Since 2019
Equal Opportunities Officer of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Cologne

Since 2018
Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Cologne

2014
Visiting Professorship, Dartmouth College/United States

2011-2018
Professor of Islamic Studies/Islamic Theology, Deputy Director of the Academy of World Religions, University of Hamburg

2010-2011
Assistant Professor, UFSP Asia and Europe at the University of Zurich for the study of the modern Islamic world with a focus on Iran

2010
Habilitation, University of Bonn, God's Rights and People's Power. Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari's Secular Version of Islam. Venia legendi for Islamic Studies. 

2009
Lecturer at the Jesuit School of Philosophy in Munich        

2003-2005
Emmy Noether Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) 

2005/ 2006 and 2002
Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn                    

2007-2008
Research Fellowship of the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung (Fritz Thyssen Foundation)

2000-2001
Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

2000
Doctorate, University of Bamberg, The Depoliticisation of Islam: Abdolkarim Soroush's Thought and Impact in the Islamic Republic of Iran

1996-2000
Doctoral studies in Iranian Studies at the University of Bamberg (minor subjects: Islamic Studies and Political Science)

1996-1999
Doctoral scholarship in the DFG-Research Training Group for Contemporary Oriental Studies at the Universities of Erlangen/ Bamberg

1996
Master's Degree in Islamic Studies     

1994-1995
DAAD scholarship in Tehran   

1990-1994
Studied Islamic Studies and Political Science at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

• Board of the Akademie für Islam in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft (Academy for Islam in Science and Society)
• Co-editor of the journal Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik
• Advisory Board of the Schweizerische Asien-Gesellschaft (Swiss Asia Society)
• Programme Advisory Board of the Karl Rahner Academy, Cologne

• Iranian intellectual history
• Islam & gender
• Islamic environmental ethics and Eco-Islam
• Reform discourses in Islam
• Shiite Islam
• 2010 - 2016 DFG Research Training Group Islamic Theology
• 2011 - 2018 European Research Project Religion and Dialogue in Modern Societies (ReDi)