Mattias Brand

Mattias Brand, Dr. phil.

Lehrbeauftragter

Biographical Information
Research Interests
Publications (Selection)
Courses at the UZH

Biographical Information

Since 2019 postdoc at the chair for historical and comparative religion: Chair website
Visiting scholarships at Maquarie University (Sydney) and the University of Vienna (Austria)
2019 Dissertation The Manichaeans of Kellis: Religion, Community, and Everyday Life (Leiden University).
- Awarded the Gerardus van der Leeuw award (Best Dutch PhD dissertation on religion in 3 years) by the NGG.
- Awarded a “Research Prize” by the Stichting Praemium Erasmianum (One out of five best Dutch PhD dissertations in the Humanities and Social Sciences).
Studied history (Utrecht University), ancient history (Leiden University), Classics and Near Eastern Civilizations, Track New Testament and Early Christianity (Leiden University, Cum Laude).

Research Interests

Transformation of religious objects and practices at home
Manichaeism and early Christianities
Method and Theory in the Study of Religion

Publications (Selection)

Video

2021 Youtube video script for introduction into Manichaeism, presented by Andrew Henry. Religion for Breakfast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJJyuVn7nsw (June 2021, over 168.000 views).

Books and Journal Issues

2022 Religion and the Everyday Life of Manichaeans in Kellis (Leiden: Brill, Open Access).
2022 Religious Identifications in Late Antique Papyri. Volume edited together E. Scheerlinck. (London: Routledge, Open Access).
2022 Special Forum Edition. The Role of Historians in the Study of Religion\s, Journal of Religious History (Australia: John Wiley and Sons Australia, Ltd, Open Access).

Selection of Articles and Chapters

2022 “Writing a Cultural History of Religion at Home” in Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. (Open Access)
2019 ‘In the footsteps of the Apostles of Light: Persecution and the Manichaean discourse of suffering’, in E. Fournier and W. Mayer eds., Heirs of Roman Persecution: Studies on a Christian and para-Christian Discourse in Late Antiquity (London: Routledge), 112–134.
2019 “Identifying Christian burials” in: Perspectives on Lived Religion: Practices Transmission Landscape, Edited by Nico Staring, Huw Twiston Davies and Lara Weiss (Leiden: Sidestone Press), 85–95. (Open Access)
2021 “Letter or Petition with Complaint and Request about Garments”, with E. Scheerlinck. In: Joanne Vera Stolk & Guus A.J.C. van Loon (eds.), Text Editions of (Abnormal) Hieratic, Demotic, Greek, Latin and Coptic. Some People Love Their Friends Also When They Are Far Away: Festschrift in Honour of Franscisca A.J. Hoogendijk (P. L. Bat. 37) (Leiden: Brill), 155-158.
2021 “‘For only our lord the Paraclete is competent to praise you as you deserve’ (P.Kellis I Gr. 63): Identifying a Roman-Egyptian patron of the Manichaeans in Kellis”, in: J. van Oort (ed.,) Manichaeism and Early Christianity (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 128-151.
2021 “Ten Steps to Superiority: Manichaean Historical Reasoning and the Formation of a New Religion”, in: Adrian Braendli and Katharina Heyden eds. Claiming History in Religious Conflicts (Basel: Schwabe Verlag), 111-141 (Open Access).
2022 “‘You being for us helpers, and worthy patrons...’ (P.Kell.Copt 32). Manichaean gift-exchange in the village of Kellis”, in M. Scopello eds. Women in Western and Eastern Manichaeism (Leiden: Brill, 2022), 113-128.
2022 “Laatantieke religieuze diversiteit in het alledaagse leven: een zoektocht in de papyri” Lampas 55 no. 2, 266-284, English title: “Late Antique Religious Diversity in Everyday Life: A Quest in the Papyri”).

Forthcoming

“Making Manichaeannes ‘real’: Group formation through song”, in: A. Avdokin ed. Resonant Faith in Late Antiquity (Routledge).
“Religion and Roman Houses in Egypt: Towards a Synthesis” in Bibliotheca Orientalis.