28. April 2026

Foto: A. Körs

We are pleased to invite you to a lecture by Assoc. Professor Kraig Beyerlein on the topic of “Chicago Congregations Project: A Transatlantic Perspective” on Monday, May 4, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., as part of the lecture series “Religions in Transition: International Perspectives”. This lecture will be held in Room C1061 (Gorch-Fock-Wall 7, 20354 Hamburg, 1st floor) as well as online via Zoom.

Employing multiple methodologies--e.g., virtual and physical canvassing of neighborhoods, gathering of social media data, and contacting/surveying religious practitioners--the Chicago Congregations Project (CCP) generated the approximate census of congregations in roughly half of the 77 Chicago Community Areas (CCAs). Professor Beyerlein's presentation discusses these methodologies, including their merits and challenges, as well as other data collected for the CCP (surveys of Chicago residents and historical cataloging/mapping of religious organizations in the Windy City) that facilitate studying the effects of congregations on local communities and their stability in these communities over time.

Kraig Beyerlein is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology as well as the director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame (IN, USA). He is also co-principal investigator for the Chicago Congregation Project. Kraig’s research and teaching focus on the intersection of religion and collective action, especially civic engagement and social activism. He is particularly interested in the role of congregation-based mobilizing for social justice.

The lecture series is organized by the Academy of World Religions at the University of Hamburg with support from the Udo Keller Foundation Forum Humanum.

For more information about the program, please click here: [PDF]

If you would like to attend, please register by email (awr"AT"uni-hamburg.de).