1 CURRICULUM VITAE
Birgit Meyer
Born: 21 March 1960 in Emden (Germany) Nationality: German & Dutch
Education: Gymnasium (Abitur 1978), study pedagogics and comparative religion, Universität Bremen (1979-1985, finished “mit Auszeichnung”* with Erstes Staatsexamen für Sekundarstufe I); study Cultural Anthropology, Universiteit van Amsterdam (1985-1990, cum laude*); PhD.
Universiteit van Amsterdam (1995, cum laude*).
(*highest possible distinction) Websites:
Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University: https://www.uu.nl/staff/BMeyer Religious Matters in an Entangled World research program
https://www.religiousmatters.nl/buildings-images-and-objects/
Work:
Since 9/2011 Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Religious Studies and Theology, Utrecht University
2006-2011 Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
2004-2006 Professor of Religion and Society at the University of Amsterdam, and professor of Cultural Anthropology at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
2000-2006 Director of the NWO research program ‘Modern Mass Media, Religion and the Imagination of Communities. Different Postcolonial Trajectories in West Africa, Brazil, India and the Caribbean’
2000-9/2004 Senior Lecturer (Universitair hoofddocent) at the Research Centre Religion and Society
1995- 2000 Universitair Docent at the Research Centre Religion and Society, Universiteit van Amsterdam
1995- 1999 Postdoc in the WOTRO-research program ‘Globalization and the Construction of Communal Identities’
1990-1994 Assistent in Opleiding at Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, Universiteit van Amsterdam
1981-1982 Social work in Paris, France
1978-1979 Assistant teacher at Annastift (school for children with a bodily handicap) in Hannover, Germany
Regional Specialization:
West Africa, Netherlands Main Areas of Interest:
Religious Studies, Anthropology of Religion, Religion and Media, Material Culture, Popular Culture, Post-secular Public Sphere, Political Aesthetics, Visual Culture.
2 Honors:
- Fellow KNIR (Royal Netherlands Institute, Rome), May 2019
- William James Guest-professorship, Department of Religious Studies, Bayreuth University, 6- 10 November 2017
- Spinoza award, Netherlands Foundation for Scientific Research/Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), 2015
- Academy professor prize, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences/Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW), 2015
- Fellow Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS), Oslo; Project Local Dynamics of Globalization- research project (April-June 2015). Invited.
- Member Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, since 2012.
- Anneliese-Maier-Forschungspreis, Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation, 2011.
- Fellow Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin (2010-11)
- Nominated by students of anthropology for Faculty Teaching Award, FSW, VU (2010) - Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences/Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW) (since 2007)
- Vice-Chairperson of the International African Institute, London (2005-2017) - Member of the International African Institute, London (since 2004)
Grants:
2021-2025: Heritage and the Question of Conversion. Wp3b (with Peter Pels) in Pressing Matter:
Ownership, Value and the Question of Colonial Heritage in Museums. NWA (National Science Agenda), NWO.
2013-2016: Iconic religion. How Imaginaries of Religious Encounter Structure Urban Space (ICOREL), with Prof Volkhard Krech, Bochum (PL) and Prof Kim Knott (Lancaster); BM is the PI for the Dutch sub-project, 1 postdoc. Ca € 240.000.
2013-2016: Currents of faith, places of history: religious diasporas, connections, moral
circumscriptions and world-making in the Atlantic space, (CURRENTS), with Dr Ramon Sarro, Lisbon/Bergen (PL), Dr David Berliner, Brussels, and Dr Ramon Sarro (Oxford); BM is the PI for the Dutch sub-project, 2 part-time postdocs. Ca € 275.000.
2012-2017: Habitus and Habitats. Politics and Aesthetics of Religious World-Making. Project hosted by the Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies and Theology, Utrecht University. (€ 250.000, in the framework of the Anneliese-Maier-Forschungspreis, Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung).
2010-2013: Cultural performance, belonging and citizenship in contemporary South Africa Sanpad project 10-13, BM is the “Dutch partner,” in colaboration with Dr Heike Becker, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
3 2010-2013: Creativity and Innovation in a World of Movement (CIM), with Dr Maruska Svasek (Belfast, Project leader, BM is the PI for the NL-subproject), ca € 180.000 [2 part-time
postdocs].
2008-2013 Research grant (principal investigator) by NWO for the research program ‘Heritage Dynamics: Politics of Authentication and Aesthetics of Persuasion in Brazil, Ghana, South Africa and the Netherlands’ [3 Phd students, 1 postdoc, total: 550.000€]
2000-2006 ‘PIONIER’ research grant by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for the research program ‘Modern Mass Media, Religion and the Imagination of Communities. Different Postcolonial Trajectories in West Africa, Brazil, India and the
Caribbean’, website: www.pscw.uva.nl/media-religion [involving 4 PhD and 4 postdoc projects, total: 1.1 Mill € (2.4 Mill Guldens)]
1995-1999 Research Grant by WOTRO for postdoc research Ghana, in the framework of the research program ‘Globalization and the Construction of Communal Identities’
1991-1995 Research Grant by the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO) for dissertation research in Ghana
1980-1989: Stipend from Evangelisches Studienwerk (Villigst) for study in Bremen (pedagogic for handicapped children/religion) and Amsterdam (anthropology)
[plus several grants for PhD-students, postdocs, and two Marie Curie Grants]
Administrative and Management Activities Editorships and editorial boards
- Co-editor of Material Religion (2006-2018) - Co-editor of ETNOFOOR (1987-2005)
- Member of the editorial advisory board of Africa (since 2009), American Ethnologist (2007- 2011), the Initiative for the Study of Material and Visual Cultures of Religion (MAVCOR http://mavcor.yale.edu/about) (since 2013), the Journal of Religion in Africa (1999-2006, since 2020), the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (since 2020), Terrain (2008-2011), Pentecostudies (2004-2013), Religion and Gender (since 2010), the Religion and Urbanitry Online Project (since 2020), Social Anthropology (since 2011), Sociologus (since 2009), and of the ‘consulting body’ of Religion in Society: Advances in Research (since 2010)
Committees (University level)
- Open science fellow UU-GW (since 2020)
- Member of committee Academic Master and Research Master in Religious Studies, Utrecht University (Fall 2013-Spring 2014)
- Member Adviescommissie Onderzoek, Utrecht University (since 2013) - Member of committee BA in religious studies, UU (summer 2012)
- Member of “taskforce onderzoek” UU, Faculty of the Humanities (Fall 2011)
4 - Member of scientific advisory pool, VU University and Faculty of Social Science (2008- 2010) - Member of Taskforce Faculty of Social Sciences (2009/2010)
- Member ‘werkgroep onderzoek voor VU instellingsplan’ (2010)
- Member and chair ‘werkgroep evaluatie onderzoeksstimulering’, Faculty of Social Science - Member of diverse job application committees (NL and Germany)
Boards/advisory bodies in the Netherlands
- “Kamer levensbeschouwing/adviesraad NTR”, vz kamer levensbeschouwing (2016-2019) - Member Verkenningscommissie Theologie en Religiestudies (KNAW, 2014-2015) - Chair advisory board Centre for Humanities, Utrecht University (2017-2019) - Member advisory board Centre for Humanities, Utrecht University (2014-2019) - Member of the KNAW committee Quality Indicators in the Social Sciences (2011-12) - Member SWR (Sociaalwetenschappelijke Raad) (since May 2011)
- Member Domeinjury (evaluation nominations for new KNAW members) (2011-2017) - Jury 2nd ‘KNAW Onderwijsprijs’ (Culture and Society, 2010)
- Member Gamma-canon (2008-2011) - Raad van Advies ICCO (2009-2013)
- Member of selection committee De Jonge Akademie (KNAW, 2008,2009) - Member of selection committee VIDI (NWO, 2009) 3
- Member of WOTRO selection committee (2004-2005)
- Member of selection committee for PhD’s ASSR (2001, 2002, 2003) - Member of ESR-beoordelingscommissie (2001)
- Member of ESR Veni-ronde (2001/2002)
- Board Member Stichting Buiksloterkerk (2002-2009)
- Board Member Stichting Vista (2002-2008) Research evaluation - member panel Exzellenzinitiative, DFG, Germany (2005, 2012)
- member evaluation committee of KNAW Humanities Institutes (2011/2012)
- numerous reports for NWO, ESF, DFG (Germany), NSA (South Africa), Leverhulme (UK), Wissenschaftsrat
- numerous tenure evaluations and job application committees (NL, USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Austria)
Curatoria for professorial chairs
- Member curatorium (2012-2014) Missiology: World Christianity and Interreligious Dialogue chair (Martha Frederiks)
- Member curatorium (2008-2010) Dom Helder Camara chair (Hans de Wit) - Member curatorium (2008-2010) African Studies Centre Chair (Jan Abbink) - Member curatorium (2008-2010) Meertens/KNAW chair (Herman Roodenburg) - Member (2006-2010) and chair (2008-2010) PAVEM-chair (Halleh Ghorashi) Framing/directing research in NL
- Program chair “Religions in the Modern World,” Department of Religious Studies and Theology, Utrecht University (2011-2014)
- Member of UU-pool advisors for high profile grants (since 2013)
5 - Director of the Center for Comparative Social Research (CCSS), Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam (2007-2010)
- Co-founder and co-director of the VU Institute for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society (VISOR) (2007-2010)
- Member UTC [Universitaire Toetsingcommissie] VU (2008-2010) - Member of VU-pool advisors for high profile grants (2008-2010)
- Affiliation with Amsterdam School For Social Science Research (1995-2009), member of the program commission.
