Artikelaktionen

Jessica A. Albrecht

Research Fellow

Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology

Faculty of Theology, Universität Heidelberg

Postal address: 

Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology

Theologisches Seminar, University of Heidelberg
Kisselgasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg/ Germany

E-Mail: Jessica.Albrecht@ts.uni-heidelberg.de

Web: http://theologie.uni-hd.de/rm

Vita

    • Since 2020 Research Fellow at the project "Theosophie und englischsprachige Frauenbildung im kolonialen Ceylon. Eine Untersuchung zu Genderfragen im Kontext von Religion und Nation in globaler Perspektive" founded by the German Research Foundation
    • Since 2020 PhD Student in Religious Studies, University of Heidelberg
    • 2022 Visiting Scholar, University of California Riverside 
    • 2022 Visiting Scholar, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka (postponed)
    • 2021 Research stay Colombo und Kandy, Sri Lanka
    • 2018-2020 M.A. "Communication, Literature and Media in modern South Asian languages", University of Heidelberg
    • 2017-2018 M.Sc. "Gender History", University of Glasgow
    • 2014-2017 B.A. "Religious Studies" and "South Asian Studies", University of Heidelberg 

    Publications

    Articles (Peer-Reviewed):

    • The Divine Feminine and Pistis Sophia: Motherhood, Sexuality, and Theosophical Gnosticism in Francis Swiney's Feminism, La Rosa di Parcels, 1/2018, 123-138.


    Book chapters:  

    • Imperial Feminism and Eugenics in the Theosophical Writings of Frances Swiney. In: Amy Hale (ed.): Essays on Women in Western Esotericism. Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses. London: Palgrave 2021, 21-44.
    • "I am what I wear, I wear what I am". Mode als Abbildung und Konstitution von hindu-nationaler Identitätsbildung und Geschlechterdifferenzierung in Indien. In: Benedikt K. Bauer, Kristina Goethling-Zimpel, Anna-Katharina Höpflinger (eds.): Opening Pandora's Box. Wien: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2020, 237-250.


    Journal:


    Reviews: 

    • Commentary. Surrogates on Strike? by Sylvie Armstrong. In: En-Gender! 4:2 (2022), 40.
    • New Approaches to the Study of Esotericism, by Asprem, Egil and Julian Strube (eds.). In: Aries (2022), 1-5.
    • Melissa M. Wilcox: Queer Religiosities. An Introduction to Queer and Transgender Studies in Religion. In: Zeitschrift fĂĽr Religionswissenschaft 29:2 (2021), 329-330.
    • Invisible Hosts: Performing the Nineteenth-Century Spirit Medium's Autobiography, by Elizabeth Schleber Lowry. In: International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 11:2 (2020), 257-259.

    Podcasts and Blogposts:

     


    Invited talks and presentations:

    • Positionality and a Bit of Luck: Historical and Ethnographical Research (in pandemic times) - N Narratives 2021
    • Perfect Wives, Future Mothers - Girls' Education in Colonial Sri Lanka (1880-1930)- The Gender Symposium, University of Texas at Austin 2021
    • Jenseits von UnterdrĂĽckung und Widerstand? Religion, Feminismus und Agency neu konzipiert - Vorlesungsreihe "Gender und Queer Studies as an epistemological challenge for Religious Studies", Universität Hamburg und Universität Heidelberg 2021
    • Creative Visions of Motherhood and Womanhood: Theosophical Feminists - Vorlesungsreihe "Religion am Montag", Universität Erfurt 2021
    • Goddesses as Eugenicists: Early Feminism, Esotericism, and Sexuality in Imperial Britain - Graduate Seminar "History of the Gendered Body", University of Oxford 2021
    • Wer erschafft die Subalterne im imperialen Feminismus? FĂĽr eine postkoloniale Geschichtsschreibung des frĂĽhen Feminismus - Universität Oldenburg 2020


    Other Presentations

    • Geschlecht und Religion im Medium der Ăśbersetzung (Gender and Religion Medialised in Translation) Globale Religionsgeschichte: Perspektiven fĂĽr den Religionsvergleich (University of Vienna) 2022
    • Agency, Religious Practice and the Gendered Self, Materiality, Gender and Sensemaking (University of Groningen) 2022
    • A Girls’ School in Sri Lanka – or the Frames of Religion, Aesthetics and Affects of Power in the Context of Religion (University of Erfurt) 2022
    • Sexual Education to Heal the Race, Subtle Energies, Vital Forces (University of Vienna) 2022
    • Globale Religionsgeschichte (Global Religious History), Roundtable DVRW (University of Leipzig) 2021
    • "Mothers of the Daughters of Ceylon" Marie Musaeus Higgins' and Miranda Canavarro's Theosophical Feminism, ECSAS2020 (University of Vienna) 2021
    • Religious and Racial Differentiations Within the Category of Women in Miranda Canavarro's Writings, VPFA: Victorian Inclusions and Exclusions (University of Greenwich) 2021
    • Race at the Centre of Feminism's and Religion's Origins, 43rd Implicit Religion Conference: Implicit Religion, Race, and Representation (The Edward Bailey Center) 2021
    • Anagarika Dharmapala and His Charismatic Foster Parents, Gendered Charismas: Historical and Transnational Perspectives (University of Heidelberg) 2021
    • Isis and Eugenics: Reproduction and Racial Superiority in Theosophical Feminist Writings, Lines of Heredity: Eugenics and Gender in European Literature, 1880-1935 (KU Leuven) 2021
    • Isis as Superwoman, ESOGEN Symposium (University of Amsterdam) 2021
    • Reproduktion im Kontext kolonialer Konzeptionen von "Rasse" und "Geschlecht" im theosophischen imperialen Feminismus (Reproduction in the context of colonial conceptions of race and gener within theosophical imperial feminism), (Ge)Schlechte(r) Religionswissenschaft? Multidisziplinäre Ansätze einer kritischen Genderforschung zu Religion (Working Group Gender in the DVRW) (University of Bochum) 2021
    • Meeting a Feminist Friend: The Egyptian Priestess, VPFA: Victorian Encounters and Environments (University of Greenwich) 2020
    • Religion als Differenzmarkierung innerhalb einer global gedachten Sisterhood des Imperialen Feminismus (Religion as a Marker of Difference Within a Global Imagines Sisterhood in Imperial Feminism), DVRW, IAHR Special (University of Hannover) 2019
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    Research Foci 

      • Theoretical and Methodological Approaches in the Study of Religion
      • Global Religious History
      • Religion and Poltics with a focus on South Asian Religions
      • Religious History of Sri Lanka
      • Buddhism, Christian Mission and Islam in Sri Lanka
      • Gender, Agency and Religion
      • Interreligious Relations in Sri Lanka
      • Christian Mission and Gender Politics in Colonial Sri Lanka

      Courses Taught

      • Decoloniality and Intersectionality in Religious Studies (SoSe 2022, Universität Heidelberg)
      • Intersectional Religious Studies: Religion, Colonialism and Gender (SoSe 2021, Universität Heidelberg)
      • Religion, Gender and Colonialism, Introduction to an Intersectional Study of Religion (WiSe 20/21, Universität Hamburg)
      • "Superwoman". Feminism between Esotericism and Eugenics (SoSe 2020, Universität Heidelberg)
      • Colonial Feminism and Religious Studies (SoSe 2019, Universität Heidelberg)