REMID
Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst e. V.
REMID’s claim
REMID — the Religious Studies Media and Information Service — is the central point of contact in Germany for transparent and well-founded scientific communication on religion-related topics from a value-neutral perspective. As a network of researchers and interested parties, we bring perspectives of the study of religions into society. We are committed to providing reliable information about religions and creating well-founded access to professionally researched content — both online and offline.
Who we are
REMID is divided into a board of directors consisting of three chairwomen and up to four deputy chairwomen. This board is supported by an administrative employee, the scientific advisory board, and active REMID members throughout Germany. The board is elected by the REMID general meeting for a term of two years. The board manages the activities of the association.
The REMID chairpersons since October 10, 2024 are Anna Kira Hippert, Mona Stumpe and Mareike Ritter.
Nelli Felker, Janette Kubitsch, Dunja Sharbat Dar and Isis Mrugalla Kalmbacher were elected as board members.
First Chair
Anna Kira Hippert is a research associate and doctoral student at the Center for Religious Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum. She has an M.A. in Religious Studies and a B.A. in Religious Studies and Art History and completed an apprenticeship as an office clerk in 2011.
Her research focuses on material religion, religion and media, new religious movements, and social change online and offline, with a particular focus on the USA and modernity. During her master’s degree, she studied at the University of Kansas and was a visiting scholar at Missouri State University from March 2023 to February 2024. In Germany, she is actively involved in science and knowledge transfer on new religiosity, working with various organizations and social workers and conducting science communication on Instagram (@Sugarkane2003) and YouTube (@Ceres_Rub).
Since 2021, Anna has been working as an Affiliated Researcher at INFORM at King’s College London, an NGO founded by Prof. em. Eileen Barker. INFORM has pioneered science communication and provides precise, evidence-based information about new religious movements. As the first chair of REMID e.V., Anna wants to contribute the knowledge and experience she has gained at INFORM and in her own research and science communication. Her goal is to strengthen religious studies in Germany and promote value-free exchange about religion.
Contact: hippert@remid.de
Second chairwoman
Mona Stumpe works in student marketing at Leibniz University Hannover. She previously studied religious studies and English and American literature and cultural studies at LUH, which she completed with a master’s degree.
She wrote her master’s thesis on the topic of “Televangelism & Religious Broadcasting in the USA”. Mona’s areas of interest within religious studies are religion in the media, TV evangelists, the emergence of fundamentalism, evangelicalism and religion in US popular culture.
She has also been committed to promoting young scientists at REMID for years — be it through internships, blog posts, support offers or projects in science communication or in the field of social media (@remid.verein).
REMID member since 2018, on the board since 2020.
Contact: stumpe@remid.de
Treasurer
Mareike Ritter is a committed religious and political scientist. After completing her bachelor’s degree in religious studies at the universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig, she completed her master’s degree in “Religion, Politics and Society” at the University of Birmingham.
Since 2021, she has been doing her doctorate at the University of Münster on the religious and cultural-political significance of Jewish-Muslim alliances in Germany. She is passionate about the subject of religion and politics, especially minorities, activism and cultural policy. In addition to her research, she works independently as an educational consultant and gives workshops on right-wing extremism, conspiracy beliefs and religion, among other things.
Together with Dunja, she coordinated the “Mapping Religious Studies” project and is also one of the editors of the religious studies blog “Marginalien — Religious Studies Marginal Remarks”.
She has been treasurer at REMID e.V. since October 2024 and would like to work to make the social significance of religious studies knowledge more visible, among other things by supporting and networking graduates and religious scholars in the non-university job market.
Contact: ritter@remid.de
Nelli Felker is a sociologist of religion and is interested in the topics of religion, culture, discrimination and minorities. She completed her studies at the Otto-Friedrich University of Bamberg (B.A.) and the Georg-August University of Göttingen (M.A.).
In 2021 she began her doctorate at the University of Münster. Her research focus is on the investigation of the religiosity of LGBTIQ* people and the effects of structural inclusion on individual faith development. An important part of her work is also on science communication with religious communities and associations.
