Maria Diemling

Based in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Education

Mag. Phil. (Vienna), Dr. Phil. (Vienna)

Maria Diemling joined the department in September 2006, having previously been Lecturer in Jewish Studies at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and a Research Fellow at the Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel).

She is currently a REF co-ordinator for REF2021.

In 2019-20, I am teaching the following modules:

L4: Understanding World Religions (co-taught)
L5: Judaism; Ethics in Religious Traditions (co-taught)
L6: Contemporary Issues in World Religions; Religion, Gender and Sexuality (co-taught)

Expertise

Early modern Jewish history
Jewish-Christian relations
The Body and Food in religious practice and culture
Contemporary Jewish identity

Current research projects

The Body in Jewish-Christian Relations (book project)
Food and religious observance

Knowledge exchange

Co-editor of online teaching resource on Jewish-non-Jewish relations with Dr Hannah Holtschneider (University of Edinburgh), co-funded by the Spalding Trust and a KE Small Grant from Canterbury Christ Church University
KE Project with RED internship, 'A Cry from the Past: The Journey of a Torah Scroll from Klatovy, Czechoslovakia, to Ramsgate, UK', funded by RED and a KE Small Grant from Canterbury Christ Church University
KE Project with Prof Larry Ray (University of Kent) and the Thanet and District Reform Synagogue on Jewish Identity in Small Communities, funded by a KE Small Grant from Canterbury Christ Church University

Research Projects

‘A Critique of Purpose from a Black British Woman’s Perspective’. Researcher(s): Ms Carol McKenzie. Supervisor(s): Dr Maria Diemling, Dr Ralph Norman. [Postgraduate Research Project]
’Becoming Class Enemy: A Countryside Primary School Teacher’s Reeducation in Communist Romania’’ - A Microhistorical View on the Effects of Collectivisation and Expropriation on Teachers. Researcher(s): Mrs Diana Dalsgaard Johansen. Supervisor(s): Dr David Budgen, Dr Maria Diemling. [Postgraduate Research Project]
A critical investigation of the epistemological, familial and spiritual invisibility of spiritual Black lesbian and bisexual women in the Belgian LGBT rights framework.. Researcher(s): Dr LULU VAN DE VELDE. Supervisor(s): Dr Maria Diemling, Dr Ralph Norman. [Postgraduate Research Project]
Before these walls: medieval spolia as a mode of memory transmission at Rochester Cathedral.. Researcher(s): Mr Jacob Scott. Supervisor(s): Dr Catriona Cooper, Dr Maria Diemling, Dr Heidi Stoner. [Postgraduate Research Project]
Black. British and De-Churched: a critical investigation of conservative bible reading groups and afroasiatic religious movements in London.. Researcher(s): Dr Eleasah Louis. Supervisor(s): Dr Maria Diemling, Dr Ralph Norman. [Postgraduate Research Project]
Do remote communities on the Scottish islands use ultra conservative religious practices as a means of maintaining cultural identity in the face of a dwindling indigenous population?. Researcher(s): Dr YVONNE BENNETT. Supervisor(s): Dr Maria Diemling, Dr Ivan Khovacs. [Postgraduate Research Project]
Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Rev Dr Otis Clayton. Supervisor(s): Dr Maria Diemling, Professor Leonie Hicks. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Dr Gifford Rhamie. Supervisor(s): Dr Maria Diemling. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
Experiences of FE staff from Eu countries during Brexit. Researcher(s): Ms Annike King. Supervisor(s): Professor Adrian Holliday, Dr Maria Diemling. [Postgraduate Research Project]
Hagar and the Levite's Concubine: Reclaiming Biblical Women Through a Womanist Lens. Researcher(s): Miss Shehla Ahmad. Supervisor(s): Dr Maria Diemling, Dr Ralph Norman. [Postgraduate Research Project]
How Might Communication Help Practitioners in Loss and Grief Counselling?. Researcher(s): Mrs Jane Joyce. Supervisor(s): Dr John-Paul Riordan, Dr Maria Diemling. [Postgraduate Research Project]
The Community of Pluckley.1500-1650: People, Place and Belonging.. Researcher(s): Mrs Kaye Sowden. Supervisor(s): Dr Dave Hitchcock, Dr Maria Diemling. [Postgraduate Research Project]

Membership of professional bodies and networks

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Member of Editorial Board, journal Medaon.
Honorary Fellow, The Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, University of Southampton
Member of the Association for Jewish Studies.
Member of the British Association for Jewish Studies.
Member of the European Association for Jewish Studies.

Invited lectures

I enjoy sharing my research and discuss my findings with colleagues and the interested public. I am regularly invited to present my research at research seminars, workshops and conferences in the UK and abroad. Some recent lectures include:

November 2017: invited lecture 'Teaching Jewish-Christian Relations: Challenges and Opportunities' at conference “Can Polemics Innovate?” Change and Continuity in Jewish–Christian Polemics from Late Antiquity to Modernity, University of Vienna, Austria.
June 2017: invited lecture 'Disclosing the 'Hidden Transcript': Converts as Mediators between Judaism and Christianity' at workshop Jewish History and Culture in the Early Modern World. Leipzig University, Germany.
April 2016, invited lecture 'Jewish-Christian Relations: Challenges and Opportunities', Methodist Church, Kent.
February 2016, invited lecture 'Angels in Judaism', Jewish academy, Munich, Germany.
July 2015: invited lecture 'The Body of the Convert' at workshop Jews and Medicine: An Embodied History, Villa La Colina, Lake Como, Italy.
June 2015, invited lecture 'Jüdisches Leben in Deutschland um die Reformationszeit' at conference Reformator, Ketzer, Judenfeind: Jüdische Perspektiven auf Martin Luther in Berlin, Germany.
April 2015: invited lecture 'Why do Jewish Men Menstruate? Jews, Christians and Gendered Bodies in the Early Modern Period’ at workshop Body, Beard, and Dress. Perceptions of Jewish Appearances from the Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century in Mainz, Germany.
March 2015, research seminar 'Judaism behind closed doors: "Christian ethnographies" as "Hidden Transcripts" of Jewish life in Early Modern German Lands' at the Parkes Institute for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations at the University of Southampton.
February 2015, two lectures at workshop Johannes Pfefferkorn’s Campaign against the Jews: Antisemitism and Ethnography in the Sixteenth Century in Uppsala, Sweden.