturgeschichtliche Betrachtungen zur Ambivalenz wissenschaftlicher Kategorien und ihrer Popularisierung im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert". 

July 2001 - March 2003 research project "The Formation of Shamanic Discourses in Religious Studies and Esotericism" (funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) at the University of Bremen.

July 2000 - June 2001 academic coordinator of the application process for a collaborative research center (Sonderforschungsbereich) "Religious Pluralism in Europe", Universities of Erfurt and Bremen.

June 1999 - June 2000 PostDoc-scholarship from the University of Bremen.

June 1999 - June 2000 faculty member at the University of Erfurt, department of the History of European Polytheisms.

1998-1999 visiting student at the "Max-Weber-Center for Advanced Studies" at the University of Erfurt.

1997-2002 lecturer for Religious Studies (Religionswissenschaft) at the University of Bremen.

1997-1999 PhD scholarship from the University of Bremen. PhD thesis  "Jewish and Christian Astrology in Late Antiquity".

Studies of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Jewish Studies at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne (M.A. 1995).

Born on 6 April 1966 in Kpandu/Ghana.

 

Service in Professional Organizations   

  • Nederlands Genootschap voor Godsdienstwetenschap (Dutch Association for the Study of Religion NGG, since September 2011 President; 2008-2011 General Secretary and member of the Executive Committee)
  • American Academy of Religion (AAR), 2002-2008 co-chair, 2008-2011 member of the steering committee of the "Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion" Group; 2007-2011 member of the steering committee and since November 2011 co-chair of the "Religion in Europe" Group  
  • International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC, 2006-2009 President-Elect, 2009-2011 President)

Other Memberships:

  • Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (NOSTER)
  • Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft (DVRW)
  • European Association for the Study of Religion (EASR)
  • International Association for the History of Religions (I.A.H.R.) 
  • European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE, founding member and 2005-2009 member of the board and webmaster)

Congress Organization (Conference Director)

  • Religionswissenschaft and Theology (University of Erfurt, 1999)
  • Religious Pluralism in Europe (University of Erfurt, 2000)
  • Horoscopes and History (University of Amsterdam, 2004)
  • Western Esotericism and Polemics (as part of the meeting of the International Association for the History of Religions I.A.H.R., Tokyo, 2005)
  • Kabbalah and Modernity (University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, 2007)
  • Religion, Nature, and Progress: Third International Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC) (University of Amsterdam, 2009)
  • The Gods as Role Model: Imitation, Divinization, Transgression (University of Groningen, 2011)
  • Religious Authority between 0 and 1: Power and Authority in the Times of Internet (University of Groningen, 2011, in collaboration with the University of Bremen and the Jacobs University Bremen)
  • Religion and Social Cohesion: Challenges and Perspectives (Annual Meeting of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion NGG, University of Groningen, 2012)
  • Religion and Pluralities of Knowledge (Joint Meeting of the European Association for the History of Religions EASR and the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion NGG, University of Groningen, 2014)

Supervision of PhD Projects (as Promotor or Co-Promotor, other supervision not mentioned here)

  • Marije Coster: Jews and Christians in the Qur’ān and Ahādīth: An Evidence of Interreligious Interactions and
    Islamic Self-Definition in Early Islam
    (University of Groningen, 2012-2015)
  • Dave Vliegenthart: A Modern Sage: Franklin Merrell-Wolff at the Crossroads of Religion, Philosophy, Psychology, Science and Sociology (University of Groningen, 2012-2016, see description)
  • Sebastian Krebel: Lebenswelten neuheidnischer Hexen im Kontext einer postsäkularen Gesellschaft (University of Erfurt, 2012-2015, see description)
  • Klaran Visscher: Jozef Rulof and the Revelations of the "Age of Christ": New Religiosity in the Netherlands and the Crisis of Modernity in the Twentieth Century (external project, University of Groningen, 2010-2016, see description)
  • Tsila Rädecker: Modernization and the Formation of the Jewish Identity, 1793-1848 (University of Groningen, 2010-2014, see description)
  • Lea Schulte-Droesch: Understanding Santal Cosmology through the Annual Hunting Ritual (University of Groningen, 2010-2014, see desciption)
  • Brenda Bartelink: Analyzing Discourses and Practices on Religion and Development (University of Groningen, 2007-2012, see description)
  • Irene Dietzel: Religion, Culture and Environment of an Island Society – Exploring the Ecology of Ethnic Coexistence and Conflict in Cyprus (University of Erfurt, 2008-2012 [judicium: summa cum laude])

Study Visits Abroad

  • 2013 (January-August): Guest Research Fellow at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany
  • 2011: Research seminar on “Perceptions of Eastern Shamanism and Western Esotericism in Late Eighteenth-Century Russia,” University of Sheffield, UK
  • Since 2010 short study visits and conferences at Aarhus University, Denmark
  • Since 2010 short study visits and participation in the Graduate Program “Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism” at Rice University, Houston, USA; invitation to give The 2010 Burkitt Lecture of Rice University
  • 2007: study visit and workshop on “Religious Pluralism(s): Beyond Dichotomies,” Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA

Focus of Research Interest

  • European history of religion from antiquity through today
  • Method and theory in the study of religion   
  • Esoteric discourses in Western culture, with special emphasis on astrology and kabbalah
  • Religion, philosophy, science, and nature 
  • Religion and modernity   

 


Last update: 12 March 2013