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The Gamevironments Research Day is a workshop exclusively for early-stage researchers, graduate students and doctoral students. It welcomes research on media-centered approaches, perspectives of game developers and publishers, and viewpoints of gamers. The workshop provides a unique opportunity for participants to engage in discussions and debates about theoretical approaches for studying the intersection of religion, culture, and video gaming.

Since July 2026, Ananth Shreyas is a Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of Religion and Related Didactics at the University of Bremen, working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Kerstin Radde-Antweiler within the ZeMKI Media and Religion Lab.

The gamevironments Special Issue "Beyond Play" is out now! It features eight articles covering genre, neurodivergence, feminist gaming culture, streaming, YouTube videos, and digital diplomacy—reimagining gaming. Highlights include an introduction titled "Beyond Play: Towards a Non-Gaming-Centric Gaming Research" by ZeMKI members Christian Schwarzenegger, Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, and Karsten D. Wolf.

The Gamevironments Research Day is a workshop exclusively for early-stage researchers, graduate students and doctoral students. It welcomes research on media-centered approaches, perspectives of game developers and publishers, and viewpoints of gamers. The workshop provides a unique opportunity for participants to engage in discussions and debates about theoretical approaches for studying the intersection of religion, culture, and video gaming.

ZeMKI member Kerstin Radde-Antweiler has joined the advisory board of the Center for Critical Education on Antisemitism (CCEA). Since 2021, the CCEA has been conducting research and teaching within the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, focusing on how antisemitism is addressed in universities, schools, and non-formal educational settings.

ZeMKI member Kerstin Radde-Antweiler was involved in creating a dataset in which LLMs were tasked with answering a religious question from the perspective of one of twelve theological personas (six Christian and six Muslim).

On the afternoon of 8 July 2026, members of ZeMKI gathered at Linzer Straße 4 for the ZeMKI Research Day 2026. This internal event format provides a forum for presenting ongoing projects from the eleven ZeMKI Labs, discussing methodological issues and bringing together perspectives across the boundaries of the individual Labs.

On 8 July 2026, the ZeMKI Research Day at the Linzer Straße 4 site segued directly into the ZeMKI Summer Party. Following the day’s academic programme, the discussions moved outdoors and continued there in an informal setting.

ZeMKI member Kerstin Radde-Antweiler will give a presentation titled "EDUCATIONAL GAMES AS WAYS OF TEACHING ABOUT ANTISEMITISM" at the "Religion and (In)Equalities: European Academy of Religion Ninth Annual Conference" in Rome on June 30, 2026.

The special issue "Religion and Covid-19," edited by Gladys Ganiel, Solange Lefebvre, and Kerstin Radde-Antweiler, includes articles by Prof. Dr. Radde-Antweiler (Researching Religions in Societies Emerging from Covid-19: Introduction and Church Communication during COVID-19) and Dr. Amrei Sander (Religion in Times of Crisis: Religious Organizations and Groups in Germany and Their Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic), among others.

ZeMKI is taking part in the University of Bremen’s Open Campus 2026 today. Under the motto ‘Opening up worlds – sharing knowledge’, the university is offering insights into research, study programmes and academic projects on campus.

The interdisciplinary research network CARD (Conceptualizing Agency, Religion and Digitalization) is holding its second working meeting at the University of Bremen from May 4th to May 6th. The focus of the event is the discussion of the first chapters of a planned handbook that will scientifically examine the complex interrelationships between agency, religion, and digital transformation processes.