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PD Dr. Sarah Kaboğan

Foto Sarah Kabogan

Institute of Sociology

Social Stratification and Survey Methodology

Researcher

Address
Garystr. 55
Room 315
14195 Berlin
Telephone
+49 30 838 67560
Email
s.kabogan@fu-berlin.de

Working background

since 02/2026

Research Assistant (Post Doc), Chair of Social Stratification and Survey Methodology (Prof. Dr. Stefan Liebig), Institute of Sociology, Freie Universität Berlin

Project „Gender role and justice attitudes through the prisms of religion and
religiosity“ (German research foundation (DFG))
since 05/2022

Private lecturer,chair of Empirical Research on Religion (Prof. Dr. Stefan Huber), Faculty of Theology, University of Bern, Switzerland
09/2023 – 12/2025

Deputy scientific director of the research unit "Islam and Politics", Chair of Islamic and Religious Studies (Prof. Dr. Mouhanad Khorchide), Center for Islamic Theology, University of Münster
07/2017 – 12/2025

Research Assistant (Post-Doc), chair of Sociology of Religion (Prof. Dr. Detlef Pollack), Institute of Sociology, University of Münster

frim 05/2021 Research Assistant in the project "Resentment as an affective
base of radicalization" (BMFTR)

07/2017-07/2021 Research Assistant at the chair

 02 – 07/2019

Guest researcher in the project of „Multidimensional Model of Spirituality” (SNF), chair of Empirical
Research on Religion (Prof. Dr. Stefan Huber), Fakulty of Theology, University of Bern, Switzerland

11/2011 – 08/2014

Doctorate at the Institute of Psychology, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Differential Psychology and Diagnostics (Prof. Dr. Dr. Uwe Wolfradt)

 01/2013 – 12/2013 Project associate of the evaluation study Religious
Education Qualification for Educators in Day Care Centers (Evangelical Church in Central Germany)

Education

12/2021

Habilitation and Venia Docendi for “Empirical Research on Religion“ and “Interreligious Studies“, University of Bern, Switzerland

Title of the cumulative habilitation thesis: “Religiosity beyond Christianity: Islam - Baha'i - Secular Spirituality”

Inaugural lecture 05/2022: “The phenomenon of possession in an interreligious context - The study by Traugott K. Oesterreich (1921) and its contemporary relevance”    
11/2011 – 08/2014

Doctorate in Psychology (Dr. phil., magna cum laude) at the Institute of Psychology at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

Day of the disputation: July 29, 2014 (summa cum laude)

Topic of the dissertation: „Religiosity and rituals: Empirical studies among East German adolescents“ (magna com laude)

10/2012 – 12/2014

European Diploma in Psychology of Religion (EU Dipl. rel. psych.), University of Vienna, Austria

Titel der Abschlussarbeit: „Emotionsregulative Effekte des Gebets unter religiös und nicht-religiös sozialisierten Jugendlichen“

12/2005 – 03/2011

Degree in Psychology (Dipl. psych.) with Protestant Theology as a
minor subject, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

Diploma thesis: “Religiosity and fantasy experience: The relationship between religiosity, fantasy, image of God, depersonalization and openness in a multi-denominational sample”

Committee Activities and Academic Self-Administration

since 2024

Advisory board member of the Center for Empowerment Studies - Research Center for Christian Empowerment in Secularity, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
since 08/2021

General secretary and treasurer of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion (IAPR)
07/2024 – 01/2025   Member of the International Scientific Committee of the “International Conference on Interdisciplinary Terrorism and Extremism Studies in Europe, Asia and Africa (ICITES)”, University of Vienna, Austria
03/2021 – 06/2021  

Jury member of the Ernst E. Boesch Award for Cultural Psychology of the Society for Cultural Psychology

