Study FocusKnowledge, Belief and Religion (KBR)

This focus offers insight into the dynamic histories, circulations and practices of knowledge, beliefs and religion. It highlights relations between, and entanglements of, political and ideological, social and cultural, linguistic, and artistic aspects in and between Asia and Europe. Of particular interest are disciplines such as philosophy, history and art history, religious studies and philology, and anthropology. This focus emphasizes students’ engagement with a variety of resources and sources, from archival, to textual to visual and material matter. In combination with a unique interest in social and institutional agents, the study focus offers new approaches to the exploration of fields such as religious movements and worldviews, the migration of ideas and concepts (e.g., democracy, enlightenment), the rise or decline of intellectual cosmopolitan elites or the institutionalization of knowledge in educational contexts.

Study content (selection):

• Inner-Asian Buddhist networks and institutions
• Indian Ocean/Atlantic as a religio-cultural contact zone
• Philosophical encounters between Asia and Europe
• Histories of technology and science
• Human-nature relations (anthropocene)
• Christian-Muslim relations in the Euromediterranean