Markus Dreßler

Markus Dreßler is a Heisenberg Professor for Modern Turkish Studies at the Institute of Religious Studies at Leipzig University. He holds a permanent position since March 2021, having previously served as a Heisenberg Fellow (2019-2021) and Senior Researcher in the DFG Kolleg-Forschergruppe "Multiple Secularities" (2016-2019) at the same institution.

His academic background includes a habilitation in Religious Studies from the University of Bayreuth (2013-2014), a Doçentlik (Turkish equivalent of Habilitation) in Sociology from YÖK Turkey (2010-2011), and a doctorate in Religious Studies from the University of Erfurt (1998-2001). His extensive international experience includes permanent positions at Hofstra University in the USA (2004-2008) and Technical University Istanbul (2008-2013), along with appointments at Oberlin College, University of Bayreuth, and University of Göttingen.

Dreßler's research focuses on Alevism, religion, politics, and society of the late Ottoman Empire and Turkey, and religion and secularism. His work connects conceptual and intellectual history with discourse analysis and postcolonial approaches, examining negotiation processes between religious and secular knowledge systems in the context of modernization dynamics. He has a particular interest in intra- and interreligious contacts as well as differentiation and tradition-building processes.

His recent publications explore topics including Alevism, the nationalization of millet in the late Ottoman period, religion-making, and epistemic violence against Alevis. The publications demonstrate a consistent focus on conceptual approaches to religion, secularism, and religious minorities in Turkey and the Ottoman context.

• Keynote lectures: Religion-Making und Religionisierung (2023, Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft)

Dreßler supervises doctoral students at the University of Leipzig, co-supervises sociology of religion work at the University of Münster, and directs a privately co-financed doctoral college on Alevi Studies. He has secured multiple research grants from the German Research Foundation (DFG), including projects on Modern Turkish Studies, the Reform of Islam in China, and contested piety and secularism in post-Kemalist Turkey.