Memberships

  1. International Society of Empirical Research in Theology (ISERT) since 2021
  2. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie (German Society for Sociology, DGS) since 2018
  3. Sektion ‚Religionssoziologie‘ (Section ‘Sociology of Religion’ of DGS) since 2018
  4. Gesellschaft für Kulturpsychologie (Society for Cultural Psychology) since 2017
  5. International Association for the Psychology of Religion (IAPR) since 2013
  6. Arbeitskreis Quantitative Religionsforschung (Working Group Quantitative Research on
    Religion) since 2012

Project Leaderships

  1. Religiosity, values and the perception of anti-Muslim discrimination among students of Islamic
    theology and religious education (2021-2022), center for Islamic theology, University
    of Münster, in-house funding
  2. Religious fundamentalism (2019-2022), Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”, University
    of Münster, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
  3. Religiosity in East & West – Conceptual & Methodological Challenges (2018-2019), department
    of sociology, University of Münster, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
  4. Multidimensional Model of Spirituality (2019), Institute for Empirical Research on Religion,
    University of Bern, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)


Current publications (published under the maiden name Sarah Demmrich)

Monographs

  1. Williamson, W. P., & Demmrich, S. (2024). An International Review of Empirical Research on the Psychology of Fundamentalism. Brill.
  2. Utsch, M., & Demmrich, S. (2023). Psychologie des Glaubens: Einführung in die Religionspsychologie. Utb.

