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Topics for theses and tutorials

Bachelor's and Master's programmes

This list gives an overview of staff members in Religious Studies followed by their specialties.

These staff members are available as advisor of your thesis or as tutor. In case you prefer a topic that is not on the list, ask your teaching coordinator for advice:

  • Bachelor's: J.W. van Henten
  • Master's: G.A. Wiegers

Jonneke Bekkenkamp

  • Religion and literature

Jacqueline Borsje

  • Mythology

  • Hagiography

  • Magic in the Middle Ages

  • Celtic religion/spirituality

  • Stories, symbols and religion

  • Christianity

  • Anti-Judaism and Christianity

  • The supernatural power of words

  • Rituals and performativity

Peter Forshaw

  • History of western esotericism

  • Early modern occult philosophy

  • Christian Kabbala

  • Cultural and Intellectual history of alchemy (including Jung)

  • Magic, science and religion in the Renaissance

  • Hiëroglyphic and emblematic culture in the Early-Modern Period

Wouter Hanegraaff

  • History of western esotericism

  • Alternative forms of contemporary religiosity

  • Theory and methodology of Religious Studies

Jan Willem van Henten

  • Jewish history, literature and religion

  • Early Christianity

  • Reception history of the Bible, including art and film

  • Religion and violence

Carolina Ivanescu

  • Islam in Europe (comparisons)

  • Postsecularism

  • Syncretism and conversion

  • ‘Minority religions’

  • History and transformations of Buddhism

  • Religions, position of religion in China

  • Religion and death

  • Ethnography

Richard van Leeuwen

  • Islam in past and present

  • Orientalism

  • Islam in Europe

  • Relations between Europe and the Arabic world

  • European travelers in the Arabic world/Arabic travelers in Europe

  • Arabic religious texts

  • Political Islam

  • The Hadjdj

  • Religion and literature

Marco Pasi

  • History of Western esotericism

  • Theory and methods in Religious Studies

  • Religion and politics

  • New religious movements

  • Art and religion in the Late Modern Period

Ulrike Popp-Baier

  • Narrative psychology research on lived religion spirituality and non-religion in contemporary society

Caroline Vander Stichele

  • Early Christian literature

  • Gender issues in the Bible

  • Biblical themes in art

  • Reception history of Biblical figures

  • Religion and popular culture

  • Yoga, wellness, mindfulness, Zen

  • Hinduism/Buddhism

Gerard Wiegers

  • Islam

  • Relations between religious groups

  • History of religions

  • Method and theory in the study of religion

  • Comparative study of religion