- Co-chair of cluster Religion and Identity (with Thomas Blom Hansen, 2004-2009) - Member NWO program committee ‘The Future of the Religious Past’ (2000-2011) - Member of writing committee NWO program Religion, Conflict and Security (2007) International boards and committees
- Kuratorium Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin (since 2021)
- Chair scientific committee (wetenschapscommissie) Meertensinstitute (since 2019) - Member Advisory Board “Africa Multiple”, Cluster of Excellence, Bayreuth (since 2019) - Member Academic Board Lab 4 A, Berlin/Florence (since 2019)
- Member Advisory Board MF Centre for the Advanced Study of Religion, Oslo (since 2018) - Member Advisory Board Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa, Accra (since 2018)
- Kuratorium Leibnizinstitute GWZ, Berlin (since 2017)
- Member Steering Group Point Sud (Univ Frankfurt/DFG, dir Mamadou Diawara) (since 2013) - Member Beirat Bayreuth Academy for Advanced African Studies (2012-2019)
- Member of the international advisory board of the SSRC/Templeton project New Directions in the Study of Prayer (2011-2014); leader of one of the three working groups (2012-2014) - Member (since 2010) and chair (since 2011) of the scientific advisory board of the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin.
- Senior Fellow in the Poiesis Fellowship program, based at New York University's Institute for Public Knowledge (2010-12)
- Member of the International Advisory Board of the Religion and Media Centre, New York University (since 2004)
Professional associations
Member of American Anthropological Association (AAA) (incl. American Ethnological Society, Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Society for Visual Anthropology), African Studies Association (ASA), European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), American Academy of Religion (AAR), Antropologische Beroepsvereniging (ABV).
Jury’s
Early career Award, KNAW (Humanities, 2019 & 2020)
Jury Ketje Hodshon dissertatieprijs, KHMW (gebied: Filosofie, theologie, religiewetenschap), 2016
Jury Jan Brouwer scriptieprijs, KHMW (gebied: Filosofie, theologie, religiewetenschap), 2017 Jury Akademiepenning, KNAW
Domeinjury, KNAW (2012-2017)
6 Advice
- Advisor Catharijneconvent (2019, 2021)
- Advisor Evangelische Omroep for a film project on Christianity in Africa (2019) - Advisor for Film Festival “Africa in the Picture” (2001, 2003, 2006)
- Advisor for the Tropenmuseum, exposition on Chieftaincy in Ghana (Kindermuseum) and Het Kwaad (12/2004-9/2005)
- Advisor for the production of the Ghanaian film (shot in Amsterdam, 2003) See you, Amsterdam.
- Advisor BUZA regarding Ghana300Holland
- Advisor BUZA/BBO regarding religion and politics in Ghana - Member of several advisory boards related to chairs and institutes
PhDs
- Marijke Steegstra, 2004, Resilient Rituals. Krobo Initiation and the Politics of Culture in Ghana. Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (with Frans Hüsken).
- Francio Guadeloupe, 2006, Chanting Down the New Jerusalem. The Politics of Belonging on Saint Martin and Sint Maarten. Universiteit van Amsterdam (with Peter Geschiere).
-Martijn Oosterbaan, 2006, Divine Mediations. Pentecostalism. Politics and Mass Media in a Favela in Rio de Janeiro. Universiteit van Amsterdam (with Michiel Baud).
-Rachel Spronk, 2006, Ambiguous Pleasures/ Sexuality and New Self-definitions in Nairobi.
Universiteit van Amsterdam (cum laude*)(with Peter Geschiere); VENI-grant.
- Marleen de Witte, 2008, Spirit Media. Charismatics, Traditionalists, and Mediation Practices in Ghana. Universiteit van Amsterdam (cum laude*) (with Peter Geschiere); winner of Ketje Hodshon Prize, VENI-grant.
-Lotte Hoek. 2008. Cut-Pieces: Obscenity and the Cinema in Bangladesh. Universiteit van Amsterdam. (cum laude*) (with H.W. van Schendel).
-Maria José A. de Abreu, 2009, In Midair: Breath, Media, Body, Space. A Study of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement in Brazil. Universiteit van Amsterdam (with Peter van der Veer).
-Ngô Thi Thanh Tâm. 2011. The New Way: Becoming Protestant Hmong in Contemporary Vietnam. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (with Oscar Salemink).
- Rhoda Woets. 2011. What is this? Framing Ghanaian Art from the Colonial Encounter to the Present. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
- Donya Alinejad, 2015, New Generation Diaspora. The Formation of Iranian American-ness Among Second Generation Migrant Internet Users in Los Angeles. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (with Halleh Ghorashi)
- Peter Lambertz, 2015. Divisive Matters. Aesthetic Difference and Authority Production in a Congolese Spiritual Movement from Japan (Kinshasa, DR Congo). Universiteit Utrecht (cum laude*) and Leipzig University (opus eximium*) (with Adam Jones).
7 - Daan Beekers, 2015, Precarious Piety: Pursuits of Faith among young Muslims and Christians in the Netherlands. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (cum laude*) (with Anton van Harskamp).
- Duane Jethro, 2015. Aesthetics of Power: Heritage Formation and the Senses in Post-apartheid South Africa. Universiteit Utrecht. (with David Chidester)
- Martin van Wijngaarden, 2016. Schitterende Getuigen, Nederlands luthers avondmaalgerei als identiteitsdrager van een godsdienstige minderheid. 2016. Universiteit Utrecht (with Jo Spaans) - Stefan Binder. 2017. Total Atheism. Universiteit Utrecht (cum laude *) (with Peter van der Veer).
- Murtala Ibrahim. 2017. Sensational Piety: Practices of Mediation in Christ Embassy and NASFAT in Abuja. Universiteit Utrecht. (with Hansjörg Dilger).
- Francis Fogue Kuate. 2017. Médias et coexistence entre musulmans et chrétiens au nord- Cameroun: de la période coloniale française au début du XXIème siècle. Universiteit Utrecht - Johanneke Kroesbergen, 2018. Speaking of Satan in Zambia. The Persuasiveness of
Contemporary Narratives About Satanism. Universiteit Utrecht.
- Trudelien van’t Hof, 2019. (with Jo Spaans)
- Erik van Ommering, 2020, (VU, with Sandra Evers & Marina de Regt)
- Hanna Nieber. 2020. Drinking the Written Qur’an: Healing with Kombe in Zanzibar Town.
Utrecht University (with Kai Kresse)
- Erik Meinema, 2021. Regulating Religious Co-Existence: The Intricacies of ‘Interfaith’
Cooperation in Coastal Kenya. Utrecht Unversity (with Lucien van Liere).
- Roos Dorsmann, 2021. The New Orleans Voodooscape: Ethnography of Contemporary Voodoo Traditions of New Orleans, Louisiana. Université Libre Bruxelles (with David Berliner)
* highest possible distinction for PhD.
In progress: Joseph Fosu-Ankrah (UL), Rashida Adum-Atta (UL), André Bakker (VU), Martin Luther Darko (UL), Angelantonio Grossi (UU), Anna Kira Hippert (Ruhr Universität Bochum) Kauthar Khamis (UL), Elza Kuyk (UU), Annelise Reid (UU), Chunrong Zhao (UU).
