Stefanie Sinclair

National identity and the politics of the ‘headscarf debate’ in Germany

The German ‘headscarf debate’ was sparked off by a dispute concerning a teacher who refused to remove her hijab at work. ‘Case Ludin’ brought the issue to national attention and eventually led to new legislation in half of Germanys 16 federated states. This article focuses on a critical analysis of a party-political debate around Case Ludin in the Baden-Württemberg parliament in 1998. The analysis shows that whilst party-politicians claimed to be concerned with issues of social justice as well as with the protection of constitutional rights and democratic values, the party-political arena of this debate has been preoccupied with the discursive construction of German national identity and its assumed incompatibility with Muslim identity. It comes to the conclusion that discourses used in this debate reproduce stereotypical images associating Islam with ‘gendered oppression’, political extremism and irreconcilable difference, and that these discourses continue to shape current debates in Germany and beyond.

The Introduction and Refinement of the Assessment of Digitally Recorded Audio Presentations

Abstract This case study critically evaluates benefits and challenges of a form of assessment included in a final year undergraduate Religious Studies Open University module, which combines a written essay task with a digital audio recording of a short oral presentation. Based on the analysis of student and tutor feedback and sample assignments, this study critically examines how teaching and learning practices linked to this novel form of assessment have been iteratively developed in light of the project findings over a period of two years. It concludes that while this form of assessment poses a number of challenges, it can create valuable opportunities for the development of transferable twenty-first-century graduate employability skills as well as deep, effective learning experiences, particularly – though not exclusively – in distance learning settings.

Creativity, Criticality and Engaging the Senses in Higher Education: Creating Online Opportunities for Multisensory Learning and Assessment

This chapter considers why there is a need for a greater focus on creativity in higher education and critically explores how digital technology can be used to facilitate creative, multisensory learning and assessment in higher education, particularly, though not exclusively, at a distance. It introduces and critically appraises three forms of assessment used in Religious Studies and Philosophy modules at the Open University, including the assessment of digital audio recordings of oral presentations, presentation slides and a ‘Take a picture of religion’ activity involving digital photography.

Regina Jonas: forgetting and remembering the first female rabbi

Regina Jonas (1902–44), who was ordained in Germany in 1935, is now widely recognised as the worlds first female rabbi. However, for almost 50 years after her death at Auschwitz in 1944, she was given very little, if any, public recognition. Based on archival research, interviews and critical engagement with secondary literature, this paper investigates a range of explanations why Jonas was nearly lost to historiography. It also considers the circumstances of the rediscovery of this controversial figure in the early 1990s and explores how she is remembered today. This paper raises important issues in relation to historiography and the connection between processes of remembering, forgetting and identity formation, particularly in relation to the history of the ordination of female rabbis and the history of Jewish communities in Germany.

Religions in the modern world: Traditions and transformations

one, does not minimise the impact of the argument. On the contrary, it is this emphasis on ethnographic detail, the author’s self-reflexivity (in that she has experience in practising paganism and approaches the research with the insider’s knowledge), and the extracts from her field diary that draw the reader deeper into the book, making the argument vivid and direct. My generally positive review of Rountree’s book might raise scepticism to some. However, it is exactly my knowledge of how scarce is the number of reflexive works that actually dare to challenge religious boundaries, especially when it comes to the European and predominantly – nominally at least – Christian context, which prompts me to accentuate the crucial ethnographic and theoretical points of Rountree’s volume. For this book is not just about how contemporary pagan identities are crafted in Malta. Keeping the long, historical relationship between Christianity and Europe in mind, the major contribution of Rountree’s work is that it takes us a step further towards the reconsideration of this closely knit relationship; it helps us reconceptualise (what is meant by) religion and spirituality, Christianity and paganism, Neopaganism and ‘New Age’, materiality, embodiment and the spiritual; it shows that religious boundaries are not so difficult to dissolve, while emphasising on the creativity and fluidity with which religious identities are crafted in the contemporary, globalised world.