Institute for the Science of Religion

Team

Dr. Piotr Sobkowiak

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

Phone
+41 31 684 46 34
E-Mail
piotr.sobkowiak@unibe.ch
Office
S 109
Postal Address
Institute for the Science of Religion
Universität Bern
Lerchenweg 36
CH-3012 Bern
Consultation Hour
Nach Vereinbarung
Attendance
Tuesday to Friday
ORCID No
0000-0002-7536-9684

Teaching


Teaching Interests:

  • European and Asian History of Religion/s;
  • History of Esotericism in Europe and Russia;
  • Shamanism and Neoshamanism;
  • Bod(il)y Discourse in Religion;
  • Historical Discourse Analysis
     

Given courses:

2017–2023
Year
 Course Title
 Type
2023 Und der Mensch wurde Wort. Körperdiskurs und Religion in theoretischer und historischer Perspektive Systematic
2022 Verschmäht, Vergöttert. Anomalien des Körpers und Religion Systematic
2021 Meister des Chaos. Die Vernetzung zwischen östlichen und westlichen Traditionen am Beispiel von Westlicher Esoterik und Schamanismus (mit Friedemann Rimbach-Sator) Empirical
2020 Im Anfang war das Wort... oder? Diskurtheoretisch orientierte Ansätze in der Religionswissenschaft Systematic
2020 Einführung in die Religionswissenschaft II Systematic
2020 Erben von Dschingis Khan – Nachfolger vom Buddha: Religion, Nationalismus und die Politik des Wiederstandes in der entangled history der Mongolei und Tibets (mit Yuliia Liakhova) Empirical
2019 Postkoloniale Theorie in der Religionswissenschaft Systematic
2019–2023 Einführung in die Uiguro-Mongolische Schriftsprache Language Course
2018–2019 Uiguro-Mongolische Lektüreübung Language Course
2018–2019 Einführung in die Religionswissenschaft I Systematic
2018–2023 Forschungskolloquium Religionswissenschaft Systematic
2017 Zwischen sozialer Realität und diskursiver Konstruktion: Der Schamanismus bei den Mongolen Empirical
2017 Der Niedergang der Eroberer. Mongolische Identität und russischer Kulturkolonialismus vom 17. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert Empirical

Publications and Presentations

 

Books:

  • 2023. The Religion of the Shamans: History, Politics, and the Emergence of Shamanism in Transbaikalia. Leiden: Brill | Schöningh. Available From: Brill https://doi.org/10.30965/9783657790951.
     

Articles and Book Chapters:

  • With Ekaterina Sobkovyak. 2024. Vernacular Historiography and Shamanic Genealogy of the Barga People. Ongγod qar-a sakiγus-un teüke Reconsidered. Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques 78, no. 2.
  • 2023. ‘He thinks he is inspired, and he is mad’: Superstition, Fanaticism, and Deceitful Folly in Catherine II’s Comedy The Siberian Shaman. Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism 24 (1): 90-133. Available From: Brill https://doi.org/10.1163/15700593-tat00003.

Presentations:

  • June 2022, Cork: Feel Free to Conquer. Human monstrosity and religious justification of warfare in Gerald of Wale’s Topohraphia Hibernie; European Association for the Study of Religions Annual Conference.
  • September 2019, Moscow: Законодательство Российской Империи первой половины 19 века и правовой статус 'шаманской веры' в Бурятии (The Code of Laws of the Russian Empire of the First Half of the 19th Century and the legal status of the 'shamanic faith' in Buryatia); International Conference on Mongols: Traditions and Modernity.
  • June 2019, Tartu: The Genealogy of the Ongon Discourse: between indigenous epistemology and Buddhist re-interpretations; European Association for the Study of Religions Annual Conference.
  • June 2018, Bern: Non-Orthodox Idolaters and Shamanic Quasi-Buddhists. Politics of conversion and multiple religious identities of Transbaikalia in the 19th-century Tsarist Russia; European Association for the Study of Religions Annual Conference.
  • April 2017, Budapest: The Purifying Power of Dharma. Buddhist Weltanchauung and the perception of the Others reflected in the Buryat sources of the early 19th century; International Conference on Mongolian Buddhiusm.
  • Oktober 2015, Delphi: Between Two Fires. Shamanism as a Construct of Russo-Mongolian Discourse in the 19th-Century Buryatia; International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism.
  • August 2015, Erfurt: Mongolian Religion of the Shamans as a Construct of a Non-European Discursive Tradition; International Association for the History of Religions.
  • April 2015, Budapest: The Right View and the False View. Buddhist Perspective on Emic Religious Traditions Reflected in the Mongolian Historical Sources; Department of Mongol and Inner Asian Studies, Eötvös Loránd University.
     

Popular Articles:

  • 2022. Radio interview: Tanzen mit den Geistern – Schamanismus in der Schweiz (SRF, «Perspektive», Switzerland).
  • 2021. Radio interview: Schamanismus (Sendung Blaton, RaBE, Switzerland).
  • 2015. Television interview: Tartaria Magna Series 3: The Repression of Shamanism in the 19th-century Buryatia. ATB Baikal, Ulan-Ude, The Republic of Buryatia, Russian Federation.

Research


Research Interests:

  • The History of Religion and Colonialism in Russia, especially Burjatia;
  • Cultural History of Tibet and Mongolia;
  • History of Shamanism;
  • Historical Discourse Analysis
     

Research Project:

The Religion of the Shamans. Discursive formations and social reality in Mongolia and Transbaikalia. The result of this project has recently appeared as a monography bearing the title The Religion of the Shamans.

CV

 

Academic Curriculum Vitae:

  • Since 2016: Assistant at the Institute for the science of religion, University of Bern
  • 2012–2015: PhD candidate at the Institute for the Science of Religion, University of Bern: The Religion of the Shamans. Dissertation: Discursive formations and social reality in Mongolia and Transbaikalia
  • 2000–2006: MA, Institute for Turkology and the Peoples of Central Asia, University of Warsaw. MA thesis: Main terminology of Mongolian shamanism