Katja Rakow

Katja Rakow is Associate Professor in Religious Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She studied Religious Studies, Anthropology, and Sociology at Free University in Berlin and received her PhD in Religious Studies from Heidelberg University in 2010. Since her doctorate on Tibetan Buddhism, its transcultural entanglements and transformation in the Western context, she has developed a second line of research on transnational religious networks of neo-Pentecostal megachurches during two resaerch projects – a postdoctoral project on the biggest US-American megachurch Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, and in the context of her own research group (Nachwuchsforschergruppe) on the “Transcultural Dynamics of Pentecostalism” at the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” at Heidelberg University. Her research interests over the last 14 years focussed on the material dimension of religious practices, texts, spaces/structures, and technology.

Katja Rakow currently serves as Director of Education for the Department of Philosphy and Religious studies at Utrecht University. She is one of the editors of the journal Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief and co-chair of the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion.

• 2019-2024: NWO Aspasia Grant, project “Practicing Texts: Materializing the Study of Religious Texts and Textual Practices”
• June 2019 - present: Associate Professor Religious Studies, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• September 2015 – May 2019: Assistant Professor Religious Studies, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands
• May 2013 – Aug. 2015: Nachwuchsforschergruppe (PI) “Transcultural Dynamics of Pentecostalism,” Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context,” Heidelberg University, Germany
• Aug. 2010 – April 2013: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Institute for Religious Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany, Research Project “Modern Religious Experience Worlds” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
• June 2007 – July 2010: Lecturer, Institute for Religious Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany
• Oct. 2005 – May 2007: Doctoral Research Fellow, Institute for Religious Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, Research Project “Buddhist Transformations in Germany” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)

Materializing Urban Religious Aspirations: New Creation Church and the Building of The Star Performing Arts Centre Singapore

The project explores the intersection of religious place-making practices in urban contexts with material approaches, considering architecture, urban infrastructures, and zoning policies in Singapore. It focuses on a case study of The STAR Performing Arts Centre, originally a collaboration between CapitaLand Mall Asia and Rock Productions Pte Ltd, the business arm of New Creation Church (NCC). Opened in November 2012, The STAR is hailed as one of Singapore’s architectural gems. Officially designated as ‘secular,’ it functions as an integrated civic, cultural, retail, and entertainment hub, featuring shops, restaurants, and diverse halls for cultural performances. With a seating capacity of 5,000, The STAR now features the city’s largest high-end auditorium for concerts. It not only serves as NCC’s worship venue but is also seen by church members as a tangible manifestation of God’s favor on the church and the city.

Building The STAR served a dual purpose for NCC. First, it addressed the church’s growing need for a larger worship venue in the absence of a dedicated church building. Second, it aimed to materialize NCC’s urban religious aspirations for increased visibility and recognition within the tightly regulated cityscape of Singapore. The project delves into NCC’s practices of religious place-making within this highly regulated urban landscape. It analyzes how The STAR, as a social-material assemblage, embodies the church’s urban religious aspirations and how these aspirations intertwine with the secular, economic, and cosmopolitan goals of the various parties involved in the project.

The analysis will trace how the building becomes different things to different social/religious actors – a religious sanctuary to a church community, a stage for artists and their audiences, a commercial hub for investors and retailers, and an internationally recognized architectural gem in Singapore’s skyline. The project’s basic assumption is that differentiations between and demarcations of secular, public, commercial, and religious spaces – even in highly regulated settings such as Singapore – are instable, malleable, and situational and always in the process of becoming rather than being. The project will explore the notion of the urban as a framework in which buildings as social-material assemblages are entangled with religious, secular, commercial, touristic, political, etc. aspirations of city-dwellers.

Selected Publications
(for full list see: https://www.uu.nl/staff/KRakow/Publications) | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4787-2442

• 2024 (in press): The Production and Performance of Multi-sensory Worship Services. In A. Adogame, C. M. Bauman, J. Yip, & D. S. Parsitau (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Megachurches (pp. 207-220). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003222613-18
• 2024: In Conversation: From Objects to Larger Material Structures / From Belief to Practices. Material Religion, 20(1). Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2024.2320599
• 2023: Books in Religious Studies: From Relentless Textualism to Embodied Practices. In: P. Tamimi Arab, J. Scheper Hughes, & S. B. Plate (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Material Religion (pp. 113-127). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351176231-10
• 2022: Megachurches in den USA und Singapur in transkultureller Perspektive: Ein kritischer Blick auf das Export-Narrativ From the West to the Rest. In: B. Grümmer, C. Jahnel, M. Radermacher, C. Rammelt, & J. Schlamelcher (Eds.), Globale Christentümer: Theologische und religionswissenschaftliche Perspektiven (pp. 107-127). Brill / Schöningh. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783657708390_007
• 2021: Charismatic Healers: Embodied Practices in US and Singaporean Megachurches. In: D. Lüddeckens, P. Hetmanczyk, P. E. Klassen, & J. B. Stein (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Religion, Medicine, and Health (pp. 215-228). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315207964-18
• 2020: The Light of the World: Mediating Divine Presence Through Light and Sound in a Contemporary Megachurch. Material Religion, 16(1), 84-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/17432200.2019.1696561
• 2020: The Material Dimension of the Bible from Print to Digital Text. In T. R. Clark, & D. W. Clanton (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and American Popular Culture (pp. 414-432). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190461416.013.25
• 2019: Christmas on Orchard Road in Singapore: Celebrating the Gift of Jesus Christ Between Gucci and Tiffany. In M. Scheer, & P. Klassen (Eds.), The Public Work of Christmas: Difference and Belonging in Multicultural Societies (pp. 212-239). McGill-Queen’s University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773557956-012
• 2016: The Transcultural Approach Within a Disciplinary Framework: An Introduction. Co-authored with Daniel König. Transcultural Studies, 2016(2), 89-100. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.ts.2016.2.23642
• 2016: Religious Studies and Transcultural Studies: Revealing a Cosmos Not Known Before? Co-authored with Esther Berg, Transcultural Studies, 2016(2), 180-203. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.ts.2016.2.23603
• 2014: Moderne religiöse Erlebniswelten in den USA: “Have Fun and Prepare to Believe!” Co-authored with Sebastian Emling. Reimer Verlag.
• 2014: Transformationen des tibetischen Buddhismus im 20. Jahrhundert: Chögyam Trungpa und die Entwicklung von Shambhala Training. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.