Projects per year
Personal profile
Overview
Arndt Emmerich is a Lecturer and Programme Leader in Sociology at the University of Hertfordshire and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Arndt is part of the international research project ENCOUNTERS (Muslim-Jewish Encounter, Diversity and Distance in Urban Europe: Religion, Culture and Social Model), investigating social, religious, and ethnic encounters between Muslims and Jews in urban Europe, in cooperation with the University of Durham, Birkbeck, Heidelberg, Strasbourg, Sciences Po and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Between 2021 and 2023, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Weber Institute of Sociology at Heidelberg University. Prior to that, Arndt was a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and a Research Officer with the Changing Structures of Islamic Authority project at the University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil and MPhil from the University of Oxford and a BA in Sociology from the University of Essex.
Research interests
Over the past fifteen years, Arndt has acquired extensive expertise in doing qualitative field research in India and Europe, including comparative work in the UK and Germany, exploring the role of religion, ethnicity and culture in democratic institutions, and the governance of urban diversity, interfaith relations, and organisational changes within diaspora, and migrant communities. He is currently a Guest Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Additionally, Arndt serves on the board of the European Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion research network and acts as a scientific advisor for the Educational Institute Maimonides in Germany.
His findings and commentaries have been published in academic journals such as Comparative Studies in Society and History, Politics and Religion, Social Compass, Journal of Muslims in Europe, Entangled Religions, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Asian Survey, and featured, among others, in the BBC, Al Jazeera, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Deutsche, Welle, Times of India, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Der Stern, and the podcast, Religion Inside.
He is the author of “Islamic movements in India: Moderation and its discontents” (Routledge, 2020) drawing on insights from political sociology, social movement theory and Islamic studies to analyse the ways religious groups utilise spiritual, material and organisational strategies for collective action, community development and political coaltion-building.
Reviewed in: Commonwealth & Comparative Politics; Journal of Asian Affairs; Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée.
Featured in: Times of India, BBC, Al Jazeera, The Diplomat, New Indian Express, The News Minute, Scroll, India Today, Open Magazine, First Post, Onmanorama, Boom Fact Check, South Asia Journal.
Teaching specialisms
Arndt has taught courses in cultural sociology, sociology of religion, social theory, development and migration studies and qualitative research methods. At the University of Hertfordshire, he teaches the following modules in Sociology:
- Sociology in Practice
- Crime and Culture
- Activism and Change
- Understanding the Body
- Religon, Faith and Society
- Research Methods: Doing Sociology
Education/Academic qualification
Sociology, BA, HEI: The University of Essex
Political Sociology/ Development Studies, MPhil, HEI: University of Oxford
Political Sociology/ Development Studies, DPhil, HEI: University of Oxford
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
Projects
- 3 Finished
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ENCOUNTERS (Muslim-Jewish Encounter, Diversity and Distance in Urban Europe: Religion, Culture and Social Model)
Emmerich, A. (Researcher)
1/02/21 → 1/12/24
Project: Research
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Dis/trusted partners: local Mosque activism during the German refugee crisis
Emmerich, A. (PI)
1/05/19 → 1/02/21
Project: Research
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Changing Structures of Islamic Authority and Consequences for Social Change: A Transnational Review
Emmerich, A. (Researcher)
1/05/17 → 1/05/19
Project: Research
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Becoming Salafi
Emmerich, A. & Ebbiary, A., 16 Apr 2025, The Cambridge Companion to Women and Islam. University of Cambridge, p. 151-173Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Urban renewal, contested memories and the politics of cultural production: The case of Jewish–Muslim encounters in Germany
Emmerich, A., 28 Feb 2025, In: European Journal of Cultural Studies. 28, 1, p. 40-59 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile9 Downloads (Pure) -
BLAULICHT, ROTLICHT, NEPP - UND TOLERANZ? Jüdisch-muslimische Begegnungen im Frankfurter Bahnhofsviertel
Emmerich, A., 24 Feb 2025Translated title of the contribution :BLUE LIGHTS, RED LIGHTS, FRAUD - AND TOLERANCE? Jewish-Muslim encounters in Frankfurt's Bahnhofsviertel Research output: Non-textual form › Web publication/site
Open AccessFile9 Downloads (Pure) -
Biodeutsch – (Un)Wort des Jahres: Emanzipation oder Ausgrenzung? Eine kultursoziologische Perspektive
Emmerich, A., 31 Jan 2025, Vielfalt Leben Blog Series, Bertelsmann Foundation.Translated title of the contribution :Biodeutsch - (Un)word of the year: Emancipation or Exclusion? A cultural-sociology perspective Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
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Symbolic boundaries within Jewish-Muslim encounters in Germany
Emmerich, A., 10 Jan 2025, (E-pub ahead of print)Research output: Non-textual form › Web publication/site
Open Access9 Downloads (Pure)