Dr. Stéphanie Homola

Bild von Stéphanie Homola

Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung "Schicksal, Freiheit und Prognose. Bewältigungsstrategien in Ostasien und Europa"
 Hartmannstr. 14
91052 Erlangen




Post-doctoral Fellow

Home Institution: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)


IKGF Visiting Fellow April 2014 - July 2014

IKGF Visiting Fellow June 2016 - August 2016

(Last change of profile by end of stay)

IKGF Research Project:


Curriculum Vitae

Stéphanie Homola holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (2013). Her research deals with mantic practices in contemporary China and Taiwan as the crossroads between the religious, Confucian and scientific traditions. Further research will focus on the transmission and circulation of Chinese divinatory knowledge both within the Chinese world and from China to France in the 20th and 21st centuries. In particular, she is interested in mnemotechnic and computation devices that are used both in daily life and in specialized contexts and how these contribute towards disseminating a common knowledge about fate and its manipulation in a way that differs from other transmission tools such as divinatory manuals. Other research projects include a study of the knowledge exchange between Chinese scholars and French sinologists in the interwar period.

The current membership includes:

  • An Interdisciplinary Research Program “Pratiquer le comparatisme: terrains, textes, artefacts” (EHESS), directed by Marcello Carastro, Caterina Guenzi and Frédérique Ildefonse. The program currently focuses on a project entitled “Approches comparées du destin: le lot, la part, le lien” (http://daimon.hypotheses.org/).
  • A Research Group “La religion des Chinois en France”, Groupe Sociétés, Religions et Laïcités (GSRL-CNRS), sponsored by the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange, and Agence Nationale de la Recherche, directed by Fang Ling and Vincent Goossaert.
  • The board of the French Association of Chinese Studies.

Selected Publications

Books and Editions

  • « Judging destiny: doubt and certainty in Chinese divinatory rituals ». In Daniela Berti, Anthony Good et Gilles Tarabout (ed.), Of Doubt and Proof. Ritual and Legal Practices of Judgment. Aldershot : Ashgate, 2014 (to be published).
  • « From jianghu to liumang : working conditions and cultural identity of wandering fortune-tellers in contemporary China ». In Michael Lackner (ed.), Divination in Contemporary East Asia - China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam. Leiden : Brill, 2014 (to be published).

Proceedings

  • “Jeux de main: les usages populaires du petit et du grand liuren en Chine contemporaine”. French Association of Chinese Studies, Paris, April 17th, 2013.
  • “The Fortunes of a Scholar: When the Yijing Challenged Modern Astronomy”. 19th Conference of the European Association of Chinese Studies (EACS), Paris, September 4th-8th, 2012.
  • “Judging destiny: how Taiwanese diviners cope with uncertainty”. Workshop “Of doubt and proof: ritual and legal practices of judgment”, 12th Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), Paris X Nanterre, July 10th-13th, 2012.
  • “From jianghu to liumang: working conditions and cultural identity of wandering fortune-tellers in contemporary China”. Conference “Divinatory Traditions in East Asia: Historical, Comparative and Transnational Perspectives”, Rice University, Houston, February 17th-18th, 2012.
  • “Divination and modernity: fortune-telling in contemporary Taiwan”. 6th Conference of the European Association of Taiwanese Studies (EATS), Madrid, April 16th-18th, 2009.
  • “Gérer sa vie: les pratiques de divination dans la société taïwanaise contemporaine”. Conference “Figures de l’individualisme dans le religieux contemporain” organized by the Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Religious Factor (CEIFR), EHESS, December 12th, 2008.

Articles

  • « The Fortunes of a Scholar: When the Yijing Challenged Modern Astronomy ». Journal of Asian Studies (to be published).
  • « Pursue Good Fortune and Avoid Calamity: The Practice and Status of Divination in Contemporary Taiwan ».Journal of Chinese Religions, 2013, n° 41.2, p. 124-147.
  • « La relation de maître à disciple en question: transmission orale et écrite des savoirs divinatoires en Chine et à Taïwan ». Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident, mai 2013, n° 35, p. 11-43.