Postdoctoral fellows
- Brian Larkin (Pionier-project, 2002-2004, current position: professor, Department of Anthropology, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York)
- Stephen Hughes (Pionier-project, 2002-2004, current position: lecturer Department of Anthropology and Sociology, SOAS, London)
- Mattijs van de Port (Pionier-project, 2000-2004, 0,5fte; current position: UHD Department of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam & Professor of Popular Religiosity, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
- Marleen de Witte (NWO Heritage Dynamics project, 2008-2012 (0,5 fte)
- Rhoda Woets (HERA/CIM project, 2011-2013 (0,5fte); current position: lecturer University College Utrecht)
-Joao Rickli (HERA/CIM project, 2011-2013 (0,5fte); current position: lecturer Department of Anthropology, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil)
-Annalisa Butticci (Marie-Curie Fellow, 2012-2015; currently at UU)
8 -Markus Balkenhol (HERA-project Currents of Faith, 2013-2016; Meertens institute)
-Bruno Reinhard (HERA-project Currents of Faith, 2014-2016)
- Daan Beekers (HERA-project Iconic Religion, 2014-2016, Religious Matters 2016-2018) - Margreet van Es (Marie-Curie fellow, 2016-2018)
- Nina ter Laan (Religious Matters, UU)
Current:
- Manpreet Janeja (Religious Matters, UU) - Marleen de Witte (Religious Matters, UU) - Amélie Roussillon (Pressing Matter, NWA)
Publications:
Articles in Journals
2022 Disturbing Heritage. Allegra Lab. Anthropology for Radical Optimism. Part of the thematic thread Heritage out of Control (ed. Çiçek Ilengiz, Serawit B. Debele, Annika Kirbis) https://allegralaboratory.net/heritage-out-of-control-
recycdisturbing-heritage/?print=pdf
2021 (with Jeremy Stolow) Enlightening Religion: Light and Darkness in Religious Knowledge and Knowledge About Religion. Critical Research on Religion 9 (2):
119-125.
2021 What is Religion in Africa? Relational Dynamics in an Entangled World. Journal of Religion in Africa 50 (1-2): 156-181. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700666-
12340184
2020 Remapping Our Mindset: Towards a Transregional and Pluralistic Outlook.
Religion, Special Issue on “The Future of the Study of religion/s”, ed. by Steven Engler and Michael Stausberg, 50 (1): 113-121.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0048721X.2019.1681122 2020 Afterword: Comparison in the Anthropological Study of Plural Religious
Environments. Social Analysis 64 (1): 133-139.
https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/social- analysis/64/1/sa640110.xml
2020 Religion as Mediation. Entangled Religions 11 (3):
https://doi.org/10.13154/er.11.2020.8444
9 2020 (with Jeremy Stolow) Light Mediations: Introduction. Material Religion 16 (1): 1-
8. https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2019.1696557
2019 ‘Material Approaches to Religion’ Meet ‘New Materialism’: Resonances and Dissonances. Material Religion Vol 15 (5): 620-21.
DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2019.1666581
2019 Guidelines for Anthropological Research: Data Management, Ethics and Integrity (with Martijn de Koning, Annelies Moors, Peter Pels), Ethnography
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1466138119843312
2018 Frontier Zones and the Study of Religion. Journal for the Study of Religion 31(2):
57-78. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1011- 76012018000200004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
2017 Introduction: Sermon in the City: Christian and Islamic Preaching in West Africa (with Abdoulaye Sounaye) Journal of Religion in Africa 47: 1-8.
https://brill.com/view/journals/jra/47/1/article-p1_1.xml
2017 Comparison as Critique. Contribution to the Book Symposium Around Peter van der Veer’s The Value of Comparison, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 7(1): 509-515. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.14318/hau7.1.035 2017 Watching Movies in Ghana. Anthropology News. Dream factories.
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2017/03/09/watching-movies-in- ghana/ Posted March 9, 2017
2017 Preface. The Study of Religion Today (with Arie Molendijk). NTT 71 (1): 2-4.
2017 Afterword. Towards Religious Studies “New Style”, NTT 71(1): 96-105.
2016 Introduction: Towards a Framework for the Study of Christian-Muslim Encounters in Africa. (with Marloes Janson), Africa 86 (4): 615-619.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/introduction-towards-a- framework-for-the-study-of-christianmuslim-encounters-in-
africa/872F3D90F75107086980C2A197CBD9A4
2016 Towards a joint framework for the study of Christians and Muslims in Africa.
Response to J.D.Y. Peel, Africa 86 (4): 628-632.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/towards-a-joint-
framework-for-the-study-of-christians-and-muslims-in-africa-response-to-j-d-y- peel/8C08B52C03E2ECDAE539B6B25B80179A
2016 Responses, Reflections, and Afterthoughts (on comments by Adrian Hermann, Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, Rosalind Hackett, Duane Jethro, Stephanie Knauss,
10 David Morgan & Don Seeman on my book Sensational Movies), Religion 46 (4):
669-679. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0048721X.2016.1210399 2016 Three points About Current German Anthropology. Comment on World
Anthropology with an Accent: the Discipline in Germany since the 1970s, by Bierschenk, Thomas, Krings, Matthias, and Carola Lenz. American
Anthropologist 118 (2): 379-380.
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/aman.12539 2016 with Kim Knott & Volkhard Krech. Iconic Religion in Urban Space, Material
Religion 12:2: 123-136.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17432200.2016.1172759
2016 The Icon in Orthodox Christianity, Art History and Semiotics. Material Religion 12:2: 233-234
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17432200.2016.1172768 2016 How to Capture the Wow. R.R. Marett’s Notion of Awe and the Study of
Religion. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. (N.S.), 22 (1): 7-26.
https://rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9655.12331
2015 (with David Morgan, Crispin Paine and S. Brent Plate) Material Religion’s First Decade. Material Religion 10 (1): 105-111.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175183414X13909887177628 2015 Picturing the Invisible. Visual Culture and the Study of Religion. Method and
Theory in the Study of Religion 27: 333-360.
https://brill.com/view/journals/mtsr/27/4-5/article-p333_3.xml
2015 Art, Anthropology and Religion. Contribution to In Conversation “Secrets Under the Skin” (by Jill Flanders Crosby), Material Religion 11 (1):113-115.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/205393215X14259900061797 2014 Mediation and the Genesis of Presence (reprint of inaugural lecture), with a
response on comments by Hans Belting, Pamela Klassen, Chris Pinney, Monique Scheer, Religion & Society: Advances in Research 5: 205-254. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3167/arrs.2014.050114
2013 (with Marleen de Witte) Introduction. Heritage and the Sacred, Special Issue of Material Religion 9(3): 274-281.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175183413X13730330868870?jour nalCode=rfmr20
11 2012 (with Marleen de Witte) African Heritage Design: Entertainment Media and
Visual Aesthetics in Ghana Civilisations, 61(2): 43-64.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/43487295?seq=1
2012 Unexpected Synergies. Contribution to In Conversation “Locating the Textual Gaze. Then and Now” (by Terje Stordalen), Material Religion 8 (4): 530-531.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175183412X13522006995015 2012 Comment on T. Luhrman, A Hyperreal God and Modern Belief. Toward and
Anthropological Theory of Mind. Current Anthropology 53 (4): 388-389.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/666529
2011 Mediating Absence – Effecting Spiritual Presence. Pictures and the Christian Imagination. “IMAGE AS ACTION, IMAGE IN ACTION” special issue of Social Research: An International Quarterly, 78 (4): 1029-1056.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23349842?seq=1
2011 Mediation and Immediacy. Sensational Forms, Semiotic Ideologies and the Question of the Medium. Social Anthropology 19(1): 23-39. (Special issue What is the Medium? ed Patrick Eisenlohr.)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-8676.2010.00137.x 2011 Introduction: Key Words in Material Religion (With David Morgan, Crispin
Paine, S. Brent Plate.) Material Religion 7 (1): 4-9.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175183411X12968355481737?jour nalCode=rfmr20
2011 Medium. Material Religion, 7(1): 58-67 (Special Issue Key Terms in Material Religion, ed Birgit Meyer, David Morgan, Crispin Paine & S Brent Plate).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175183411X12968355482015 2010 Aesthetics of Persuasion. Global Christianity and Pentecostalism’s Sensational
Forms. South Atlantic Quarterly, Special Issue on Global Christianity, Global Critique, 9/2010: 741-763. https://read.dukeupress.edu/south-atlantic-
quarterly/article-abstract/109/4/741/3492/Aesthetics-of-Persuasion-Global- Christianity-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext
2010 The Origin and Mission of Material Religion. With David Morgan, Crispin Paine, S. Brent Plate. Religion, 40 (3): 207-211.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.religion.2010.01.010
2010 ‘Tradition and color at its best.’ ‘Tradition’ and ‘Heritage’ in Ghanaian Video- movies. Journal of African Cultural Studies. Special issue on African Screen Media. 22 (1): 7-23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40647596?seq=1
12 2010 “There is a Spirit in that Image.” Mass Produced Jesus Pictures and Protestant
Pentecostal Animation in Ghana. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 52 (1): 100-130. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in- society-and-history/article/there-is-a-spirit-in-that-image-massproduced-jesus- pictures-and-protestantpentecostal-animation-in-
ghana/2517791AA20746DB643A208CEDBC5087
2009 Comment on Ranger and Ter Haar & Ellis. Africa 79 (3): 413-415.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/response-to-ter-haar-and- ellis/CA226AED229C5682CF142794E3229E55
2008 Introduction. Special Issue Media and the Senses in the Making of Religious Experience. Material Religion 4 (2): 124-135.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175183408X328262
2008 Images du mal ou images maléfiques? Terrain. Special Issue ‘Le Diable’. No. 50:
32-43. [French Translation of 2008 Images of Evil in Popular Ghanaian
Christianity. In: Nelly van Doorn-Harder and Lourens Minnema (eds.), Coping with Evil in Religion and Culture: Case Studies. New York: Rodopi. Pp. 9-24.]
