Dr Dirk Johannsen
Assistant Professor in Religious Studies
e: johannsd@tcd.ie
t: + 353 1 8961297
Prof. Johannsen leaves the Dept. in October 2013 to take up a position as Associate Professor in the Cultural History of Popular Religion at the University of Oslo, Norway.
Academic Degrees / Qualifications
Certificate of Advanced Studies in Higher Education, University of Berne, Switzerland
Dr Phil, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Magister Artium, University of Hannover, Germany
Background
Dirk Johannsen studied Religion and Philosophy at the Universities of Hannover, Germany, and Varanasi, India, and completed his PhD in the study of religion at the University of Bayreuth in 2006. Subsequently, he held a research position at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and a position at the University of Basel as a research coordinator and postdoctoral fellow. He held additional teaching assignments at the Universities of Berne and Lucerne. His current research focuses on transformations of the concept of religion in modern narrative cultures.
Research Interests
Theory and Method:
Theories of religion and the history of the study of religion; historiography; cultural studies, narratology and cognitive approaches.
History of Religions:
European and Scandinavian histories of religion; popular religion; literature and religion in modernity; atheism and secular thought in modernity; history of magic and occultism.
University Didactics:
Qualification frameworks in the study of religion.
Recent Publications
Books
Konstruktionsgeschichten. Narrationsbezogene Ansätze in der Religionsforschung [Construed Histories. Narratological approaches to the study of religion], edited by Dirk Johannsen and Gabriela Brahier. (Düsseldorf: Ergon Verlag (Diskurs Religion), 2013).
Articles
Erschriebene Religion. Die Vielfalt der Stimmen in den Religionserzählungen des modernen Durchbruchs. In: Afe Adogame, Magnus Echtler, Oliver Freiberger (Eds.): Alternative Voices. A Plurality Approach for Religious Studies.(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013), p. 36-55.
Two types of magic in one tradition? A cognitive-historiographical case study on the interplay of narratives and rituals. In: Gregor Ahn, Vera Nünning, Jan Rupp: Ritual and Narrative. Theoretical Explorations and Historical Case Studies, (Bielefeld: Transcript 2013), p. 165-187.
Religion als Stilmittel der Fantastik. Eine wirkungstheoretische Betrachtung der Fernsehserie Lost [Religion as a stylistic device. An Aesthetic Response approach to the TV-Show Lost], with Anja Kirsch. In: Hubert Mohr (Eds): Massenmedien und Religion. (Zürich: Pano Verlag, in print).
Einleitung: Konstruktionsgeschichten. In: Konstruktionsgeschichten. Narrationsbezogene Ansätze in der Religionsforschung, edited by Dirk Johannsen and Gabriela Brahier. (Düsseldorf: Ergon Verlag (Diskurs Religion), 2013), p. 9-16.
'Religion' als diegetischer Raum. Eine narratologische Analyse von Rudolf Ottos Das Heilige. ['Religion' as a diegetic space. A narratological analysis of Rudolf Otto's 'The Idea of the Holy'] In: Thorsten Dietz, Harald Matern (Eds.): Rudolf Otto. Subjekt und Religion. (Zürich: TVZ, 2012), p. 237-256.
No time to philosophize. Norwegian oral tradition and the cognitive economics of belief. In: Luther H. Martin, Jesper Sørensen (Ed.): Past Minds. Studies in Cognitive Historiography. (London: Equinox Press, 2011), p. 77-88.
Kognition und Narration. Zur Tradierung von Mythen [Cognition and narration. On the spread and stability of myths]. In: Udo Tworuschka, Michael Klöcker (Eds.): Handbuch der Religionen, 29. Ergänzung, I-21.( München: Olzog Verlag, 2011), p. 1-12.
Deskriptorengeleitete Seminargestaltung [Using the qualification frame as a didactic tool], with Petra Bleisch. In: Silke Wehr, Thomas Tribelhorn (Eds.): Bolognagerechte Hochschullehre. Beiträge aus der hochschuldidaktischen Praxis. (Bern: Haupt Verlag, 2011), p. 15-35.
Crossing the Ecotone. On the Narrative Representation of Nature as 'Wild'. In: Borstner, Bojan; Gartner, Smiljana; Deschler-Erb, Sabine (Eds.): Historicizing Religion. Critical Approaches to Contemporary Concerns. (Pisa: Edizioni Plus, 2010), p. 233-248.
Religion als Nebenprodukt der Evolution. Religionsgeschichte und die Modularität des Geistes [Religion as an evolutionary by-product. History of religions and the modularity of the mind]. In: Mariano Delgado, Oliver Krüger, Guido Vergauwen (Eds.): Das Prinzip Evolution. Darwin und die Folgen für Religionstheorie und Philosophie. (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer Verlag, 2010), p. 221-238.