Books
Thomas G. Kirsch, Christina Wald (eds.) 2024.
Vorläufige Gewissheiten
Plausibilität als soziokulturelle Praxis
Bielefeld: transcript verlag.
Thomas G. Kirsch, Kirsten Mahlke, Rijk van Dijk (eds) 2023. Domestic Demons and the Intimate Uncanny (with contributions by Florence Bernault, Jean Comaroff, Thomas G. Kirsch, Kirsten Mahlke, Silvana Mandolessi, Isak Niehaus, Senzokuhle Doreen Setume, Gudrun Rath, Rijk van Dijk, Ehler Voss). London: Routledge.
Thomas G. Kirsch, Mirco Göpfert, Andrea Behrends, Minh Nguyen, Anna Lisa Ramella, Thomas Stodulka, Magnus Treiber, Asta Vonderau (eds) 2022. Fieldwork Meets Crisis. Special Issue of “Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology” (Zeitschrift für Ethnologie) 147 (1/2).
Duarte dos Santos, Franziska, Thomas G. Kirsch & Rijk van Dijk (eds) 2021. Religiopolitical Activism. (with contributions by Bosco Bae, Rafael Cazarin, Franziska Duarte dos Santos, Maria Frahm-Arp, Thomas G. Kirsch, Kim Molenaar and Rijk van Dijk). Special issue of the journal “Journal of Religion in Africa” 49 (3/4).
Bochow, Astrid, Thomas G. Kirsch & Rijk van Dijk (eds) 2017. Ethical Fields in Africa. (with contributions by Astrid Bochow, Hansjörg Dilger, Thomas G. Kirsch, Michael Lambek, David Parkin, Rijk van Dijk, Henrik Vigh). Special issue of the journal “Africa” 87 (3).
Dilley, Roy & Kirsch, Thomas G. (eds) 2015. Regimes of Ignorance. Anthropological Perspectives on the Production and Reproduction of Non-Knowledge.(with contributions by John Borneman, Carlo Caduff, Leo Coleman, Roy Dilley, Casey High, Thomas G. Kirsch, Christos Lynteris, and Trevor Marchand). Oxford: Berghahn Books
Thomas G. Kirsch, Rudolf Schlögl, Dorothea Weltecke (eds) 2015. Religion als Prozess. Kulturwissenschaftliche Wege der Religionsforschung. Paderborn: Verlag Ferdinand Schönigh.
Kirsch, Thomas G. & Tilo Grätz (eds) 2010. Domesticating Vigilantism in Africa. (with contributions by Ray Abrahams, Laars Buur, Tilo Grätz, Sten Hagberg, Johannes Harnischfeger, Thomas G. Kirsch, David Pratten, Syna Ouattara) Oxford: James Currey.
Kirsch, Thomas G. & Bertram Turner (eds) 2009. Permutations of Order: Religion and Law as Contested Sovereignties. with contributions by Franz and Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, Lorenzo Canás Bottos, Anindity Chakrabarti, Nina Glick Schiller, Anthony Good, Thomas G. Kirsch, René Kuppe, Michaela Pelican, Stephan Palmié, Nahda Shehada, Bertram Turner, Jacqueline Vel).
London: Routledge.
Kirsch, Thomas G. 2008. Spirits and Letters. Reading, Writing and Charisma in African Christianity. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Kirsch, Thomas G. & Werner Schiffauer (eds) 2003. Stadt - Image - Zeitung. Ethnographische Recherchen in einer Lokalredaktion. Frankfurt an der Oder: KOWA.
Kirsch, Thomas G. 1998. Lieder der Macht. Religiöse Autorität und Performance in einer afrikanisch-christlichen Kirche Zambias. Münster: Lit-Verlag.
Representative publications
General Anthropology
- plausibility
- regimes of ignorance
- ethical fields
- epistemology
- similarity
- ethnographies of reading and writing
- secrecy and epistemophilic others
- the reality of history
Anthroplogy of Religion
- what is belief?
- spirits and letters
- the performative construction of charisma
- logistics of the spirit
- boundary work and meta-coding
- print globalization
- legal hermeneutics
- religion as process
- the precarious centre
- church / state
- the social life of entities
- religion and law
- symbols of vision
- discordance through consensus
- socio-spiritual communities
- the politics of context
- volunteer management practices
- collective intimacy
- spiritual infrastructures
Political Anthropology
- securing security
- speaking out against security
- violence and democracy
- vigilantism and state ontologies
- law and power
- infrastructure and urban movements
- infrastructure theft
- volunteering as repentance
- performing the common good
- what is a refugee?
- family resemblances in action
Forthcoming
- "Securosociality. Reconceptualizing the Social Lives of Security" (for special issue 'Security from the Margins - Revisiting the Critical Anthropology of Security', edited by Ernst Halbmayer and Philipp Naucke)
- "Rückkehr zum Dialog. Public Anthropology und die Untersuchung von 'repugnant others'" (for edited volume on Public Anthropology, edited by Hansjörg Dilger, Gisela Welz, Beate Binder, Sabine Hess and Thomas Kirsch)
- "Endless Beginnings. ‘Making a Beginning’ as a Register of Social Practice“ (together with Melanie Brand and Tanja Thielemann)
Book reviews in (invited)
- Advances in Research
- Africa
- African Studies Review
- Anthropology Southern Africa
- Entangled Religions
- Ethnos
- Journal of Religion in Africa
- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
- Paideuma
- Religion
- Religion and Society
- State and Society
- Zeitschrift für Ethnologie