https://journals.openedition.org/terrain/8813
2008 Le Diable. Terrain. Special Issue ‘Le Diable’. No. 50: 4-13
2008 Powerful Pictures. Popular Protestant Aesthetics in Southern Ghana. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 76 (1): 82-110.
http://www.urbanlab.org/articles/Meyer,%20Birgit%202008%20Powerful%20Pic tures.pdf
2007 Pentecostalism and Neo-liberal Capitalism. Faith, Prosperity and Vision in African Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches. Journal for the Study of Religion 20 (2): 5-28. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24764190.pdf?seq=1
2006 Religious Revelation, Secrecy and the Limits of Visual Representation.
Anthropological Theory 6 (3): 431-453.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1463499606071596?journalCode=a nta
2005 (with Stephen Hughes) Introduction. Mediating Film and Religion in a Post- secular World. Postscripts 1 (2/3): 149-153.
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/POST/article/view/503
2005 Religious Remediations. Pentecostal Views in Ghanaian Video-Movies.
Postscripts 1 (2/3): 155-181.
https://journals.equinoxpub.com/index.php/POST/article/view/673
13 2005 (with Ria Reis) Interview with Matthew Schoffeleers: Anthropologist and Priest.
Etnofoor 18 (2): 23-46.
2004 Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 447-474.
2004 ‘Praise the Lord….’ Popular Cinema and Pentecostalite Style in Ghana’s New Public Sphere. American Ethnologist 31 (1): 92-110.
2003 Pentecostalism, prosperidade en cinema popular em Gana. Religião & Sociedade 23 (2): 11-32. [translation]
2003 Editorial. Special Issue. Religion and the Media. Journal of Religion in Africa 33 (2): 125-128.
2003 Visions of Blood, Sex and Money. Fantasy Spaces in Popular Ghanaian Cinema.
Visual Anthropology 16 (1): 15-41.
2002 Occult Forces on Screen: Representation and the Danger of Mimesis in Popular Ghanaian Films. Etnofoor 15 (1/2): 212-221.
2002 Christianity and the Ewe Nation. German Pietist Missionaries, Ewe Converts and the Politics of Culture. Journal of Religion in Africa 32 (2): 167-199.
2002 Pentecostalism, Prosperity and Popular Cinema in Ghana. Culture and Religion 3 (1): 67-87.
2001 (with Paul Nugent) Moral Discourses and Public Spaces in the Fourth Republic.
[Introduction to a section in Ghana studies on the Fourth Republic edited by Birgit Meyer and Paul Nugent] Ghana Studies 4: 3-5.
2001 Money, Power and Morality. Popular Ghanaian Cinema in the Fourth Republic.
Ghana Studies 4: 65-84.
2001 Prières, fusils et meurtre rituel. Le cinéma populaire et ses nouvelles figures du pouvoir et du success au Ghana. Politique Africaine No. 82: 45-62.
2000 (with Peter Geschiere) Réponse aux critiques sur ‘Globalization en Identity’.
Politique Africaine No. 78: 201-207.
2000 Populaire film en soap in Ghana. Decorum 1/2000: 13-18.
2000 Comment on H. Englund and J. Leach, Ethnography and Meta-Narratives of Modernity. Current Anthropology 41 (2): 241-42.
14 1999 Christendom en oorspronkelijke religie. Een etnografische benadering. Wereld en
Zending 28 (2): 18-23.
1999 Popular Ghanaian Cinema and ‘African Heritage’. Africa Today 46 (2): 93-114.
1998 The Power of Money. Politics, Sorcery and Pentecostalism in Ghana. African Studies Review 41 (3): 15-38.
1998 Commodities and the Power of Prayer. Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards Consumption in Contemporary Ghana. In: Birgit Meyer and Peter Geschiere (eds.), Globalization and Identity. Dialectics of Flow and Closure, Development and Change 29 (4): 751-777.
1998 (with Peter Geschiere) Introduction. In: Birgit Meyer and Peter Geschiere (eds.), Globalization and Identity. Dialectics of Flow and Closure, Development and Change 29 (4): 601-615.
1998 Waren und die Macht des Gebets. Zur Problematik des Konsums in ghanaischen Pfingstkirchen. Soziologus 48 (1): 42-72.
1998 ‘Make a complete break with the past.’ Erinnerung und postkoloniale Modernität im Diskurs ghanaischer Pfingstkirchen. Historische Anthropologie 6 (2): 257-283.
1998 ‘Make a complete break with the past.’ Memory and Post-colonial Modernity in Ghanaian Pentecostalist Discourse. Journal of Religion in Africa XXVII (3): 316- 349.
1998 Les églises pentecôtistes africaines, Satan et la dissociation de la ‘tradition’.
Anthropologie et Sociétés 22 (1) [Afrique Revisitée, sous la direction de T.K.
Biaya et G. Bibeau]: 63-84.
1997 ‘Heathendom’ and the Powers of Darkness: On the role of the Devil in the Preaching of the Missionaries of the Norddeutsche Missionsgesellschaft in the Nineteenth Century and the Contemporary African Churches. Trinity Journal of Church and Theology VII (1/2): 15-27.
1997 Christian Mind and Worldly Matters. Religion and Materiality in Nineteenth- century Gold Coast. Journal of Material Culture 2 (3): 311-337.
1995 Magic, Mermaids and Modernity. The Attraction of Pentecostalism in Africa.
Etnofoor 8 (2): 47-67.
1995 ‘Delivered from the Powers of Darkness.’ Confessions about Satanic Riches in Christian Ghana. Africa 65 (2): 236-255.
15 1992 ‘Delivered from the Powers of Darkness.’ Bekentenissen over duivelse rijkdom in
christelijk Ghana. Etnofoor 5 (1/2): 234-256.
1992 ‘If You Are a Devil You Are a Witch and, if You Are a Witch You Are a Devil.’
The Integration of ‘Pagan’ Ideas into the Conceptual Universe of Ewe Christians in Southeastern Ghana. The Journal of Religion in Africa XXII (2): 98-132.
1991 Zum Teufel mit den Hexen. Zur Ideenwelt afrikanischer Christen. Evangelische Aspekte 1 (2): 13-16.
1989 ‘Komm herüber und hilf uns.’ Of hoe zendelingen de Ewe met andere ogen gingen bekijken (1847-1914). Etnofoor 2 (2): 91-111.
1987/1988 Weten moet geweten worden. De sexuele voorlichting van de Nieuw- Malthusiaanse Bond van 1881-1900. Script 9 (4): 273-285.
Chapters in Edited Volumes
2021 Mobilizing Theory. Concluding Thoughts. In: Birgit Meyer & Peter van der Veer (eds.), Refugees and Religion. Ethnographic Studies of Global Trajectories.
London: Bloomsbury. Pp 256-273
2020 Religion und Pandemie. In: Bernd Kortmann & Günther Schulze (eds), Jenseits von Corona. Unsere Welt nach der Pandemie – Perspektiven aus der
Wissenschaft. Bielefeld: Transcript. 147-156.
