Overview
Dr. Refika Sarıönder received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey. She earned her graduate degree Dipl.-Soz. in the Sociology of Development with an emphasis in Social Anthropology from Bielefeld University, Germany. After moving to the US, she joined the Community Psychology Doctoral program at Wichita State University. Sarıönder received her master’s degree in Psychology in 2016 and earned her doctoral degree in Community Psychology in 2019. Besides teaching several courses in the Psychology Department, including Psychology of Women and Developmental Psychology, she also taught Psychological Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology. Her primary research interests focus on gender and minority issues, domestic violence, and secondary and vicarious trauma.
While Sarıönder was living in Germany, she taught German in a language school and received a Certificate to teach German from the Goethe Institute, Berlin. In 2019 she began teaching introductory and intermediate courses in German at WSU.
Sarıönder served for several years as a steering committee member of the Sociology of Religion group at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and as an officer for the Community Psychology Association (CPsyA) at WSU, the local chapter of the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA). She has volunteered in women’s counseling centers and women’s shelters in Turkey, Germany, and Switzerland. Currently Sarıönder serves as the president of the Global Learning Center of Wichita (GLC), a non-profit organization with monthly educational events on international issues and topics.
Information
2019 Secondary and Vicarious Traumatization among Domestic Violence Shelter Staff, https://soar.wichita.edu/bitstream/handle/10057/16386/d19013_Sarionder-Kreinath.pdf
2018 “Reflexive Dynamics in the Transformations of the Alevi Cem Ritual in Istanbul” co-authored with Jens Kreinath, in: Religion and Society: Advances in Research, 9.
2017 “German Islam, Muslim Stuttgart”. Book review of: “Faithfully Urban: Pious Muslims in a German City.” By Petra Kuppinger. New York: Berghahn Books, 2015, in: Current Anthropology, 58(1).
2015 “Wichita State University: Bridging the Gap Using the Core Practice Competencies” in: The Community Psychologist, 48(2), co-authored with J. Drum, N. Freund, J. Douglas, D.R. Clifford, D. Ojeda, and R.K. Lewis.
2009a “‘Forever Foreign’: Made in Germany.” Book Review of: “Cosmopolitan Anxieties: Turkish Challenges to Citizenship and Belonging in Germany.” By Ruth Mandel. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008, in: Current Anthropology, 50 (6).
2009b “Alevis and Turkish Secularization” in: The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin, 38(4).
2008 “Reflexive Ritualdynamik am Beispiel des alevitischen cem,” [Reflexive ritual dynamics exemplified by Alevi cem] co-authored with Jens Kreinath, in: Klaus-Peter Köpping and Ursula Rao (eds): Im Rausch des Rituals: Gestaltung und Transformation der Wirklichkeit in körperlicher Performanz, 2nd ed., Hamburg: Lit.
2005 “Transformationsprozesse des alevitischen Cem: Die Öffentlichkeit ritueller Praktiken und Ritualhandbücher” [Transformation Processes of the Alevi Cem: The Publicity of Ritual Practices and Ritual Handbooks] in Robert Langer, Raoul Motika and Michael Ursinus (eds), Migration und Ritualtransfer. Religiöse Praxis der Aleviten, Jesiden und Nusairier zwischen Vorderem Orient und Westeuropa. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
2004 “Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi and Hacı Bektaş Veli: Two Faces of Turkish Islam. Encounters, Orders, Politics” in Armando Salvatore and Georg Stauth (eds), On Archaeology of Sainthood and Local Spirituality in Islam. Yearbook of the Sociology of Islam, Vol. 5, Bielefeld: transcript.
2003a Mythen der Kreativität. Das Schöpferische zwischen Innovation und Hybris [Myths of Creativity. The creativeness between Innovation and Hybris] co-edited with Oliver Krüger und Annette Deschner. Frankfurt: Otto Lembeck Verlag.
2003b “Mythen der Kreativität. Eine Einleitung” [Myths of Creativity. An Introduction], co-authored with Oliver Krüger und Annette Deschner in ibid.
2000 “Publicising Religion, Differentiation and De-Differentiation: Alevis between Berlin and Anatolia” in Helmut Bucholt and Georg Stauth (eds), Investigating the South-South Dimension of Modernity and Islam. Yearbook of the Sociology of Islam, Vol. 2, Hamburg: Lit.
1999 “Frauen und Re-Islamisierung: Ein Vergleich zwischen der Türkei und Indonesien” [Women and Re-Islamization: A Comparison between Turkey and Indonesia] in Ruth Klein-Hessling, Sigrid Nökel, and Karin Werner (eds), Der neue Islam der Frauen: Weibliche Lebenspraxis in der globalisierten Moderne. Bielefeld: transcript.