Joanna Katharina Kiefer

At the centre of my dissertation is the sociological research of plurality with a main focus on religious plurality in an urban context. This does not focus solely on empirical reconstruction but additionally about how sociology has taken a look at the field of plurality, pluralism and pluralisation. The empirical part of this research is taking a closer look at the perspectives of sociology of knowledge, sociology of space and postcolonialism as well as religious plurality is being socially constructed and maintained in Havanna, Cuba. The focus will be on the questioning of institutional, societal and subjective conditions that make the cohabitation of difference religious and non-religious groups possible. My research is based on the logic of Grounded Theory Methodology and combines ethnographic observations with the help of group-interviews. Central to this research are post- and decolonial perspectives that will be a theoretical and methodological part of it. The heuristical dimensions – setting of boundaries, cross overs, hierarchies and mediation-, were constructed through theory and empricism. They are helping with analytacally understanding processes of religious plurality in the urban space of Havanna. The project wants to make an empirical and theoretical contribution to the current debate of sociology of religion and research on plurality in Germany and Latin-America and connect with this critically.

• Practices of Multiple (Religious) Affiliations: Spatial and Practical Negotiations in Havana, Cuba. “Lecture Series” der DFG Kollegforschungsgruppe „Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective“, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 12/2024
• Explorar Pluralidad. Una búsqueda conceptual de posibles pistas. “Encuentro Internacional de Filosofía, Experiencia y Contexto Plurales: Prácticas de Libertad”, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, hybrid, 08/2024.
• Being a Women Researcher with European Passport in the Global South. “4th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability (SMUS Conference) and 4th RC33 Regional Conference – Asia: Thailand”, Chulalongkorn University Bangkok, 07/2024.
• “Religión” revisada. Talking about religious diversity in Havana, Cuba. “The Colloquium on Latin America”, Universität Bayreuth, 01/.2024.
• ¿Todo en armonía? Mediaciones colectivas de la diversidad religiosa en La Habana. International Symposium 40th Anniversary of the Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas, Havanna, 11/2023.
• Observing multirreligiosidad in Havana: Räumliche Aushandlungen religiöser Mehrfachzugehörigkeit in Havanna. „Religion und Raum“, Tagung der Sektion Religionssoziologie der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Universität Bremen, 10/2023.
• Co-Production of knowledge in qualitative research – Reflections from research practice of two projects in the Global South (mit Elettra Griesi, FU Berlin), Session Co-Production (of Knowledge) as Pathway to Decolonization of Knowledge in the Global South, Global Center of Spatial Methods for Urban Sustainability: SMUS 2023 Indien, IIT Roorkee, hybrid, 02/2023.
• El día de San Lázaro (Tag des Heiligen Lazarus). Fotografien in der Forschung, Forschen mit Bildern – Workshop zur visuellen Methode der Ästhetischen Konstruktionsanalyse mit Dr. Sebastian W. Hoggenmüller, Institut für Soziologie, online, 02/2023.
• ¿Qué significa la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre / Ochún? Análisis sociológico espacial del Día de la Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre / Ochún, Taller Internacional de Estudios Sociorreligiosos, I Convención Cientifíca Internacional Cienfuegos, Universidad de Cienfuegos, 10/2022.
• Wofür steht die Barmherzige Jungfrau von Cobre? Sozialer Zusammenhalt zwischen Nation und Religionen am Beispiel der Schutzpatronin Kubas, Sektion Religionssoziologie: Gesellschaftliche und politische Dynamiken von Religion in polarisierten Welten, 41. DGS Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie: Polarisierte Welten, Universität Bielefeld, 09/2022.
• Diversidad religiosa en La Habana: De singularidades y generalizaciones, X Encountro Internacional de Estudios Socioreligosos, Departamento de Estudios Socioreligiosos, Havanna, 07/2022.

• Kiefer, Joanna Katharina (2025) (im Erscheinen) El Fenómeno de la Pluralidad. Ensayo de una conceptualización heurística. In: Luz Dary Flórez Torres (Hg.): Filosofía y Contextos Plurales: Prácticas de Libertad. Editorial: UPTC, Tunja.
• Kiefer, Joanna Katharina (2025) Blurry Labels and Fluid Faiths: Handling Multireligiosity in Havana. In: Blog. The Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective.
• Kiefer, Joanna Katharina (2024) Mehr als nur ein Gebäude… Dorfkirchen aus soziologischer Perspektive. In: Zukunft der Dorfkirchen. Tagungsband.
• Kiefer, Joanna Katharina (2023) Delimitaciones, solapamientos y mediaciones. Propuesta de una estructura conceptual del pluralismo religioso). In: Colectivo de Autores (Autor*innenkollektiv): Centro Habana: Iglesia Católica y el campo religioso local, Ediciones CIPS, Havanna.
• Kiefer, Joanna Katharina (2023): Saarland. In: Wanda Alberts / Horst Junginger / Katharina Neef / Christian Wöstemeyer (Hrsg.): Handbuch Religionskunde in Deutschland, De Gruyter, Berlin.

• German Association of sociology (DGS)
• Section sociology of knowledge (DGS)
• La Red Internacional de Filosofía en Contextos Plurales (Sead at Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia)
• Working group religious science and school (AK RELSCHU of the DVRW)
• Interdisciplinary centre Gender – Difference – Diversity (IZGDD)
• Centre of anthropology of religions (ZAR)

 Offered Courses (selection)

• Sociology of religion postcolonial (B.A.)
• Religion and space(B.A.)
• Decolonial and postcolonial perspectives (B.A.)
• Postcolonial theories and identities (B.A.)
• Qualitative methods (M.A.)
• Grounded Theory Methodology (M.A.)
• Methods of qualitative empirical social research (B.A.)
• Between closeness and strangeness – Positionality inside research processes (B.A.
• Proseminar: Culture and Communication (B.A.)
• Sociologies of Love (B.A.)

(Teaching experience on a B.A./M.A-Grade in the Laguages German, Spanish, English) Teaching projects in cooperation with external partners

• Dorfkirchen – geliebt, aber akut bedroht?“ (Village Churches – loved but acutely threatened?)
  Interdisciplinary summer academy (B.A.), September 2023
  In Cooperation with: Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz, Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Prignitz; Krekeler Architekten, FH Potsdam, BTU Cottbus, Landesverband Brandenburg des Bund Deutscher Architektinnen und Architekten (BDA), Deutsches Nationalkomitee für Denkmalschutz (DNK)