Team members
Scientists, officer and coordinator
Doru Constantin Doroftei, Christian Lange (on scientific leave), Ghassan El Masri, Antonia Öksüzoğlu, Catharina Rachik (on paternal leave) and Sandra Hauser (on paternal leave) as scholars specializing in Jewish Studies, Islamic Studies and Christian Theology, have strengthened the BaFID team since the opening of our research center. Kirsten Waltert is employed as an officer and team coordinator, Gudrun Ferber-Robin as administrative coordinator. Valerie Jandeisek, Kübra Özcan, Anna Alabd, Maria Elisabeth Höwer, Antonia Sophie Steins and Barbara Halbauer contribute to BaFID as scholarship holders.
PD Dr. Christian Lange
Christian Lange studied Catholic Theology, Latin studies, Ancient History and the Languages and Cultures of the Christian Orient in Bamberg, Tübingen, Oxford and Salzburg. In 2001 he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford with a thesis on “The Portrayal of Christ in the Syriac Commentary on the Diatessaron.” In 2011 the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Salzburg awarded him the Venia Legendi for the scientific subject Church History and Patrology with the thesis “Mia Energeia. Studies on the Unification Policy of Emperor Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople.” At the Bavarian Research Center Christian Lange focuses on Syriac patristic theology and education. Until April 2024 he is on scientific leave.
Dr. Ghassan El Masri
Before joining BaFID, Ghassan El Masri worked as deputy head of the institute at the Seminar for Arabic Studies at Free University of Berlin. Before that he led the DFG research project “From Ruin to Resurrection” at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Potsdam. His main scholarly interest is the Qur’an in its literary and historical contexts on the one hand and its role in Islamic religion and theology on the other hand. He also focuses on the interplay between politics and theology in modern Arab and Middle Eastern spaces.
Antonia Öksüzoğlu, M.A.
Antonia Öksüzoğlu studied Arabic and Islamic studies as well as Cultural and Social Anthropology in Münster and Istanbul. During this time she lived in Damascus several for months, where she studied society, culture, and language. From 2014 to 2017 she worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies at WWU Münster, where she also wrote her doctoral thesis on the discourse of spiritual medicine in Islam as a doctoral candidate in the Cluster of Excellence for Religion and Politics. She has also worked as lecturer at UniBW Munich. Her research interests lie in areas of everyday and cultural history, history of science and anthropological approaches to Islam. In the near future she will conduct interdisciplinary research on the topic of space and religion. At the BaFID she is responsible for research on Islam and for the production of educational materials.
Kirsten Waltert, M.A.
Kirsten Waltert studied English literature and linguistics, Romance studies and communication science in Bamberg and at Brock University in St. Catharines (ON), Canada. After completing her master’s degree and various internships in the media industry, she completed a traineeship before working for many years in various positions as a newspaper editor, including writer, editor and project coordinator. One of her main topics was research and science. During a one-year study visit to the Middle East, she learned Hebrew. At FAU she is employed as an officer and a team coordinator, but she also works as a researcher on her PhD and as a lecturer.
Gudrun Ferber-Robin
Gudrun Ferber-Robin has international experience. She worked for five years in the administration of a Dutch university. Before becoming a member of BaFID, she was the coordinator of a graduate program at the Department of Biology at FAU.