2020 Afterword. In: Markus Balkenhol, Ernst van den Hemel, and Irende Stengs (eds.), The Secular Sacred. Emotions of Belonging and the Perils of Nation and Religion, London: Palgrave. Pp 285-290.
2019 Christendom als Erfgoed. In: Joas Wagemakers & Lucien van Liere (eds.), Wie is er bang voor religie? Waarom kennis van religie belangrijk is. Almere:
Parthenon. Pp. 106-117.
http://www.uitgeverijparthenon.nl/parthenon_wagemakers2.html
2019 Recycling the Christian Past. The Heritagization of Christianity and National Identity in the Netherlands. In: Rosemarie Buikema, Antoine Buyse, Antonius Robben (eds.), Culture, Citizenship and Human Rights. London. New York:
Routledge. Pp. 64-88. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429198588 2019 Introduction: Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam (with Terje Stordalen). In: Birgit Meyer & Terje Stordalen (eds), Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism, Christianity and Islam: Contested Desires. London: Bloomsbury. Pp.1-20
https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/figurations-and-sensations-of-the-
16 unseen-in-judaism-christianity-and-islam-contested-desires/introduction-
figurations-and-sensations-of-the-unseen-in-judaism-christianity-and-islam 2019 Idolatry beyond the Second Commandment: Conflicting Figurations
and Sensations of the Unseen. In: Birgit Meyer & Terje Stordalen (eds), Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism, Christianity and Islam:
Contested Desires. London: Bloomsbury. Pp. 77-96.
https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/figurations-and-sensations-of-the- unseen-in-judaism-christianity-and-islam-contested-desires/ch4-idolatry-beyond- the-second-commandment-conflicting-figurations-and-sensations-of-the-unseen- thanks-to-ulrike-brunotte-pooyan-tamimi-arab-jeroen-be
2019 Entravista com Birgit Meyer. Interview. In: Como as Coisas Importam. Uma Abordagem Material de Religião. Textos de Birgit Meyer. Emerson Giumbelli, João Rickli, Rodrigo Toniol (organizadores). Porto Alegre: UFRGs. Pp. 275-292.
http://livraria.ufrgs.br/produto/15280/como-as-coisas-importam-uma-abordagem- material-da-religiao-textos-de-birgit-meyer
2019 ‘Pentecost’ in the World. In: Annelin Eriksen, Ruy Llera Blanes, Michelle MacCarthy, Going to Pentecost. An Experimental Approach to Studies of Pentecostalism. Oxford: Berghahn, Pp. 209-215.
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/EriksenGoing/9781789 201406_OA.pdf
2018 Frontier Zones and the Study of Religion. Journal for the Study of Religion 31(2):
57-78. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1011- 76012018000200004&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en
2018 Afterword: Media Dynamics of Religious Diversity. In: Knut Lundby (ed.), Contesting Religion. The Media Dynamics of Cultural Conflicts in Scandinavia.
Berlin: De Gruyter. Pp. 333-338.
https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/478981
2018 Heritage Dynamics: Politics of Authentication, Aesthetics of Persuasion and the Cultural Production of the Real. (with Mattijs van de Port) In: Sense and Essence.
Heritage and the Cultural Construction of the Real. Co-edited with Mattijs van de Port. Oxford/New York: Berghahn. Pp.1-39
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/intros/MeyerSense_intro.pdf 2018 Introduction (with Christiane Kruse and Anne-Marie Korte). In: Taking Offense.
Religion, Art and Visual Culture in Plural Settings. Co-edited with Christiane Kruse and Anne-Marie Korte. München: Fink Verlag. Pp. 9-16.
https://www.fink.de/fileadmin/downloads/fink/1_Introduction_- _Birgit_Meyer__Christiane_Kruse__Anne-Marie_Korte.pdf
17 2018 The Dynamics of Taking Offense. Concluding Thoughts and Outlook. In: Taking
Offense. Religion, Art and Visual Culture in Plural Settings. Co-edited with Christiane Kruse and Anne-Marie Korte. München: Fink Verlag. Pp. 340-372.
https://www.fink.de/fileadmin/downloads/fink/13_Birgit_Meyer.pdf
2017 Catholicism and the Study of Religion. In: Kristin Norget, Valentina Napolitano, Maya Mayblin (eds), The Anthropology of Catholicism. A Reader. Berkeley:
University of California Press. Pp 305-315.
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520288447/the-anthropology-of-catholicism 2016 Afterword. Creativity in Transition. In: Maruška Svašek & Birgit Meyer (eds.),
Creativity in Transition. Politics and Aesthetics of Cultural Production Across the Globe. New York, Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 312-318.
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SvasekCreativity
2016 Tastbare Transzendenz – die Anwesendheit von Religion im Raum der Stadt / Tangible Transcendence and the Presence of Religion in Urban Space. In:
Susanne Lanwerd (ed), The Urban Sacred. Städtisch-religiöse Arrangements in Amsterdam, Berlin und London / How Religion Makes and Takes Place in Amsterdam, Berlin and London. Ausstellungskatalog / Exhibition Catalogue.
Berlin: Metropol Verlag. Pp.144-151. http://www.urban-sacred.org/catalogue- tangible-transcendence-and-the-presence-of-religion-in-urban-space/
2015 Medium. Key Terms in Material Religion. In: Brent Plate (ed.). London:
Bloomsbury. (reprint of article Medium, in Material Religion 7/2011), Pp. 139- 144. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/key-terms-in-material-religion-
9781472595454/
2015 How Pictures Matter. Religious Objects and the Imagination in Ghana. In: O.
Fuglerud & L. Wainwright (eds.), Objects and Imagination. Perspectives on Materialization and Meaning. Oxford: Berghahn. Pp 160-182.
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/FuglerudObjects
2013 Lessons From “Global Prayers”: How Religion Takes Place in the City. In:
Jochen Becker, Katrin Klinghan, Stephan Lanz, Kathrin Wildner (eds), Global Prayers. Contemporary Manifestations of the Religions in the City. Zürich: Lars Müller Publishers. Pp. 591-599.
2013 Mediation and Immediacy. Sensational Forms, Semiotic Ideologies and the Question of the Medium. (reprint of 2011 article in Social Anthropology). In: M.
Lambek & J. Boddy (eds), Companion to the Anthropology of Religion. Oxford:
Blackwell. Pp. 309-326.
2013 Material Mediations and Religious Practices of World-making. In: Knut Lundby (ed), Religion Across Media: From Early Antiquity to Late Modernity. New York:
Peter Lang. Pp. 1-19.
18 2012 Introduction. Material Religion – How Things Matter. In: D. Houtman & B.
Meyer (eds.), Things: Religion and the Question of Materiality. New York:
Fordham University Press, Pp. 1-23.
2012 Christianity in Africa: From African Independent to Pentecostal-Charismatic Churches. (shortened reprint of article in Annual Review of Anthropology, with a new epilogue). In: Elias Kifon Bongmba (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Compagnion to African Religions. Oxford and Malden: Blackwell, pp 153-170.
2012 Religious and Secular, ‘Spiritual’ and ‘Physical’ in Ghana. In: Courtney Bender
& Ann Taves (eds.), What Matters? Ethnographies of Value in a (Not So) Secular Age. New York: Columbia University Press (SSRC-series): 86-118.
2012 Religious Sensations: Media, Aesthetics, and the Study of Contemporary
Religion. (shortened version of Religious Sensations, 2008). In: Gordon Lynch &
Jolyon Mitchell, with Anna Strhan (eds.), Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader.
New York, London: Routledge. Pp.159-170
2011 Self-contained. Glamorous Houses and Modes of Personhood in Ghanaian Video- movies. In: Ann Cassiman (ed.), Bodies of Belonging. Inhabiting Worlds in Rural West Africa. City Museum of Antwerp. Pp. 153-169.
2011 Going and Making Public. Some Reflections on Pentecostalism as Public Religion in Ghana. In: Harri Englund (ed), Christianity and Public Culture in Africa. Columbus: Ohio University Press. Pp. 149-166.
2010 Ghanaian Popular Video-Movies between State Film Policies and Nollywood:
Discourses and Tensions. In: Mahir Saul and Ralph A. Austen (eds.), Viewing African Cinema in the 21st Century. Columbus: Ohio University Press. Pp. 42-62.
2010 Pentecostalism and Globalization. In: A. Anderson, M. Bergunder, A. Droogers &
C. van der Laan (eds.), Studying Global Pentecostalism. Theories and Methods.
Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 113-130.
