Bio

Summary:  Kocku von Stuckrad is Professor of Religious Studies 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, the diversity of knowledge systems, esoteric and mystical traditions in European intellectual history, religion and ecology, as well as on religion and secularity. He has written ten books, which were translated into six languages. He has published eleven edited volumes, including two leading dictionaries of religion. He founded the Journal of Religion in Europe (Leiden & Boston: Brill) and is co-editor of the Numen Book Series (Leiden & Boston: Brill), the Texts and Sources in the History of Religions series (Leiden & Boston: Brill), the Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion series (Leiden & Boston: Brill), and the Religion and Society series (Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter).

Kocku von Stuckrad served as President of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture (ISSRNC) and as President of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG). He also was a founding board member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) and is currently a member of the Advisory Board of the Copenhagen Center for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism (CCSTE). He was co-chair of the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group, as well as the Religion in Europe Group, of the American Academy of Religion. From 2013–2017, he served as the Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen. Currently, he is the Director of the Graduate School of Religion, Culture and Society at the University of Groningen.

In 2011 he was appointed as Honorary Professor of the Study of Religion at Aarhus University, Denmark. His awards also include the Burkitt Lectureship of Rice University (2010),the KOSMOI Lectureship of the Leuven Centre for the Study of Religion and Worldview (KU Leuven, Belgium, 2021), and the Ivar Paulson Lectures in the Study of Religion, organized by the Estonian Society for the Study of Religion (University of Tartu, Estonia, 2023). From January through April 2022, Kocku von Stuckrad had a guest professorship in Paris, which was awarded by the Chair for the Study of Religion, Center for International Studies of Sciences Po Paris (CERI-CNRS-Sciences Po), in cooperation with the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA).

Kocku von Stuckrad has served regularly as a reviewer for academic journals and research organizations (European Research Council ERC, German Research Foundation DFG, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO, Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF, Research Council of Norway RCN, National Science Center Poland, etc.). In 2016 and 2017, he chaired the panel “Religion and Theology” in the evaluation of humanities for the Research Council of Norway.

Together with Whitney A. Bauman, he is co-founder and co-director of Counterpoint: Navigating Knowledge, a research center and information hub, located at the interface of academic and non-academic knowledge practices and traditions.

Education

2002: Habilitation at the University of Bremen, Venia legendi for the Academic Study of Religion (Religionswissenschaft)

1999: Ph.D., Academic Study of Religion, from the University of Bremen (summa cum laude, ‘with distinction’)

1998–1999: Visiting Ph.D. student at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt

1996–1999: Ph.D. program Religious Studies at the University of Bremen with doctoral fellowship awarded by the University of Bremen

1995: M.A., Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Jewish Studies from the University of Bonn and the University of Cologne (summa cum laude, ‘with distinction’)

Professional Appointments

September 2023 to the present: Director of the Graduate School of Religion, Culture and Society, University of Groningen

September 2013 to August 2017:  Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen

Mandate: Design, manage, and additionally supervise the faculty within the mandate issued by the Board of Governors and in line with the strategy of the institution, ensuring that research and education is developed in such a way as to maintain and strengthen the academic, financial, and social position of the faculty.

Responsibilities: Chair of the Faculty Board; director of research of the faculty; chair of the Groningen Centre for Religious Studies; director of the inter-faculty research program “Diversity, Inclusion and Pluralism” within the University of Groningen Focus area “Sustainable Society”; member of the executive board of the University of Groningen Focus area “Sustainable Society.”

February 2011 to the present: Honorary Professor of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University, Denmark

2010–2013: Head of the Department of Comparative Study of Religion, University of Groningen

Responsibilities: 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; chair of the committee Internationalization and Mobility of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies; chair of the committee Research Master’s 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’s program “Concealed Knowledge: Gnosticism, Esotericism and Mysticism”; member of the University Committee for Academic Practice (UCW); member of the University Think Tank “Sustainable Society.”

September 2009 to the present: Full Professor of Religious Studies, University of Groningen (tenured)

2003–2009: Assistant Professor (Universitair Docent) at the University of Amsterdam, Center for the “History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents” (tenured)

Responsibilities: Member of the Executive Board (Dagelijks Bestuur) to reform the graduate and postgraduate programs of “Religious Studies” at the University of Amsterdam (2005–2008); chair of the faculty meeting of the Department of Religious Studies; member of the Examination Board of the Department of Religious Studies

2002–2003: Visiting professor, chair of Contemporary Religion, at the University of Bayreuth

2001–2003: Post-doctoral research project “The Formation of Shamanic Discourses in Religious Studies and Esotericism,” funded by the German Research Foundation DFG, University of Bremen

2000–2001: Academic administrator for the application phase of a Collaborative Research Center (SFB) devoted to “Religious Pluralism in Europe,” Universities of Erfurt and Bremen

1999–2000: Postdoctoral faculty, Department of Religious Studies (Cultural History of European Polytheisms/Comparative Religion), University of Erfurt

1996–2003: Adjunct Lecturer for Religious Studies at the University of Bremen

Service in Professional Organizations

· Nederlands Genootschap voor Godsdienstwetenschap (Dutch Association for the Study of Religion NGG): 2008–2011 General Secretary and member of the Executive Committee; 2011–2017 President

· 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 and again 2017–2020 member of the steering committee, 2011–2017 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

· Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion (NOSTER); since February 2024 member of the Advisory Board of NOSTER

Other Memberships:

· European Association for the Study of Religion (EASR)
· International Association for the History of Religions (I.A.H.R.)

Study Visits and Fellowships Abroad

2022 (January–April): Guest Professorship, awarded by the Chair for the Study of Religion, Center for International Studies of Sciences Po Paris (CERI-CNRS-Sciences Po), in cooperation with the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA), Paris, France

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

2010–2013: short study visits and conferences at Aarhus University, Denmark

2010–2012: 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

Congress Organization (as Conference Director)

2023: Workshop “World(s) Ending(s): Jewish Traditions of the End of History and Their Cultural Impact from Antiquity to the Present,” jointly organized by the Berman Center for Jewish Studies at Lehigh University and the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen

2014: 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, Special Conference of the International Association for the History of Religion IAHR, University of Groningen

2012: Religion and Social Cohesion: Challenges and Perspectives. Annual Meeting of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion NGG, University of Groningen

2011: Religious Authority between 0 and 1: Power and Authority in the Times of Internet, University of Groningen, in collaboration with the University of Bremen and the Jacobs University Bremen

2011: The Gods as Role Model: Imitation, Divinization, Transgression, University of Groningen

2009: Religion, Nature, and Progress: Third International Conference of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC), University of Amsterdam

2007: Kabbalah and Modernity, University of Amsterdam, in collaboration with the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel

2005: Western Esotericism and Polemics (as part of the Quinquennial Conference of the International Association for the History of Religions in Tokyo, Japan)

2004: Horoscopes and History, University of Amsterdam

2000: Religious Pluralism in Europe, University of Erfurt

1999: Religious Studies and Theology, University of Erfurt

Languages

· German (native)
· English (fluent)
· Dutch (fluent)
· French/Italian/Spanish (reading knowledge)
· Latin (diploma)
· Hebrew (diploma): biblical, rabbinical, medieval, and modern Hebrew
· Aramaic