Graduated May 2024<\/p>\n
Taiwan; popular religion; social change; democratization; practice-based approaches; contemporary trickster figures; humor; memes as genre of communication<\/p>\n
https:\/\/bu.academia.edu\/JacobFTischer<\/a><\/p>\n In my dissertation, I ask an age-old question: Why do people often not seem to notice social change? When do they actually notice that things\u2014practices, relationships, ideas\u2014are changing, and what happens then?<\/p>\n In 2017 and 2019\u201420 I spent nineteen months in an environment that is constantly changing: Traditional religious practices in Taiwan. And yet, many people in Taiwan as well as respected scholars abroad argue that popular religious practices provide the building blocks for things to stay the same. Allegedly, these practices sustain patriarchy and hierarchy in society. During fieldwork, I studied a deafeningly loud style of traditional music with Taipei\u2019s oldest Pak-koan music troupe, I walked several pilgrimages in honor of Taiwan\u2019s patron goddess, Mazu, and I learned the DIY methods of a newly founded religious group whose members produce all of their ritual devices on their own. What I gathered from all these contexts is that the younger generations of Taiwanese\u2014those under 40\u2014change religious practices in a way that undermines the conservative-patriarchal model and instead democratizes personal relationships as well as organizational structures.<\/p>\n From a previous life, I hold an MA in Chinese Studies and Religious Studies from the University of Leipzig (Germany). My MA thesis was published in German in 2014 (the title translates as \u201cMazu\u2019s New Home: Interpretations and Institutions of a Chinese Goddess in Taiwan\u201d); it deals with the intertwinement of popular religion and politics at local and national levels, and traces how the popular deity Mazu became a patron deity of Taiwan\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n Outside of all this academic stuff, I enjoy football\u2014err, agonize over it, more like; in any event it\u2019s the kind you play with your heart as well as your feet, but certainly not your hands (who would take a foot<\/em>ball into their hands and run with it??). I suffer a style of music called \u2018skramz\u2019 (aka Euro-Screamo) that to most people is just noise and regularly go back to reading Franz Kafka and Hermann Hesse, sprinkled with some Arundhati Roy on top.<\/p>\n Favorite ethnography right now: Teri Silvio, Puppets, Gods, and Brands: Theorizing the Age of Animation from Taiwan<\/em>.<\/p>\n Peer-reviewed journal articles:\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n <\/span><\/span><\/span>Accepted Book chapters:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\nAbout<\/h3>\n
Awards & Grants<\/h3>\n
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Publications<\/h3>\n
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