Manuel Moser, BA MA

Max-Weber-Kolleg – Universität Erfurt; Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Universidad Mayor de San Simón Cochabamba

Manuel Moser is a religious studies scholar and social anthropologist and currently working on his dissertation as thèse en cotutelle in the Graduate School "Resonant Self-World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices" of the Universities of Erfurt and Graz. He previously studied Religious Studies, Media and Communication Studies and Internationalization at the Universities of Fribourg, Montréal and Barcelona. He is an enthusiastic bike traveler and worked beside his studies as professional driver in various occupations. In his current research, he is interested in the cultures of long-distance truck drivers and in particular in their religious component (which can be observed, for example, in vehicle blessing rituals). As a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service and the Intercambio Cultural Alemán-Latinoamericano association, he is currently for a one-year research stay in Bolivia, where he is investigating how German second-hand trucks are reintegrated into local long-distance trucking communities after their transatlantic journey.

PhD Thesis:

Of thingified drivers and disthingified trucks: Religion, resonances and rituals in the relationship networks of East German and West Bolivian trucking communities.

Email: manuel.moser@uni-erfurt.de