Dr. Vanessa Rau

Vanessa Rau is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Socio-Cultural Diversity and part of the ZOMiDi project, “Civil Society Organizations and the Challenges of Migration and Diversity: Agents of Change”. Here, she is responsible for a study of an organization of the disabled. Vanessa completed a Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Cambridge (2019) focusing on migration and diaspora, religion, secularities, and the politics of identity in diverse urban spaces. She completed an M.A. jointly at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt University Berlin, and a B.A. in Social and Political Science at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include migration and diversity, the theory and politics of religion and secularism, identity and belonging, gender and sexuality, as well as post-colonial approaches to race and ethnicity and the politics of difference. She has worked with different community and development organizations and foundations, particularly in the context of intercultural/inter-religious dialogue in different parts of the world, including the U.S., Chile, and Rwanda. She has also coordinated projects on Jewish-Muslim relations, and conducts workshops in the context of civic education.

Research projects

• Becoming Jewish Berlin-style
• ZOMiDi · Civil society organizations and the challenges of migration and diversity: agents of change. Teilprojekt "Behinderung/sexuelle Minderheiten" (with Karen Schönwälder and Sanja Bökle, in cooperation with Helen Baykara-Krumme (now University Duisburg-Essen))
• ORA Joint Research Project ENCOUNTERS · Muslim-Jewish encounter, diversity & distance in urban Europe: Religion, culture and social model

Publications

Books

Hensold, J., Kynes, J.A., Öhlmann, P., Rau, V., Schinagl, R.C., Taleb, A. (Eds.) (2020). "Religion in Motion. Rethinking Religion, Knowledge and Discourse in a Globalizing World". Springer.

Rau, V., & Nicoubin, M. (Eds.). (2023). Religionsverfassungsrecht revisited: Religion, Säkularität und Gesellschaft im Wandel [Special Issue]. Schriftenreihe / Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, 10822.  Link

Contributions to a Collected edition

Baykara-Krumme, H., & Rau, V. (2022). Dynamische Zeiten, zögerlicher Wandel: Migrationsbezogene Vielfalt in der Lebenshilfe. In H. v. Unger, H. Baykara-Krumme, S. Karakayali, & K. Schönwälder (Eds.), Organisationaler Wandel durch Migration? Zur Diversität in der Zivilgesellschaft (pp. 33-66). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag. Link

Rau, V. (2019). Turning the Kaleidoscope and pluralism inside-out: the case of Berlin’s Jewish scene. In J.-J. Bock (Ed.), Emergent religious pluralisms (pp. 195-221). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, Springer Nature. Link

Rau, V. (2016). Exotisierung, Faszination und Befremdung. Ein Blick auf Migration und Begegnung zwischen Israel und Deutschland. In O. Glöckner, & J. H. Schoeps (Eds.), Deutschland, die Juden und der Staat Israel. Eine politische Bestandsaufnahme. (pp. 216-246). Hildesheim/Zürich/New York: Georg Olms Verlag.

Journal Articles

Rau, V. (2023). Between symbolic distancing and following desires: Conversion to Judaism among women in Germany. Religion and Gender, 13(2), 162-185. Link

Rau, V., & Peretz, D. (2023). Zwischen Tradition und Freiheit. Religion, Säkularität und Religionsfreiheit aus jüdischer Perspektive. Religionsverfassungsrecht revisited.

Baykara-Krumme, H., & Rau, V. (2022). Herausforderung Vielfalt? Migrantische Repräsentation und Teilhabe in einer zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisation für Menschen mit Behinderung. Teilhabe, 61(1), 4-12. Link

Rau, V. (2014). Vehementer Säkularismus als Antisemitismus? Aus Politik und Zeitgeschehen, APuZ, 28-30, 31-38.