CERES PhD candidate gives a presentation at Rikkyō University in Tokyo

On Thursday, July 28, 2022, at 11:30 am (6:30 pm local time) CERES PhD candidate Dunja Sharbat Dar is invited to present her dissertation project about atmosphere in Japanese Christian churches at Rikkyō University in Tokyo, Japan.

In her dissertation, Dunja Sharbat Dar researches the socio-spatial arrangements of Japanese churches during the worship service. For this purpose, she was granted a research scholarship from the RUB Research School and traveled to Tokyo, Japan in June 2022 for three months to conduct ethnographic fieldwork amongst churches and literature research. She is a visiting research fellow at the Graduate School of Christian Studies of Rikkyō University in Tokyo and was invited to hold a presentation about her research by Prof. Mira Sonntag.

During the presentation and subsequent discussion, Dunja Sharbat Dar will discuss the current state of atmosphere studies in the study of religion and give an insight into two of her case studies that contrast each other well – the Catholic Sekiguchi Church and the Evangelical Friends Church. While the Sekiguchi church entertains the famous St. Mary’s Cathedral (see picture) designed by the Japanese Architect Kenzō Tange, the Friends Church is a young congregation that rents out a room for their weekly services.

The event is a hybrid event, and online participation for anyone is possible. You can register via Prof. Mira Sonntag. The talk will be held in Japanese.