- Research Associate and Strategic Project Development
- Albrecht, Jessica A
- Ph.D
- Research title: Buddhist psychology and social activism
- Research Region: Transnational connections in the Global South
- n. a.
- n. a.
- Video Statement
2024-2025: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology and Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective‘, FAU (Germany)
2023-2024: Teaching and Research Fellow , Department of Religious Studies, Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn (Germany)
2022: Visiting Scholar, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside (USA)
2020-2024: PhD, Religious Studies, Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology, University of Heidelberg (Germany)
2018-2020: MA, Communication, Literature and Media in Modern South Asian Languages, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg (Germany)
2017-2018: MSc, Gender History , University of Glasgow (UK)
2019-present: Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, En-Gender
Jessica Albrecht (Dr. des.) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology and the Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective‘.
Jessica’s areas of research lie at the intersection of religion and gender, mostly in South Asia (specifically Sri Lanka) during late colonial and present times. In addition, she also investigates how the history of esotericism intersects with imperial feminism and eugenics.
She obtained her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Heidelberg, preceded by an MA in Modern South Asian Languages (Heidelberg) as well as an MSc in Gender History (University of Glasgow). Her BA (Heidelberg) already combined Religious Studies with South Asian Studies. Jessica has been teaching since 2017, is active in public scholarship and digital / public humanities and also founded the network, journal and podcast En-Gender which is an international and interdisciplinary network on gender studies and connected fields. Jessica is editor-in-chief of En-Gender’s interdisciplinary, open access and peer reviewed working paper series.
Articles:
2024:
2023:
2022: “The Coloniality of Girls’ Education in Sri Lanka. Agency, Transformation and Adaption”, Entremons UPF Journal of World History (13), 4-30.
https://doi.org/10.31009/entremons.2022.i13.01.
2020: “Writing Biographies on Female Religious Leaders. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Annie Besant Between a ‘Search for Truth’ and ‘Self-Fulfillment’”, with Jovana Perovic, En-Gender!, 2:1, 49-62.
2019: “The Divine Feminine and Pistis Sophia: Motherhood, Sexuality, and Theosophical Gnosticism in Francis Swiney’s Feminism”, La Rosa di Paracelso, 1/2018, 123-138.
2018: “Gendered Citizenship, Suffrage and Reproduction in the Writings and Lives of Nineteenth Century French Feminists Jeanne Deroin and Jenny P. d’Héricourt”, Engendering the Past, 1:1, 66-77.
Chapters and others:
2024:
2021: “Imperial Feminism and Eugenics in the Theosophical Feminist Writings of Frances Swiney”, Amy Hale (ed.): Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (London: Palgrave), 21-44.
2020: “I am what I wear, I wear what I am’. Mode als Abbildung und Konstitution von hindu-nationaler Identitätsbildung und Geschlechterdifferenzierung in Indien“, Benedikt K. Bauer, Kristina Goethling-Zimpel, Anna-Katharina Höpflinger (eds.): Opening Pandora ́s Box (Wien: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht), 237-250.
2024-2025: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology and Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective‘, FAU (Germany)
2023-2024: Teaching and Research Fellow , Department of Religious Studies, Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn (Germany)
2022: Visiting Scholar, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Riverside (USA)
2020-2024: PhD, Religious Studies, Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology, University of Heidelberg (Germany)
2018-2020: MA, Communication, Literature and Media in Modern South Asian Languages, South Asia Institute, University of Heidelberg (Germany)
2017-2018: MSc, Gender History , University of Glasgow (UK)
2019-present: Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, En-Gender
Jessica Albrecht (Dr. des.) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Religious Studies and Intercultural Theology and the Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective‘.
Jessica’s areas of research lie at the intersection of religion and gender, mostly in South Asia (specifically Sri Lanka) during late colonial and present times. In addition, she also investigates how the history of esotericism intersects with imperial feminism and eugenics.
She obtained her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Heidelberg, preceded by an MA in Modern South Asian Languages (Heidelberg) as well as an MSc in Gender History (University of Glasgow). Her BA (Heidelberg) already combined Religious Studies with South Asian Studies. Jessica has been teaching since 2017, is active in public scholarship and digital / public humanities and also founded the network, journal and podcast En-Gender which is an international and interdisciplinary network on gender studies and connected fields. Jessica is editor-in-chief of En-Gender’s interdisciplinary, open access and peer reviewed working paper series.
Articles:
2024:
2023:
2022: “The Coloniality of Girls’ Education in Sri Lanka. Agency, Transformation and Adaption”, Entremons UPF Journal of World History (13), 4-30.
https://doi.org/10.31009/entremons.2022.i13.01.
2020: “Writing Biographies on Female Religious Leaders. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and Annie Besant Between a ‘Search for Truth’ and ‘Self-Fulfillment’”, with Jovana Perovic, En-Gender!, 2:1, 49-62.
2019: “The Divine Feminine and Pistis Sophia: Motherhood, Sexuality, and Theosophical Gnosticism in Francis Swiney’s Feminism”, La Rosa di Paracelso, 1/2018, 123-138.
2018: “Gendered Citizenship, Suffrage and Reproduction in the Writings and Lives of Nineteenth Century French Feminists Jeanne Deroin and Jenny P. d’Héricourt”, Engendering the Past, 1:1, 66-77.
Chapters and others:
2024:
2021: “Imperial Feminism and Eugenics in the Theosophical Feminist Writings of Frances Swiney”, Amy Hale (ed.): Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses (London: Palgrave), 21-44.
2020: “I am what I wear, I wear what I am’. Mode als Abbildung und Konstitution von hindu-nationaler Identitätsbildung und Geschlechterdifferenzierung in Indien“, Benedikt K. Bauer, Kristina Goethling-Zimpel, Anna-Katharina Höpflinger (eds.): Opening Pandora ́s Box (Wien: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht), 237-250.
