The three-year project "Urban Religious Diversity Digital" combines teaching with practical application through annual summer schools with preparatory block events. The cooperation between the Department of Christian Archaeology of the Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology and the Department of New Testament of the Faculty of Protestant Theology is supported by the funding line "Future-oriented teaching of the Strategy Funds Study and Teaching" of the University of Bonn.
The courses deal with the coexistence of different religious groups in the metropolitan area of Rome. Each year, the focus is on a cult building of a selected group. For 2023, the initial focus of the events is the analysis of the late antique synagogue of Ostia in its temporal and religious-historical context. On site, there will be cooperation with the German Archaeological Institute, Rome Department, and the Parco Archeologica di Ostia.
The project will digitally capture and model the different cult buildings: With the support of the BCDH (Bonn Center for Digital Humanities), digital solutions such as 3D models will be developed to illustrate elusive concepts such as social mixing, urban change and religious diversity. New insights can be gained and made accessible. In this way, the project fits into the already existing "ViCo-Virtual Collaboration" at the University of Bonn.
Participating students from both degree programmes can expand on existing focal points as well as get to know new fields of research, be it technical aspects, hermeneutic questions or the analysis of material objects.
Participation in the project events enables students to become acquainted with digital methods that enrich research in the humanities and, in particular, open up new possibilities for archaeological-historical research that are crucial for the future of the subject. Students are thus specifically supported and prepared for modern scientific work through their involvement in the evaluation of findings and their translation into 3D models and reconstructions.
Concept and supervision: Prof. Dr. Sabine Feist, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jan Rüggemeier
Runtime: 2022 - 2025
Funding: Study and Teaching Strategy Fund - Förderlinie Zukunftsorientierte Lehre (Future-Oriented Teaching funding line)
Cooperation: Dr. Jan Rüggemeier - Faculty of Protestant Theology / Department of New Testament University of Bonn, Dr. Matthias Lang (Bonn Center for Digital Humanities)