Ruben Below
Current affiliations
- Cluster of Excellence "Religion and Politics"
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- Sociology of religion, esp. esotericism and spirituality
- Political Sociology and Theory of Ideology
- Conspiracy theories and extremism
- Quantitative methods: psychometrics and econometrics
Academic Education | |
| since 10/2022 | PhD Candidate in Sociology at the Cluster of Excellence 'Religion and Politics, University of Münster |
| 02/2024 | Participation in the course 'Experiments in Social Sciences: Online Experiments', at the University College London |
| 07/2023 - 08/2023 | Participation in the 'Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis', in the course 'Advanced Survey Data Analysis and Survey Experiments', at the University of Essex |
| 03/2023 | Participation in the 'Oxford Spring School in Advanced Research Methods', in the course 'Causal Inference', at the University of Oxford |
| 10/2017 - 09/2022 | M.A. Sociocultural Studies, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) |
| 10/2013 - 09/2017 | B.A. Political Science, Freie Universität Berlin |
| 01/2016 - 06/2016 | Erasmus semester at the Institut d'Études Politiques d'Aix-en-Provence, France |
Work Experience | |
| since 10/2022 | Research Associate at the Cluster of Excellence 'Religion and Politics', University of Münster |
| 02/2020 - 09/2021 | Research Assistent to Dr. Eylem Kanol, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), in the research projects: 'Jihadi radicalization in Europe from a comparative perspective' and 'Political protest and radicalization (Protest Monitoring)'. |
| 03/2018 - 12/2019 | Research Assistant to Dr. Ruth Ditlmann, WZB, in the research project: 'Structural and interpersonal factors facilitating the satisfaction of group members' needs in intergroup contact interactions'. |
| 06/2019 | Internship in the parliamentary office of Burkhard Lischka, MdB |
| 10/2016 - 06/2017 | Research Assistant to Dr. Ruth Ditlmann, at the WZB, in the research project: 'When do elected officials help immigrants become citizens?' |
Talks
| The Moderating Role of Transcendent Beliefs on the Effect of Political Uncertainty on Conspiracism. Evidence from a priming survey experiment Below, Ruben (19/09/2024) 24th Scientific Meeting of German Political Psychology Network, Wien Type of talk: scientific talk | |
| Kann man Religiosität und Spiritualität unterscheiden? Und wenn ja, warum sollte man? Below, Ruben (20/06/2023) Nachmittag der Graduiertenschule des Exzellenzclusters "Religion und Politik", Münster Type of talk: scientific talk |
Doctorates
| [Working title] “Secularized superstition”? On the complicated relationship between religious transformations and conspiracy beliefs Candidate: Below, Ruben | Supervisors: Michalowski, Ines Period of time: 01/10/2022 - today Doctoral examination procedure finished at: Doctoral examination procedure at University of Münster |