2010 Claude Lévi-Strauss. In: KNAW, Levensberichten en Herdenkingen 2010.
Amsterdam: KNAW. PP. 83-88.
2009 Introduction. From Imagined Communities to Aesthetic Formations: Religious Mediations, Sensational Forms and Styles of Binding. In: Birgit Meyer (ed.), Aesthetic Formations. Media, Religion and the Senses in the Making of Communities. Palgrave. Pp. 1-28.
19 2009 Pentecostalism and Modern Audio-Visual Media. In: Kimani Njogu & John
Middleton (ed.), Media and Identity in Africa. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the IAI. Pp. 114-123.
2008 Religie, mediatechnologieën en openbaarheid. In: M. D. J. van Well (ed.), Deus et machina. De verwevenheid van technologie en religie. Den Haag: STT. Pp. 88-97.
2008 (with Jojada Verrips) Aesthetics. In D. Morgan (ed.), Key Words in Religion, Media, Culture. London, New York: Routledge. Pp. 20-30.
2008 (with Jojada Verrips) Kwaku’s Car. The Struggles and Stories of a Ghanaian Long-Distance Taxi Driver. In: Peter Geschiere, Birgit Meyer & Peter Pels (eds.), Readings in Modernity in Africa. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the IAI, P. 155-165; Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Reprint of Kwaku’s Car. In: Daniel Miller (ed.), Car Cultures. Oxford: Berg Publishers.
Pp.153-184.]
2008 (with Peter Geschiere and Peter Pels) Introduction. In: Peter Geschiere, Birgit Meyer & Peter Pels (eds.), Readings in Modernity in Africa. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the IAI; Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Pp. 1-7.
2008 Mami Water as a Christian Demon. The Eroticism of Forbidden Pleasures in Southern Ghana. In: Henry J. Drewal (ed.), Sacred Waters Arts for Mami Wata and Other Divinities in Africa and the Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press. Pp. 383-398.
2008 Religious Sensations. Why Media, Aesthetics and Power Matter in the Study of Contemporary Religion. In: Hent de Vries (ed.), Religion: Beyond a Concept.
New York: Fordham University Press. Pp. 704-723. [Reprint of inaugural lecture.]
2008 Witchcraft: Witchcraft and Christianity. In: New Encyclopedia of Africa. Edited by John Middleton (Editor in Chief) and Joseph C. Miller (Editor), volume 5, pp.
26-230. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons.
2008 Images of Evil in Popular Ghanaian Christianity. In: Nelly van Doorn-Harder and Lourens Minnema (eds.), Coping with Evil in Religion and Culture: Case Studies.
New York: Rodopi. Pp. 9-24.
2007 Der Teufel und die einheimischen Götter. In: Silke Seybold (Hg), All About Evil.
Das Böse. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern. Pp. 40-47
2007 Religious Mediations. Pentecostal Views in Ghanaian Video Movies. In: Jolyon Mitchell and S. Brent Plate (eds.), The Religion and Film Reader. New York and
20 London: Routledge. Pp. 95-102. [Abridged version of Religious Remediations in Postcripts, 2005.]
2007 Religious Mediations. Pentecostal Views in Ghanaian Video Movies. In: Stefanie Knauss & Alexander D. Ornella (eds.), Reconfigurations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion in a Post-Secular Society. Vienna: Lit. Pp. 89-112.
[Reprint of Religious Remediations in Postcripts, 2005.]
2007 Sensuous Mediations. The City in Ghanaian Films – And Beyond. In: Rob van Ginkel & Alex Strating (eds.), Wildness & Sensation. Anthropology of Sinister and Sensuous Realms. Apeldoorn, Antwerpen: Spinhuis. Pp. 254-274.
2006 Prayers, Guns and Ritual Murder. Power and the Occult in Ghanaian Popular Cinema. In: Jim Kiernan (ed.), The Power of the Occult in Africa. Münster: Lit Verlag. Pp. 182-205.
2006 Impossible Representations. Pentecostalism, Vision, and Video Technology in Ghana. In: Birgit Meyer & Annelies Moors (eds.), Religion, Media and the Public Sphere. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Pp. 290-312.
2006 (with Annelies Moors) Introduction. In: Birgit Meyer & Annelies Moors (eds.), Religion, Media and the Public Sphere. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. Pp. 1-25.
2006 (with Brian Larkin) Pentecostalism, Islam and Culture: New Religious
Movements in West Africa. In: Emmanuel Akyeampong (ed.), Themes in West African History. Oxford: James Currey; Athens; Ohio University Press; Accra:
Woeli Publishing Services. Pp. 286-312.
2005 Mediating Tradition: Pentecostal Pastors, African Priests, and Chiefs in Ghanaian Popular Films. In: Toyin Falola (ed.), Christianity and Social Change in Africa.
Essays in Honor of J.D.Y. Peel. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press. Pp. 275- 306.
2004 Die Erotik des Bösen. Mami Water als ‘christlicher’ Dämon in ghanaischen und nigerianischen Videfilmen. In: Tobias Wendl (ed.), Africa Screams. Die
Wiederkehr des Bösen in Kino, Kunst und Kult. Wuppertal: Peter Hammer Verlag.
Pp. 199-210.
2003 Pentecostalism, Prosperity, and Popular Cinema in Ghana. In: S. Brent Plate (ed.), Representing Religion in World Cinema. Filmmaking, Mythmaking, Culture Making. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 121-144. [reprint]
21 2003 Ghanaian Popular Cinema and the Magic in and of Film. In: Birgit Meyer and
Peter Pels (eds.), Magic and Modernity. Interfaces of Revelation and Concealment. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Pp. 200-222.
2002 Commodities and the Power of Prayer: Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards
Consumption in Contemporary Ghana. In: J. Xavier Inda and R. Rosaldo (eds.), The Anthropology of Globalization. A Reader. Malden, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Pp. 247-269. [reprint]
2000/2001 Culturele Antropologie: Een Toekomstvisie / Cultural Anthropology: A Vision of the Future. In: K. van Dam (et. al.), Toekomstbeelden / Perspectives on the Future. Jaarboek Universiteit van Amsterdam / Yearbook University of Amsterdam 2000/2001. Amsterdam: Vossiuspers. Pp. 116-124.
2001 Diabolism. In: Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religion. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Reference Works. Pp. 114-115.
2001 You Devil, go away from me! Pentecostalist African Christianity and the Powers of Good and Evil. In: Paul Clough & Jon Mitchell (eds.), The Powers of Good and Evil. Oxford: Berghahn Publishers. Pp. 104-134.
2001 (with Jojada Verrips) Kwaku’s Car. The Struggles and Stories of a Ghanaian Long-Distance Taxi Driver. In: Daniel Miller (ed.), Car Cultures. Oxford: Berg Publishers. Pp. 153-184.
2000 De erotiek van het grote geld. In: H. Driessen & H. de Jonge (eds.), Miniature Etnografische. Nijmegen: Sun. Pp.79-82.
1999 Commodities and the Power of Prayer. Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards Consumption in Contemporary Ghana. In: Birgit Meyer and Peter Geschiere (eds.), Globalization and Identity. Dialectics of Flow and Closure. Oxford:
Blackwell. Pp. 151-76. [reprint]
1999 (with Peter Geschiere) Introduction. In: Birgit Meyer and Peter Geschiere (eds.), Globalization and Identity. Dialectics of Flow and Closure. Oxford: Blackwell.
Pp. 1-16. [reprint]
1998 ‘Make a complete break with the past.’ Memory and Post-colonial Modernity in Ghanaian Pentecostal Discourse. In: R. Werbner (ed.), Memory in the Postcolony.
African Anthropology and the Critique of Power. London/New York: Zed Publications. Pp. 182-208. [reprint]
1998 Een visie op de culturele antropologie nu en in de toekomst. In: A. Gevers (ed.), Uit de Zevende. Vijftig jaar politieke en sociaal-culturele wetenschappen aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis. Pp. 172-185.
22 1996 Modernity and Enchantment. The Image of the Devil in Popular African
Christianity. In: P. van der Veer (ed.), Conversion to Modernities. London:
Routledge. Pp. 199-230.
1994 Beyond Syncretism: Translation and Diabolization in the Appropriation of Protestantism in Africa. In: Ch. Stewart & R. Shaw (eds.), Syncretism/Anti- syncretism. The Politics of Religious Synthesis. London: Routledge. Pp. 45-67.
