Profile

Professional career

• since 03/2021
  Professor for Modern Turkish Studies at the Institute for the Study of Religions at Leipzig University
• 12/2019 - 02/2021
  Assistant Professor, Heisenberg Scholar (DFG Heisenberg Program), Institute for the Study of Religions, Leipzig University
• 04/2016 - 11/2019
  Senior Researcher, DFG Humanities Center "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities", Leipzig University
• 09/2016 - 12/2017
  Visiting Professor for Sociology, University of St. Gallen
• 04/2016 - 08/2016
  Visiting Professor, Historisches Seminar, University of Zurich
• 04/2015 - 03/2016
  Visiting Researcher, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen
• 10/2015 - 03/2016
  Assistant Professor, Institute for the Study of Religion, University of Bayreuth
• 04/2015 - 09/2015
  Visiting Chair, Institute for the Study of Religion, University of Bayreuth
• 10/2014 - 03/2015
  Visiting Professor, Social Scientific Study of Religion, Cultural Sociology, University of Göttingen
• 09/2013 - 09/2014
  Assistant Professor, Religious Studies Department, University of Bayreuth
• 09/2011 - 12/2013
  Visiting Professor for Sociology, University of St. Gallen
• 11/2011 - 08/2013
  Associate Professor, Social Sciences and Humanities Department, Istanbul Technical University
• 06/2010 - 07/2010
  Visiting Assistant Professor, Turkology, Free University Berlin, ERASMUS Faculty Exchange Program (June-July)
• 06/2010 - 07/2010
  Research Fellow, Zentrum Moderner Orient Berlin (June-July)
• 11/2008 - 11/2011
  Assistant Professor, Social Sciences and Humanities Department, Istanbul Technical University
• 09/2008 - 03/2009
  Senior Fellow in Residence, Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, Koç University, Istanbul
• 02/2005 - 12/2008
  Assistant Professor (tenure track), Religion Department, Hofstra University
• 09/2007 - 02/2008
  Research Fellow, American Research Institute in Turkey ARIT, Istanbul
• 02/2004 - 06/2004
  Visiting Adjunct Professor, Department for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University
• 07/2003 - 12/2003
  Visiting Assistant Professor, Religion Department, Oberlin College
• 02/2003 - 06/2003
  Visiting Adjunct Professor, Religious Studies Program, New York University
• 11/2001 - 05/2002
  Visiting Scholar, Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University
• 05/2001 - 10/2001
  Visiting Scholar, Orient Institute, Istanbul

Education

• 12/2013 - 10/2014
  Habilitation in religious studies, University of Bayreuth
• 11/2010 - 11/2011
  Doçentlik (Turkish equivalent to habilitation) in sociology, YÖK (Turkey)
• 04/1998 - 03/2001
  Doctorate in religious studies, Max Weber College for Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt
• 04/1992 - 08/1997
  M.A. Religious Studies and Islamic Studies, Universities of Marburg and Gießen

The focus of my research is on

• history and historiography of religion, with special emphasis on Turkish religious history,
• the tension between religion, state and politics in a historical perspective, with a focus on the late Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey,
• secularization and secularism studies,
• general theoretical and methodological questions in the study of religion and Islam,
• religious minorities and minority discourses in the Middle East,
• as well asissues concerning intra- and intra-religious difference.

My current research focuses in particular on "Turkish religious history" and "religion and politics in Turkey".

In my historical work I combine approaches from the history of ideas and conceptual history with discourse analysis and postcolonial approaches. I am particularly interested in the negotiation processes between religious and secular knowledge systems and their interdependencies, which were initiated in the context of the dynamics of modernization. A main focus of my research is on intra- and interreligious contacts as well as processes of differentiation and tradition-building. In my research as well as in my teaching, I strive to further comparative and inter- as well as transdisciplinary perspectives.

• Modern Turkish Studies/Turkology with Emphasis on Cultural Studies

  Dreßler, Markus

  Duration: 12/2022 – 11/2024

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Moderne Türkeiforschung
  show details
• Negotiating Modern Sino-Muslim (Hui) Subjectives, 1900-1960: Reforming Islam in China

  Dreßler, Markus

  Duration: 04/2022 – 03/2025

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Moderne Türkeiforschung; FOR 2344: Kolleg-Forschergruppe - Multiple Secularities - beyond the West, beyond Modernities
  show details
• Piety and Secularity Contested: Family and Youth Politics in post-Kemalist "New Turkey"

  Dreßler, Markus

  Duration: 04/2021 – 03/2024

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Religionswissenschaftliches Institut; Moderne Türkeiforschung
  show details
• Modern Turkish Studies/ Turkology with Cultural Studies Focus

  Dreßler, Markus

  Duration: 11/2019 – ongoing

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Religionsgeschichte; Moderne Türkeiforschung
  show details
• Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities"

  Wohlrab-Sahr, Monika

  Duration: 04/2016 – 03/2024

  Funded by: DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Centre for the Study of Religion; Religionswissenschaftliches Institut; Religionsgeschichte; Kultursoziologie; Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics (ReCentGlobe); FOR 2344: Kolleg-Forschergruppe - Multiple Secularities - beyond the West, beyond Modernities
  show details

more projects

• Dreßler, M.

  The Social Construction of Reality (1966) Revisited: Epistemology and Theorizing in the Study of Religion

  Method & theory in the study of religion. 2019. 31 (2). pp. 120–151.

  DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341434
  show details
• Dreßler, M.

  Tracing the Nationalisation of Millet in the Late Ottoman Period: A Conceptual History Approach

  Die Welt des Islams. 2022. 62 (3-4). pp. 360–388.

  DOI: 10.1163/15700607-62030006
  show details
• Dreßler, M.

  What is Alevism? Contemporary Debates vis-à-vis Historical and Systematic Considerations

  The Alevis in modern Turkey and the diaspora. Recognition, mobilisation and transformation.. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press . 2022. pp. 17–44.

  ISBN: 9781474492027
  show details
• Dreßler, M.

  Physical and Epistemic Violence against Alevis in Modern Turkey

  In: Kevorkian, R.; Astourian, St. (Eds.)

  Collective and State Violence in Turkey. The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State.. New York: Berghahn. 2021. pp. 347–371.
  show details
• Dreßler, M.

  Modes of Religionization: A Constructivist Approach to Secularity

  2019.
  show details

more publications

• Keynote lectures: Religion-Making und Religionisierung

  Dreßler, Markus (Moderne Türkeiforschung)

  awarded in 2023 by Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft.
  show details

more awards

• Religionswissenschaftliches Institut; FOR 2344: Kolleg-Forschergruppe - Multiple Secularities - beyond the West, beyond Modernities

  GOVMAT: The Governmentality of Indigenous Religion

  Start Date of Collaboration: 01/08/2020

  External participating organisations: Tromso University (Tromso)

  Involved persons: Dreßler, Markus
  show details

more cooperations

In addition to full-time positions in Religious Studies (Oberlin College, Hofstra University, University of Bayreuth) and Sociology (Technical University of Istanbul, University of Göttingen), I taught within Islamic Studies, Turkology, Political Science and History contexts.

As a university teacher, I supervised master's theses (TU Istanbul, University of Bayreuth) and doctoral theses (University of Basel, TU Berlin) and acted as external reviewer of master's and doctoral theses (Bosporus University Istanbul, Columbia University/New York, University of Tromsø/Norway). Currently, I am supervising two dissertation projects at the University of Leipzig (Study of Religions), act as a second supervisor of a work in the sociology of religion at the University of Münster and lead a continuing workshop on Alevi Studies for Ph.D. students, co-financed by a private sponsor.