Skip to content
Material, bodily, aesthetic, affective, and performative dimensions of religious and cultural phenomena; neo-spiritualities; relational theory and method; critical study of religion

M.A. Religious and Cultural Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich

Dr.phil. Religious Studies, Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Austria

2021–2022 Postdoc research fellow at University of Erfurt (funded by the German federal state Thuringia)

2020–2021 Member of “Mapping Religionswissenschaft: Vernetzen, Vertiefen, Sichtbar Machen“ (funded by Hochschulrektorenkonferenz [HRK] and Federal Ministry of Education and Research [BMBF])

2019–2020 parental leave

2017–2018 Lecturer “Key Concepts der Religious Studies”, Master Religious Studies, Paris-Lodron-University of Salzburg, Austria

2013–2016 Research assistant to Prof. Loren Stuckenbruck, New Testament, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany

I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Erfurt. I am a study of religion scholar with a cultural studies background and research interests in the aesthetics of religious practices, transformation of bodies and therefrom worldviews in practicing, the creation of affects and embodied experience, the embodiment of social and cultural norms, on the on hand, and the practical applicability of relational and new materialist theories to my research, on the other. I focus on the contemporary religious landscape and gathers data in body-centered ethnographies. My current project traces “Hawaiian worldview(s)” through the aesthetics of globally practiced Hula dance.

Monograph

Aschenbrenner, Lina. 2023. Neo-Spiritual Aesthetics. Embodied Transformation in the Israeli Movement Practice Gaga. Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350272903

Paper

Aschenbrenner, Lina, and Laura von Ostrowski. 2022. „Embodied neo-spirituality as an experience-filter: From dance and movement practice to contemporary yoga.” Body and Religion. https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.20526

Book chapter

Aschenbrenner, Lina, and Anne Koch. 2022. “Do Gaga, Be Well? Well-Being as Intersectional Dispositif in the Neo-Spiritual Israeli Movement Practice Gaga.” In Géraldine Mossière (ed), New Spiritualties and the Culture of Well-Being. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06263-6_11

Preprint

Aschenbrenner, Lina. 2023. “Aesthetic Assemblages: Relational Aesthetics of the Israeli Movement Practice Gaga.” SocArXiv. February 11. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/ezvf5

Blog post

Aschenbrenner, Lina. 2022. “Body Knowledge and Practices (and the Coronavirus).” Counterpoint Navigating Knowledge (23 March 2022). https://www.counterpointknowledge.org/body-knowledges-and-practices-and-the- coronavirus/