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Johannes Quack
Associate Member
Position
- Postdoctoral Researcher
Contact information
Karl Jaspers Centre
Voßstraße 2, Building 4400
69115 Heidelberg
Germany
About Johannes Quack
Postal Address / Postanschrift
Abteilung für Ethnologie, Südasien-Institut
Im Neuenheimer Feld 330
D-69120 Heidelberg
Tel.: +49 (0) 62 21/548931
Fax: +49 (0) 62 21/54 8898
Johannes Quack studied Religious Studies, Philosophy and Anthropology (Magister Artium) at the Universities of Bayreuth and Edinburgh and graduated at Heidelberg University in May 2006. In his M.A.-thesis Ritual Sense: On Dichotomies, Dynamics and how 'Spiritual Seekers' from the West Ritualize Indian Pujas in Sacha Ashram, Rishikesh he analysed the transformation of puja ceremonies on the basis of a critical engagement with the ritual theories of Stanley Tambiah, Caroline Humphrey & James Laidlaw and Catherine Bell.
He worked as a lecturer in the Departments of Religious Studies and Anthropology at the Universities of Heidelberg, Luzern, Münster, Tübingen, and in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of München (LMU). Quack is currently engaged at the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University as a post-doctoral researcher on the project “Asymmetrical Translations: Mind and Body in European and Indian Medicine” as part of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”.
His Ph.D. thesis "Disenchanting India: An Ethnography of the Rationalist Organisation Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (Organisation for the Eradication of Superstition) and their Mode of Unbelief" provides an academic monograph of the contemporary rationalist (atheist, humanist, or freethinking) movement in India. A revised version of this thesis has been published as Disenchanting India: Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India by OUP, New York (2011). His fields of study include: Popular Hinduism; Medical Anthropology (Mental Health); the Anthropology of Religion, Secularism and Non-Religion; Aesthetics of Religion; and Ritual Theory.
Projects
Curriculum vitae
since Nov. 2009: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context" at Heidelberg University
April 2006 - Oct. 2009: Ph.D. in Anthropology, Heidelberg University
Oct. 2009 - March 2010: Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Tübingen
April 2008 - Sep. 2009: Lecturer in Anthropology as well as Religious Studies at Heidelberg University
Oct. 2003 - May 2006: Magister/ (M.A. equivalent) in Religious Studies, Philosophy & Anthropology at Heidelberg University
July 2005 - July 2006, June - Aug. 2008: Research Assistant at Heidelberg University, Collaborative Research Centre "Dynamics of Ritual"
May 2004 - Dec. 2006: Research Assistant at Heidelberg University, Religious Studies
Sept. 2002 - July 2003: Visiting Student at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland
April 2001 - Aug. 2002: Zwischenprüfung/ (B. A. equivalent) at the University of Bayreuth
Nov. 2001 - July 2002: Research Assistant at the University of Bayreuth, Collaborative Research Centre "Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global
Influences" and in Religious Studies as well as Philosophy
TEACHING
September 2008, Summer School: University of Heidelberg: “Mental Health and Human Rights” (in English)
Summer 2008, Religious Studies, University of Heidelberg: “Rationality & Rationalism” (in German)
Winter 2008/09, Religious Studies, University of Heidelberg: “Action Theory in Religious Studies” (in German)
Summer 2009, Religious Studies, University of Munich & Heidelberg: “The Emergence of Religious Studies” (in German)
Summer 2009, Religious Studies, University of Heidelberg: “Criticism of Religion” (in German)
Winter 2009/10, Anthropology, University of Tübingen: “Psychology, Culture and Religion: An Introduction to Transcultural Psychology” (in German)
Summer 2011, Anthropology, University of Münster: "Shamans, Mystics & Doctors: Pluralistic Mental Health Care in India” (in English)
FIELD RESEARCH
Ethnographic fieldwork (postdoc) on mental health providers with focus on a private hospital in Uttarakhand, India (Feb. – Oct. 2010).
Ethnographic fieldwork (dissertation) on rationalist movements and traditional healing in Delhi and Maharashtra, India (Jan. – May & July – Dec. 2007).
Ethnographic fieldwork (dissertation) on traditional healing at Balaji temple, Mehandipur, India (Oct. – Nov. 2006).
Ethnographic fieldwork (M.A.) on religious tourism in Sacha Dham Ashram, Rishikesh, India (March – May 2005).
Research on Kathak-Dance in the context of a Hindi language course in Jaipur, India (Feb. – March 2004).
Selected publications
Monographie
Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Herausgeber
The Problem of Ritual Efficacy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010 (mit William Sax und Jan Weinhold).
Journal of Ritual Studies (Special Issue: „The Efficacy of Rituals“)
Volume 24 (1&2), 2010 (mit William Sax).
Artikel
„Bell, Bourdieu and Wittgenstein on Ritual Sense“ – peer reviewed –
in William Sax, Johannes Quack und Jan Weinhold, The Problem of Ritual Efficacy New York: Oxford University Press 169-188, 2010.
„Introduction: The Efficacy of Rituals“ – peer reviewed –
in Journal of Ritual Studies 24 (1) 5-12, 2010 (mit William Sax).
„Questioning Ritual Efficacy“ – peer reviewed –
in Journal of Ritual Studies 24 (1) 13-26, 2010 (mit Paul Töbelman).
„Reflexive Remarks on Science, Ritual and Neutrality in the Social Sciences“ – peer reviewed – in Udo Simon Reflexivity and Discourse on Ritual Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 201-218, 2010.
„Is to ignore to deny? Säkularisierung, Säkularität und Säkularismus in Indien“ in Martin Bauman und Frank Neubert, Religionspolitik, Öffentlichkeit, Wissenschaft: Studien zur Neuformierung von Religion in der Gegenwart Zürich: PANO-Verlag 291-317, 2010.
„Memory, Religion and Museal Spaces“ – peer reviewed –
in Journal for the Study of European Religions 4 (1): 134–156, 2011 (mit Jens Kugele und Maud Jahn).
„Asymmetrical translations of biomedicine in India: The cases of contemporary Āyurveda and psychiatry“ in Vienna Ethnological Newsletter 13 (2-3): 13-24, 2011 (mit Ananda S. Chopra).
„Organised Atheism in India: An Overview“ – peer reviewed –
in Journal of Contemporary Religion 27 (1): 67-85, 2012.
Herausgeber (im Peer-Review-Verfahren und im Druck)
Religion und Kritik in der Moderne (Reihe: Religionen in der pluralen Welt, Bd. 9)Berlin: LIT-Verlag, 2012, im Druck (mit Ulrich Berner).
Artikel (im Peer-Review-Verfahren und im Druck)
„Religionswissenschaft, Religion und Kritik in der Moderne“
in Ulrich Berner und Johannes Quack Religion und Kritik in der Moderne Berlin: LIT-Verlag, 2012, im Druck.
„Arten des Unglaubens als ‚Mentalität‘: Religionskritische Traditionen in Indien“ in Ulrich Berner und Johannes Quack Religion und Kritik in der Moderne Berlin: LIT-Verlag, 2012, im Druck.
„Ignorance and Utilization: Mental Health Care outside the Purview of the Indian State“ – peer reviewed – in Anthropology and Medicine 2012, im Druck.
„Hinduism, Atheism, and Rationalism“ (5000 Wörter)
in Knut A. Jacobsen et al. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism Leiden: Brill, 2012, im Druck.
„India“ (6000 Wörter)
in Steven Bullivant & Michael Ruse The Oxford Handbook of Atheism Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2013, im Peer-Review-Verfahren.
