After my Undergraduate Degree in the Study of Religion and South Asian Studies at the University of Heidelberg, I chose the MSc Gender History at the University of Glasgow to gain new insights into historical approaches concerning the topic and frame of gender. Especially my Dissertation on the interrelation of early British Feminism and Religion helped me to formulate new research questions and to use more theoretical frameworks for my upcoming PhD project. I will examine the relation between nationalism and religion in Ceylon between 1870 and 1920 by applying a postcolonial view on how gender conceptions emerged between victorian Britain and colonized Ceylon and at the same time shaped the frame of nationalism and religion. In particular, I plan to look at how the implications to „feminine“ and „masculine“ constituted religion and nationalism, specifically the emergence of feminism within Sri Lankan Buddhism.

As a teaching fellow at the Department of the Study of Religion at the University of Heidelberg I am combining the Study of Religion with Gender History. Therefore, I use theories and methods I learned in the MSc Gender History to see, together with my students, if this enables us to re-view the history of religion.

First published: 16 February 2021

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