1994 Satan, slangen en geld. Bekentenissen over duivelse rijkdom in christelijk Ghana.
In: H. Driessen en H. de Jonge (eds.), In de ban van betekenis. Proeven van een symbolische antropologie. Nijmegen: Sun. Pp. 156-172.
1994 De duivel uitgezonden: De incorporatie van ‘heidense’ elementen in het protestantisme. In: G. Rooijakkers, L. Dresen-Coenders en M. Geerdes (eds.), Duivelsbeelden. Een cultuurhistorische speurtocht door de lage landen. Baarn:
Ambo. Pp. 259-285.
1993 ‘If You Are a Devil You Are a Witch and, if You Are a Witch You Are a Devil.’
The Integration of ‘Pagan’ Ideas into the Conceptual Universe of Ewe Christians in Southeastern Ghana. In: M. Bax and A. Koster (eds.), Power and Prayer.
Religious and Political Processes in Past and Present. Amsterdam: VU University Press. Pp. 161-185.
1989 ‘Komm herüber und hilf uns!’ Das Evangelium unter den Ewe (1847 bis 1914).
In: F. Grothjahn & H.-M. Gutmann (Hrsg.), ‘Hingehen nach Galiläa.’
Ökumenische Theologie in der Bundesrepublik, Möglichkeiten und Grenzen ihrer Rezeption. Bd. 10/11 der Schriftenreihe des Evangelischen Studienwerks
(Parabel). Münster: édition liberación. Pp. 93-105, 232-233.
Books
2021 Refugees and Religion. Ethnographic Studies of Global Trajectories. Co-edited with Peter van der Veer. London: Bloomsbury.
2019 Figurations and Sensations of the Unseen in Judaism, Christianity and Islam:
Contested Desires. Co-edited with Terje Stordalen. London: Bloomsbury.
https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/figurations-and-sensations-of-the- unseen-in-judaism-christianity-and-islam-contested-desires/
2019 Como as Coisas Importam. Uma Abordagem Material de Religião. Textos de Birgit Meyer. Emerson Giumbelli, João Rickli, Rodrigo Toniol (organizadores).
Porto Alegre: UFRGs. (translation of some of my chapters and articles, see:
https://www.religiousmatters.nl/buildings-images-and-objects/article/new-book- release-texts-by-birgit-meyer-translated-into-portuguese/) and
23 http://livraria.ufrgs.br/produto/15280/como-as-coisas-importam-uma-abordagem- material-da-religiao-textos-de-birgit-meyer
2018 Sense and Essence. Heritage and the Cultural Construction of the Real. Co-edited with Mattijs van de Port. Oxford, New York: Berghahn.
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/MeyerSense
2018 Taking Offense. Religion, Art and Visual Culture in Plural Settings. Co-edited with Christiane Kruse and Anne-Marie Korte. München: Fink Verlag.
https://www.fink.de/katalog/titel/978-3-7705-6345-6.html
2016 Creativity in Transition. Politics and Aesthetics of Cultural Production Across the Globe. (Edited together with Maruška Svašek). Oxford: Berghahn.
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SvasekCreativity
2015 Sensational Movies. Video, Vision and Christianity in Ghana. Berkeley: The University of California Press.
https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520287686/sensational-movies
2012 Things. Religion and the Question of Materiality (Edited together with Dick Houtman). New York: Fordham.
https://fordham.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.5422/fordham/97808232 39450.001.0001/upso-9780823239450
2009 Aesthetic Formations. Media, Religion and the Senses. (Edited volume based on Pionier research program.) New York: Palgrave. Appeared as paperback in 7/2010. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230605558
2008 Readings in Modernity in Africa. (Edited together with Peter Geschiere & Peter Pels.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press on behalf of the IAI; Bloomington:
Indiana University Press.
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=72560
2006 Religion, Media and the Public Sphere. (Edited together with Annelies Moors.) Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=22603 2003 Magic and Modernity. Dialectics of Revelation and Concealment. (Edited
together with Peter Pels.) Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.
https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=3311
1999 Translating the Devil. Religion and Modernity among the Ewe in Ghana. IAL- Series. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
http://africaworldpressbooks.com/translating-the-devil-religion-and-modernity- among-the-ewe-in-ghana-by-birgit-meyer/
24 1999 Globalization and Identity. Dialectics of Flow and Closure. (Edited together Peter
Geschiere.) Oxford: Blackwell. Second Edition in 2003. [Book version of special issue Development and Change.] https://www.wiley.com/en-
us/Globalization+and+Identity%3A+Dialectics+of+Flow+and+Closure-p- 9780631212386
1998 Globalization and Identity. Dialectics of Flows and Closures. (Edited together with Peter Geschiere.) Development and Change 29 (4).
1995 Translating the Devil. An African Appropriation of Pietist Protestantism. The Case of the Peki Ewe, 1847-1992. University of Amsterdam: Dissertation.
Special Issues
2021 Enlightening Religion. Co-edited with Jeremy Stolow. Critical Research on Religion 9 (2).
2020 Light Mediations. Co-edited with Jeremy Stolow. Material Religion 16 (1).
2017 Sermon in the City. Co-edited with Abdoulaye Sounaye. Journal of Religion in Africa (47/1). https://brill.com/view/journals/jra/47/1/article-
p1_1.xml?language=en
2017 The Study of Religion Today. NTT 71 (1) co/edited with Arie Molendijk.
2016 Studying Islam and Christianity in Africa: Moving Beyond a Bifurcated Field Special Section of Africa 86 (4): 615- 697 (co-edited with Marloes Janson).
2016 Iconic Religion in Urban Space, Special Issue of Material Religion, 12(2) (co- edited with Kim Knott and Volkhard Krech)
2013 Heritage and the Sacred, Special Issue of Material Religion (9/3) (co-edited with Marleen de Witte).
2011 Key Words in Material Religion, Special Issue of Material Religion (7/1) (co- edited with David Morgan, Crispin Paine & S Brent Plate)
2008 Media and the Senses in the Making of Religious Experience. Special Issue of Material Religion 4 (2).
2005 Mediating Film and Religion in a Post-secular World, co-edited with Stephen Hughes. Special Issue Postscripts 1 (2/3).
2003 Religion and the Media. Special Issue of Journal of Religion in Africa, 33 (2).
25 2002 Missions: the Politics of Culture and Gender. Special Issue of the Journal of
Religion in Africa, 32 (2).
2001 Section with articles on Fourth Republic, edited by Birgit Meyer and Paul Nugent.
Ghana Studies 4.
Online Texts/Comments
2021 Corona en de crisis van de moderne mens. Utrecht Religie Forum:
https://urf.sites.uu.nl/2021/12/20/corona-en-de-crisis-van-de-moderne-mens/, 20 December 2021
2020 Studying Religion in and from Africa. Africa Knows! Online conference Blog, African Studies Centre Leiden: https://www.africaknows.eu/studying-religion-in- and-from-africa/ , 19 December 2020
2020 Religieuze objecten in museale collecties. Utrecht Religie Forum:
https://urf.sites.uu.nl/2020/12/16/religieuze-objecten-in-museale-collecties/, 16 December 2020
2020 Media. SSRC A Universe of Terms. http://tif.ssrc.org/2020/02/14/media-meyer/
2019 New Vistas in Studying Religion and Public Life. Concluding Essay to Rethinking Public Religion: Word, Image, Sound; https://tif.ssrc.org/2019/07/02/new-vistas- in-studying-religion-and-public-life/
2014 Afterword, Catalogue of the exposition The Spiritual Highway. Religious World making in Megacity Lagos, curated by Marloes Janson, photographs by Akintunde Akinleye, London: SOAS, Brunei Gallery. Pp 46-49.
2014 Comment on “Researching Muslim Worlds: Regions and Disciplines” by Ulrike Freitag. http://www.zmo.de/publikationen/Kommentare/meyer_pp6.pdf
2014 Pentecostal Aesthetics of Persuasion. In: Annalisa Butticci (ed), Na God.
Aesthetics of African Charismatic Power (Exhibition catalogue). Padua: Padua University. Pp. 65-76. (reprint of excerpts from my article ‘Aesthetics of Persuasion,’ South Atlantic Quarterly, 2010)
http://www.pentecostalaesthetics.net/the-catalog/
see also numerous texts on the website of the research program Religious Matters in an Entangled World: https://religiousmatters.nl/author/birgit-meyer/
Inaugural lectures
2012 Mediation and the Genesis of Presence. Towards a Material Approach to Religion. Inaugural Lecture, Utrecht University, 19 October 2012.