Article and book chapters with peer review

  1. Demmrich, S., Pollack, D., Müller, O., Rosta, G. (2025). Antisemitism among Muslims in Germany before and after October 7, 2023: An Analysis Based on an Unexpected Event during Survey Design. Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41682-025-00233-7
  2. Demmrich, S., Allolio-Näcke, L., & Wolfradt, U. (2026). The psychology of religion in Germany up to 2020. In K. Ladd, J. Basu, V. DeMarinis, Ü. Ok, W. Zangari, & M. L. Ladd (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook for the International Psychology of Religion.Cambridge University Press.
  3. Demmrich, S. & Utsch, M. (im Druck). Religionspsychologische Verständnishilfen für den interreligiösen Dialog. In V. Kozmann & R. Wurzrainer (Eds.), Interreligiöse und interkulturelle Begegnung: Grundlage für persönliche Entwicklung und religionswissenschaftliche Expertise?
  4. Bokler, E., Demmrich, S., Ezli, Ö., Khorchide, M., Müller, O., Pollack, D., & Tezcan, L. (2025). Kränkungserfahrungen, Ressentiment und Radikalisierung in der muslimischen Bevölkerung. In S. Abdellah, S. Tultschinetski, J. Junk, & M. Freiheit (Eds.), Islamismus als gesellschaftliche Herausforderung. Ursachen, Wirkungen, Handlungsoptionen (S. 327-366). Springer.
  5. Demmrich, S., & Şenel, A. (2025). Entitativity as a moderator? A brief report unraveling the relations between deprivation, fundamentalism, and radicalization. Current Psychology, 44, 6838–6847. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-07674-6
  6. Utsch, M. & Demmrich, S. (2025). Glaube kann schützen und schaden: Religionspsychologische Impulse. Praktische Theologie, 60(1), 18-23. https://doi.org/10.14315/prth-2025-600105
  7. Demmrich, S. & Hanel, P. H. P. (2025). Religious fundamentalism and radicalization: How nationalist-Islamist party politics polarizes Turkey – and how polarization can be reduced. Journal for Religion, Society and Politics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41682-024-00199-y
  8. Demmrich, S. (2025). Studying religiosity beyond (Western) Christianity: An empirical-psychological perspective and its implications. Journal of Empirical Theology, 38 (1), 54-73. http://www.doi.org/10.1163/15709256-20240011
  9. Pollack, D., Müller, O., & Demmrich, S. (2024). Religious fundamentalism:  A conceptual and empirical study among Muslims of Turkish origin in Germany. Sociology of Religion, srae035. https://doi.org/10.1093/socrel/srae035
  10. Allolio-Näcke, L., & Demmrich, S. (2024). Religion und religiosity. In U. Wolfradt, L. Allolio-Näcke, & P. S. Ruppel (Hrsg.), Cultural Psychology: An introduction (pp. 337-346). Springer.
  11. Demmrich, S., & Hanel, P. H. P. (2024). The relative role of religiosity in radicalization: How orthodox and fundamentalist religiosity are linked to violence acceptance. Frontiers in Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/frsps.2024.1406688
  12. Şenel, A. & Demmrich, S.[1] (2024). Prospective Islamic theologians and Islamic religious teachers in Germany: Between a fundamentalist and reform orientation. British Journal of Religious Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2024.2330908
  13. Demmrich, S. Ağılkaya-Şahin, Z., & Şenel, A. (2024). Love thy neighbor: Exploring religious and social openness among prospective theologians in Germany and Turkey. Religions, 15(3), 260. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030260
  14. Demmrich, S., Kaplan, H., & Şenel, A. (2023). The variety of religiosity in contemporary Turkey: Established and new categories of religious self-assessment from a representative quota sample. European Journal of Turkish Studies, 35. https://journals.openedition.org/ejts/8168
  15. Demmrich, S., Koppold-Liebscher, D., Klatte, C., Steckhan, N., & Ring, R. M. (2023). Effects of religious intermittent dry fasting on religious experience and mindfulness: A longitudinal study among Baha’is. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 15(4), 459–470. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000423
  16. Allolio-Näcke, L., & Demmrich, S. (2023). Religion und Religiosität. In U. Wolfradt, L. Allolio-Näcke & P. S. Ruppel (Hrsg.), Kulturpsychologie: Eine Einführung (S. 377-386). Springer.
  17. Demmrich, S., & Hanel, P. H. P. (2023). When religious fundamentalists feel privileged: Findings from a representative study in contemporary Turkey. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100115
  18. Demmrich, S., Pollack, D., & Müller, O. (2022). Religion und Integration bei türkeistämmigen Muslimen in Deutschland. Soziale Welt: Zeitschrift für sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung. Islam in Europa – Institutionalisierung und Konflikt, Sonderband 25, 185-205.
  19. Ring, R. M., Eisenmann, C., Kandil, F. I., Steckhan, N., Demmrich, S., Klatte, C., Kessler, C. S., Jeitler, M., Boschmann, M., Michalsen, M., Blakeslee, S. B., Stöckigt, B., Stritter, W. & Koppold-Liebscher, D. A. (2022). Mental and behavioural responses to Bahá’í Fasting: Looking behind the scenes of a religiously motivated intermittent fast using a mixed methods approach. Nutrients, 14, 1038. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14051038
  20. Lewis, C. A., Davis, S., Corry, D. A. S., & Demmrich, S. (2022). Translation of the extended addictive features section of the Ottawa Self-injury Inventory Version 3.1 in German. International Journal of High Risk Behaviors & Addiction, 11(1), e118936. 10.5812/ijhrba.118936.
  21. Demmrich, S., & Akçe, H. (2021). Revisiting the religious openness hypothesis in the context of migration: The case of Muslims with a Turkish migration background in Germany.Journal of Empirical Theology, 34, 201-226. https://doi.org/10.1163/15709256-12341425
  22. Koppold-Liebscher, D., Klatte, C., Demmrich, S., Schwarz, J., Kandil, F. I., Steckhan, N., Ring, R., Kessler, C. S., Jeitler, M., Koller, B., Ananthasubramaniam, B., Eisenmann, C., Mähler, A., Boschmann, M., Kramer, A., & Michalsen, A. (2021). Effects of daytime dry fasting on hydration, glucose metabolism and circadian clock: A prospective exploratory cohort study in Bahá’i volunteers. Frontiers in Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.662310
  23. Demmrich, S., & Arakon, M. (2021). Kurdish, Turkish, German? Identity formation by shared narratives and identificative integration of Kurdish migrants in Germany. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 43, 659-678. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2020.1752391

