Jan Gehm

Jan Gehm, M.A.

Research Assistant Specialising in Christianity

Bavarian Research Centre for Interreligious Discourse

Hugenottenplatz 1a
91054 Erlangen
Deutschland

Biography

Jan Gehm studied Protestant theology in Bochum, Wuppertal and Münster as well as Orthodox theology. During his studies, he undertook numerous excursions and research visits to the Middle East, in particular to Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey and Armenia. After completing his studies, he worked on the European Research Council project “Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Christians in Europe between 1970 and 2020” under the direction of Prof Heleen Murre van den Berg at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. He worked on Oriental Orthodox communities in Europe, in particular the Syrian Orthodox Church and community in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands. From May 2024 to March 2025, Jan Gehm held the Junior Professorship for Intercultural Theology and Religious Studies at the Department of Protestant Theology at the University of Hamburg. Since April 2025, Jan Gehm has been working as a research assistant at BAFID, specialising in Christianity. His research interests include religion and migration, the history and present of Christian communities in the Middle East, global Christianity with a special focus on Orthodoxy in the 21st century and migration churches in Europe.

 

  • 14 March 2025, Transnational Networks: The Publication and Circulation of Syriac Orthodox Literature, Symposium Syriacum Bambergense, (13-15 March 2025), Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg
  • 22. March 2024, Syriac Orthodox Religious Education: Official teaching material in the German context, Syriac Studies in the UK: Past, Present, Future, (21-23 March 2024), Durham University, Great Britain
  • 26 January 2024, From catechism to textbooks: Syriac Orthodox teaching material in the diaspora, Conference of the ERC project Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental and Eastern Orthodox communities in a transnational world, (25-27 January 2024), Radboud University, Nijmegen
  • 16 November 2024, Textkultur zwischen Tradition und Erneuerung: Syrisch-Orthodoxes Leben in Europa, Beiratssitzung des Forschungsnetzwerks „Begegnung mit dem globalen Christentum vor Ort. Migrationskirchen in Niedersachsen“, (15-16 November 2024), Evangelische Stadtakademie Hannover
  • 2 November 2023, Syriac Orthodox Hagiography between the Homeland and Diaspora, Religion in Motion: Between Borders and Belonging, (1-3 November 2023), Conference of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG), Radboud University, Nijmegen
  • 5 May 2023, ERC Project: Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Christians in Europe, First International Tur Abdin Symposium, (1-6 May 2023), University Şırnak, University Mardin-Artuklu, Turkey
  • 6 July, 2022, Syriac Orthodox Saints as Mediators between the Homeland and the Diaspora, XIII Symposium Syriacum and the 11th Conference of Christian Arabic Studies, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO), Paris
  • 10 June, 2022, Syriac Orthodox Hagiography between the Homeland and Diaspora, Eighth Dorushe Graduate Student Conference on Syriac Studies, (9-10 June, 2022), Theology Department, Fordham University, New York
  • 21 November 2021, Experiencing the Saints of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the Diaspora, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Panel: Emergent Oriental Orthodox Experiences in Diasporic Spaces, American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, Texas
  • 28 September 2021, From Marginalized Village Communities in Southeastern Turkey to an Established Parish in Germany: The Example of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Herne (1960-2020), Europe and the Migration of the Christian Communities from the Middle East, (27-29 September 2021), Georg August Universität Göttingen, Koptisches Kloster Brenkhausen

  • Microhistory of a Syriac Orthodox community in Germany: The example of the Syriac Orthodox congregation in Herne from 1961 to 2021, in: Europe and the Migration of Christian Communities from the Middle East (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2022), 67-78. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv337mjhv.10.
  • Von marginalisierten Dorfgemeinschaften in der Südosttürkei zur etablierten Kirchengemeinde, Das Beispiel der syrisch-orthodoxen Kirchengemeinde in Herne 1961-2021, in: Gregor Etzelmüller, Claudia Rammelt, Migrationskirchen Internationalisierung und Pluralisierung des Christentums vor Ort, (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 2021) 253-266.
  • Mit Alena Höfer: Schmerzhafte Migration. Grenzüberschreitung zwischen Leben und Tod. Syrisch-orthodoxe und eritreisch-orthodoxe Perspektiven, in: Katharina Greschat, Claudia Jahnel (Hg.), Dem Schmerz begegnen. Theologische Deutungen, (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 2021), 323-338.
  • Koexistenz in der autonomen Region Kurdistan, Nordirak: Christen, Jesiden und Muslime zwischen den Fronten in Irakisch-Kurdistan. Verortungen und Erfahrungen, in: Vasile-Octavian Mihoc, Ryann Craig (Hg.), Contested Coexistence: Insights on Arabic Christianity from Theology to Migration Proceedings from the Summer School “Arabic Christianity: History, Culture, Language, Theology, Liturgy”, (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2020), 201-208.

  • Pluralität und Koexistenz, Gewalt, Flucht und Vertreibung. Christliche, jesidische und muslimische Lebenswelten in den gegenwärtigen Umbrüchen im Nahen Osten, Hrsg. Claudia Rammelt, Jan Gehm, Rebekka Scheler, Studien zur Orientalischen Kirchengeschichte, Band 59, (Münster: LIT Verlag 2019).

  • Martin Tamcke, Christliches Leben in islamischer Welt: Exemplarische Erkundungen und west-östliche Interaktionen. Ausgewählte Vorträge und Aufsätze 2003-2018, Zeitschrift für Missionswissenschaft 47 (1/2021), 242-244.
  • Martin Tamcke und Egbert Schlarb (Hrsg.) — Überleben, Pilgern, Begegnen im orientalischen Christentum. Festschrift für Wolfgang Hage zum 85. Geburtstag. (Göttinger Orientforschungen, Syriaca, 60). Verlag Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2020, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis (BiOr) LXXVIII 5/6 (2021). 746-749.

  • Im Streit um die Wahrheit. Die Frage nach dem Verständnis Jesu Christi im antiken Christentum und die Ausdifferenzierung des Christentums im Nahen Osten, mit Dr. Claudia Rammelt im Wintersemester 2022, Universität Siegen
  • Weltweite Orthodoxie: von regionalen Ursprüngen zu transnationalen religiösen Netzwerken, Sommersemester 2024, Universität Hamburg
  • Religiöse Vielfalt in der islamischen Welt: Christliches Leben zwischen Tradition und Moderne, Wintersemester 2024\25, Universität Hamburg