About

Ramona Jelinek-Menke is a scholar of religions whose interdisciplinary research is driven by the question of how societies produce (in)equality. Her work focuses on two main areas: the contemporary entanglements of religion with gendered and disabled bodies, and religion in museums. In both fields, she pays particular attention to questions of artistic representation and various forms of violence. Doing so, she employs qualitative social research methods and draws on theories of social difference, gender studies, disability studies, and the material religion approach.

Ramona Jelinek-Menke studied Sociology (BA) and the Study of Religions (BA, MA) in Göttingen and Leipzig. She then pursued her doctoral studies at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Zurich, where she earned her PhD in Spring 2020. Her dissertation,  "Religion and Disability¹" was awarded summa cum laude and the Fritz Stolz Prize by the Swiss Society for the Study of Religions. Since then, she has worked on projects such as  „Dynamics of Religious Things in Museums²“ (BMBF, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Religions, University of Marburg) and  „Extraordinary Bodies in African-Brazilian Religious Art³“ (Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Institute for Comparative Cultural Research and the Study of Religions, University of Marburg), as well as teaching at universities in Göttingen, Marburg, Lucerne, and Zurich. In the fall of 2022, she was a Visiting Scholar in the Disability Studies Program and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In the winter semester of 2024/2025, she was the Interim Professor of Comparative Study of Religions at the University of Marburg. Since March 2025, she has been a Senior Research Fellow (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) in the Accessibility Lab and the Department for Comparative Research on Religions at the Forum Internationale Wissenschaft at the University of Bonn.

Research Focuses

• Contemporary Religions
• Material Religion and Religion in the Museum
• Religion and Violence
• Gender and Disability Studies
• Interpretative Social Research

Interviews

Bayern 2 Podcast Die Neue Norm, Episode #27 “Religion und Behinderung: Warum wir nicht an Heilung glauben“ Link⁴.

SWR2 Podcast Glauben, Episode “Behindern oder befähigen? Christliche Einrichtungen und Inklusion.“ Link⁵.

Deutschlandfunk Kultur Religionen, Episode "Von Fürsorge und der Verheißung von Heilung." Link⁶.

WDR 5 Radio Broadcast Diesseits von Eden, Episode 18.05.2025. Link⁷.