At REMID e.V. she has been taking up a position on the REMID advisory board since October 2024. Her main tasks include the preparation of statistics as well as networking and science communication.
Contact: felker@remid.de
Janette Kubitsch is a religious scholar and art historian. She completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Ruhr University Bochum.
Her study focuses in particular on new religious movements, evangelicalism and the Latter-Day Saints. She is also dedicated to investigating fusions between religion, politics and conspiracy beliefs, which form the core of her master’s thesis “QAnon as a new religious movement? Between Q as prophet, Trump as savior and the impending end of the world”.
In addition to the fusion between faith and conspiracies, her areas of interest include topics on right-wing extremism and faith and conflict.
Since October 2024 she has been an assessor on the board of REMID e.V., where she takes on tasks in the area of social media and member administration.
Contact: kubitsch@remid.de
Dunja Sharbat Dar is an enthusiastic religious studies and Japanese studies scholar. After studying Japanese Studies (B.A.) and Religious Studies with a focus on Japanese religions (B.A./M.A.), she began an interdisciplinary doctorate on the subject of atmospheres in Japanese churches at the Ruhr University Bochum, which she will complete in the near future.
In addition to her research on contemporary religions in Japan, she is also working on concepts of space, popular culture (manga, anime, comics, video games), religious materiality, the religious processing of the Fukushima disaster of 2011 and social science methods and theories of religious studies.
For her, science and science communication always belong together. On her social media channels (@dunja.sharbatdar) she therefore shares everything about science, her research, the research process, field research in Japan and science communication in image and sound. She also works on the religious studies blog “RW Marginalia”, co-coordinated the “Mapping Religious Studies” project with Mareike and is actively involved in RelWissKomm.
At REMID e.V. she works on various projects on the topic of online science communication and is generally interested in making religious studies visible in society as a valuable resource for a better understanding of one another.
Contact: sharbatdar@remid.de
Description follows.
Contact: mrugalla@remid.de
What we do
Religions in Germany
We have the numbers! Religion in Germany is diverse and visible in many forms—from the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Churches to Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist communities, alongside numerous other religions, Christian denominations, and New Religious Movements. Additionally, a significant portion of the population identifies with no religious affiliation. Together, they shape Germany’s dynamic religious landscape. Navigating this complexity requires orientation—and orientation begins with reliable information.
Religious Studies / the study of religion(s)
Religious studies is still a relatively small and unknown subject, which is often misunderstood and confused. In order to clarify what religious studies actually are (and how they differ from theology, for example), we provide an overview of the discipline’s self-image, history and methods.
Experts
Are you looking for well-founded experts for lectures, workshops, seminars or do you have a journalistic inquiry on a religious topic? REMID e.V. is your central contact for providing trained specialists from a wide range of areas of religious studies.
Projects and conferences
REMID carries out its own projects, organizes conferences and offers its members opportunities to get involved. REMID is happy to cooperate with other institutions, organizations and initiatives. Project assignments can be carried out with recourse to the network of experts.
Networking
Last but not least REMID promotes contacts among scholars and people interested in religions by way of newsletters and the members’ benefiting from the network of experts.
REMID cooperates with institutions with similar objectives, as for example with INFOREL in Basel, Switzerland; CESNUR in Torino, Italy and INFORM in London, Great Britain. The academic advisory committee aids REMID to keep in touch with the academic study of religions.
Membership
REMID is a non-profit organization. Any persons or institutions who share the objectives of REMID can join. Members get a discount when benefiting from the services. A general assembly is held every year. An executive committee is elected by the general assembly every two years.
Support us
Would you like to support REMID and our voluntary work?
We are grateful for every donation that helps us to continue to offer our information, offers and projects free of charge to everyone.
Active participation
Members are, of course, encouraged to participate actively.
The REMID office uses an extensive questionary to cover the members’ experiences, fields of study and competences in order to pass on requests.
Please write to us, if you
… wish to become a member
… wish to receive further information about REMID
… have any questions or comments