Bastian Felter Vaucanson

ph.d., cand.theol.

  • Karen Blixens Plads 16

    2300 København S

Personal profile

Short presentation

My research investigates the social spaces produced in church-historical contexts. I specialize in the period from around 1600 to 1800, and the areas of France, New France (Québec/Canada), Denmark, and the Danish West Indies. I am particularly interested in female mysticism, spiritual intimacy, and letter writing, as well as religiously conditioned labor and slavery practices in pre-industrial society.

My current research project is financed by the Carlsberg Foundation and explores the place of religion in the production of social spaces stemming from the Herrnhut sugar plantation Posaunenberg on the slave island of St. Thomas, and in the pre-industrial village of Hellebæk in North Zealand, which was owned by the Schimmelmann family and produced weapons for the Danish king, among other things.

All aspects of my research are informed by the interdisciplinary approach to historical studies developed at the Centre for Privacy Studies, where I am the leader of the research theme BELIEF (read more here).

I hold a Master's degree in Theology (Copenhagen, 2018) and a dual PhD-degree (2023) in church history and French literature from the University of Copenhagen and Université Rennes 2, respectively. I have taught church history at all levels, from bachelor's to Ph.D.

I give public talks on women in church history, mysticism, Christianity and slavery, Christians' Church on Christianshavn, as well as the Schimmelmann family and other slave-trading elites in 18th-century Denmark.

Education/Academic qualification

PhD , French literature, Université Rennes 2

Oct 2018Dec 2022

PhD, Theology, Faculty of Theology

Aug 2018Dec 2022

Cand.theol., Faculty of Theology

20152018

Ba.theol., Faculty of Theology

20112015

Philosophy (120 ECTS), University of Copenhagen

20092011

External positions

Postdoc, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3

May 2024Feb 2025

Postdoctoral Fellow, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

1 Aug 2023Apr 2024

Keywords

  • Faculty of Theology
  • Seventeenth Century
  • Early-Modern France
  • Fénelon
  • spiriturality
  • privacy
  • interiority
  • spiritual direction

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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