26 2006 Religious Sensations. Why Media, Aesthetics and Power Matter in the Study of
Contemporary Religion. Inaugural Lecture, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 6 October 2006.
Working Papers
2003 Impossible Representations. Pentecostalism, Vision, and Video Technology in Ghana. Working Paper on the web. Universität Mainz.
1999 Popular Ghanaian Cinema and the African Heritage. Working Paper 7. The Hague: WOTRO-Project ‘Globalization and the Construction of Communal Identities’.
1997 Commodities and the Power of Prayer. Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards
Consumption in Contemporary Ghana. Working Paper 1. The Hague: WOTRO- Project ‘Globalization and the Construction of Communal Identities’.
1995 ‘Delivered from the Powers of Darkness.’ Geständnisse über teuflischen
Reichtum im christlichen Ghana. Sozialanthropologische Arbeitspapiere Nr. 63.
1992 Beyond Syncretism: Africanization Through Translation and Diabolization. PdIS:
Work in Progress, Nr. 35.
Book Reviews
2010 In Paideuma: Thomas Kirsch, ‘Spirits and Letters. Reading, Writing and Charisma in African Christianity.’ New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2008. Pp.
2007 In Journal of Southern African Studies 33 (2): 452-455: Adam Ashforth,
‘Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa.’ Chicago and London:
The University of Chicago Press 2005; Harry G. West, ‘Kupilikula. Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique.’ Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2005.
2005 In Journal of African History 46 (2): 372-374. Paul Gifford, ‘Ghana’s New Christianity. Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy.’ London: C.
Hurst & Co, 2004.
2003 In Journal of Contemporary Religion 18 (1): 134-135: David Martin, ‘The World Their Parish.’ Oxford & Malden: Blackwell, 2002.
2001 In African Studies Review 44 (3): 140-142: Carola Lentz, ‘Die Konstruktion von Ethnizität. Eine politische Geschichte Nord-West Ghanas, 1870-1990’ (Studien zur Kulturkunde Bd. 112). Köln: Rüdiger Koppe Verlag.
27 2001 In Journal of Religion in Africa 31 (3): 360-362: Allan H. Anderson and Walter J.
Hollenweger (eds.), ‘Pentecostals After a Century: Global Perspectives on a Movement in Transition.’ Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999.
1999 In Journal of Religion in Africa 29 (4): 498-500: Kofi Agawu, ‘African Rhythm.
A Northern Ewe Perspective.’ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
1996 In Journal of Religion in Africa XXVII (1): 102-05: David A. Shank, (Abridged by Jocelyn Murray), ‘The Prophet Harris, The ‘Black Elijah’ of West Africa.’
Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1994.
1995 In Africa 65 (2): 316-17: Michael Schönhuth, ‘Das Einsetzen der Nacht in die Rechte des Tages. Hexerei im symbolischen Kontext afrikanischer und europäischer Weltbilder.’ Münster, Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 1992.
1994 In Journal of Religion in Africa XXIV (3): 291-92: Kwame Anthony Appiah, ‘In My Father's House. Africa in the Philosophy of Culture.’ New York, Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1992.
1993 In Medische Antropologie 5 (1): 144-47: Friedrich Hermann Fischer, ‘Der Missionsarzt Rudolf Fisch und die Anfänge medizinischer Arbeit der Basler Mission an der Goldküste (Ghana).’ Herzogenrath: Verlag Murken-Altrogge, 1991.
1991 In Critique of Anthropology 11 (4): 409-12: C. Tilley (ed.), ‘Reading Material Culture. Structuralism, Hermeneutics and Post-Structuralism.’ Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990.
1988 In Etnofoor 1 (2): 128-33: A.G. van Beek, ‘The Way of all Flesh. Hunting and Ideology of the Bedamuni of the Great Papuan Plateau (Papua New Guinea).’
Leiden: Academisch proefschrift, 1987.
Key Notes and Public Lectures
Naar een nieuw mensbeeld? Online Lecture. Serie seminars Corona: Crisis of kans?
Messiaskerk, Wassenaar, 13 oktober 2021.
Disturbing Heritage. Keynote. Conference Heritage Out of Control. Inheriting Waste, Spirits and Energies. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Göttingen, 17-19 May 2021.
Religion and the Pandemic. Online lecture, Seminar Series, Religion, Crisis and Disaster, 24 February 2021.
28 What is “Religion” in Africa? Relational Dynamics in an Entangled World. Keynote Africa. 60 Years of Independence, African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Stadsgehoorzaal, 30 January 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGo4i_CDVU&list=PL3jTXkJkr0YTwixZixQPru0bQljLZ vHsu&index=3&t=0s
Christian Matters in Ghana and the Netherlands. Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, 21 January 2020
How Economy Matters. Materiality, Relationality and Exchange in the Study of Religion from Africa, 41st Conference of the Association for the study of religion in Southern Africa, 4 September 2019.
Opening Pitch “Religion and Heritage”, International Conference Religious Heritage in Diverse Europe, Groningen University, 19 June 2019.
Religion and/as Heritage, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil, 11 April 2019
Studying Religion in and from Africa, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 9 April 2019
Religious Matters in Public Spaces, Unicamp, Campinas, Brazil, 3 April 2019
Religious Matters in Public Spaces. Institute for Religion, Cultre and Public Life, Columbia University, 21 February 2019. https://ircpl.columbia.edu/media/
Towards New Synergies: SSH and the World. Keynote NWO Synergy Conference, 7 February 2019, Bussum (https://www.religiousmatters.nl/buildings-images-and-objects/article/towards- new-synergies-ssh-and-the-world-1/)
How Past Things Matter. Keynote Presented at the Ravenstein Seminar OSL Winter School
“Memory Studies and Materiality”, 24 January 2019.
Space, Co-Existence and Religious Plurality. Opening Keynote Presented at the Symposium Conceptualizing Sacred Space/s. Perspectives from the Study of Culture. 23– 25 May 2018, International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC), Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen.
Materiality and Transcendence. Religious Matters in Plural Configurations. Opening Keynote Presented at the conference Religion, Media and Materiality: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religious Authority. Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Centrum für Religionswissenschaftliche Studien (CERES), Bochum, 17-19 January 2018.
Keynote about my Scholarly Trajectory, given at Student Research Conference 2017, University College Roosevelt, 15 November 2017
29 Studying Religion in and from Africa. Opening lecture for the William James Guest-
professorship, Department of Religious Studies, Bayreuth University, 6 November 2017;
Keynote research symposium Theory from the South, Leeds University, 25/26 January 2018.
Religious Matters in Urban Spaces. Paper Presented in the Plenary “Moral Cities: Religious Belonging and Cohabitation in Urban Spaces, Organised by Hansjörg Dilger, DGV-Tagung Freie Universität Berlin, 6 October 2017
Religious Matters in an Entangled World. Materiality and the Study of Religion. Keynote Presented at the Deutsche Vereiningung für Religionswissenschaft, Marburg, 13-16 September 2017.
Wat is de Functie van het lichaam binnen religie? Short lecture in De staat van God, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, 27 June 2017.
Beeldenstormen. Religiewetenschap en de relatie tussen mensen en beelden. Koninklijk Genootschap Physica, Alkmaar, 6 maart 2017.
Sensational Movies. Ghanaian Films as Oneiric Spaces of and for the Imagination. Center for African Studies, Yale University, 16 November 2016.
Lecture Studium generale, Utrecht. Hoe geloven wij? 9 November 2016
Iconoclasme. Religie en de kracht van en macht over beelden. Openbaar College in het kader van de toekenning prijs Akademiehoogleraar, KNAW, 15 September 2016.
Beyond the Second Commandment. Images, Image Wars and the Study of Religion. Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, 19 November 2015, Divinity School Yale University, 6 April 2016, Concordia University Montreal, 7 April 2016.
Beeldenstormen – toen en nu, hier en elders. Keynote. Science in the City. Culturele Zondag, Universiteit Utrecht, 3 April 2016.
Visual Culture and the Study of Religion. Keynote at the Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) ‘Religion and Pluralities of Knowledge,’
Groningen 12 May 2014.
How to Capture the Wow. Awe and the Study of Religion. Marett Lecture, Oxford, Exeter College, 2 May 2014.
Sensational Pictures. Visual Culture, Objects and the Study of Religion, lecture held at Jour Fixe of Cluster of Excellence ‘Asia and Europe in a Global Context,’ Heidelberg 12 December 2013.