    [1] shared authorship

Article and book chapters without peer review

  1. Khorchide, M., Demmrich, S., & Şenel, A. (2025). Editorial—Politischer Islamismus und Autoritärer Nationalismus. Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik. doi.org/10.1007/s41682-025-00227-5
  2. Demmrich, S. (2024). Religiosität und Rituale: Empirische Untersuchungen an ostdeutschen Jugendlichen. In M. Domsgen & K. Höhn-Norden (Eds.), Perspektivverschiebungen im religiösen Feld: Lernprozesse angesichts zunehmender Konfessionslosigkeit (S. 47-58). EVA.
  3. Demmrich, S. & Blaszcyk, S. (2024). Erzieherinnen qualifizieren: Evaluation eines religionspädagogischen Angebotes in kommunalen und evangelischen Kindertagesstätten. In M. Domsgen & K. Höhn-Norden (Hrsg.), Pespektivverschiebungen im religiösen Feld: Lernprozesse angesichts zunehmender Konfessionslosigkeit (S. 309-320). EVA.
  4. Pollack, D., Demmrich, S., & Müller, O. (2023). Editorial—Religious fundamentalism: New theoretical and empirical challenges across religions and cultures. Journal for Religion, Society and Politics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41682-023-00159-y
  5. Demmrich, S., Ağılkaya-Şahin, Z., & Yapıcı, A. (2021). Introduction. In Ağılkaya-Şahin, Z., Yapıcı, A., & Demmrich, S. (Eds.), Sociology of Religion in Turkey (S. 15-22). Çamlıca.
  6. Riegel, U., & Demmrich, S. (2021). Religious Education and Pastoral Care at the Crossroads of Eastern and Western perspectives on religion. In S. Demmrich & U. Riegel (Eds.), Western and Eastern perspectives on religion and religiosity (S. 163-172). Waxmann.
  7. Demmrich, S., & Riegel, U. (2021). Preface. In S. Demmrich & U. Riegel (Eds.), Eastern and Western perspectives on religion and religiosity (S. 5-12). Waxmann.

Published books and special volums of journals

  1. Khorchide, M., Demmrich, S. & Şenel, A. (2025). Politischer Islamismus und autoritärer Nationalismus/Political Islamism and authoritarian nationalism. Sonderheft der Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik, 9(1).
  2. Huber, S., Demmrich, S. & Kamble, S. V. (2024). Inter-Religious Relations: Prejudices and Conflicts – Dialogue and Integration. Special issue of Religions.
  3. Demmrich, S., Pollack, D., & Müller, O. (2023). Religious Fundamentalism: New theoretical and empirical challenges across religions and cultures. Sonderheft der Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik (Springer).
  4. Ağılkaya-Şahin, Z., Yapıcı, A., & Demmrich, S. (Eds.) (2021). Sociology of Religion in Turkey. Çamlıca.
  5. Demmrich, S. & Riegel, U. (Eds.) (2021). Eastern and Western perspectives on religion and religiosity. Waxmann.

Reviews

  1. Demmrich, S. (2023). Review of “Dimitris Xygalatas. Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living. New York: Profile Books, 2022. 320 S. isbn 9780316462402 (hbk.). Numen, 70(5), 630-632. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685276-20231709
  2. Demmrich, S., Ezli, Ö., & Bokler-Völkel, E. (2022). Wissenschaftlicher Kommentar zur DİTİB Jugendstudie 2021. Migration und Soziale Arbeit, 44(4), 376-381.
  3. Demmrich, S. (2022). Die Religionspsychologie kulturpsychologisch verortet: Der Abschied vom homo religiosus. Rezension zu Lars Allolio-Näckes Anthropologie und Kulturpsychologie der religiösen Entwicklung. Eine Religionspsychologie. Psychosozial, 45(4), 105-107. https://doi.org/10.30820/0171-3434-2022-4-105#

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VeM5Sa8AAAAJ&hl=de

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sarah-Demmrich