| 1. | The Algorithmic Sacred: Ritual Participation and Non-Human Agency in Autonomous Systems | This doctoral topic investigates the emergence of meaning and aesthetic experience in autonomous AI systems through the lens of ritual theory and the anthropology of religion. Central to the research is the concept of "the algorithmic sacred": a condition in which participation in rule-governed processes generates significance independently of belief, intention, or consciousness. The project examines how humans assume the position of witness/observer before systems that operate meaningfully yet remain fundamentally unaddressed to them. Drawing on comparative analysis of ritual structures and contemporary algorithmic environments, the research explores anthropological continuities between ancient procedural systems and present-day AI governance, asking what forms of participation, agency, and responsibility persist when human authorship is no longer a prerequisite for meaning. |
| 2. | Ritual Integration of Vajrayāna and Śākta Tantric Traditions | The topic reflects the current academic debate that critically distances itself from the concept of world religions based on a Western, confessionally shaped taxonomy. The objective is to examine the processes of adaptation of Vajrayāna ritual elements in the Shaktism of Eastern India (12th–15th centuries) and test the hypothesis that Sanskrit ritual manuals, transmitted within historically identifiable schools known as late Vajrayāna and early Shaktism, represent the key intersection between both traditions. Through a comparison of ritual syntax (mantric codes, the structure of the internal sacrifice antaryāga) based on the philological analysis of texts in both edited and manuscript form and their rigorous historiographical contextualization, this will be an attempt to identify the mechanisms that enabled the integration of Buddhist ritual schemes into Shaktic practice (sādhanā). This combined approach, in addition to testing the primary hypothesis, will allow for a discussion of the methodological difficulties associated with the unclear chronology of Eastern Indian ritual literature and contribute to a deeper understanding of the ways in which religious traditions are constructed in South Asia. |
| 3. | Continuity and Discontinuity of Popular Greek Religion during the Reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius | The aim of this dissertation thesis is to identify forms of continuity, adaptation and transformation of Greek cults in the context of the Roman Empire in the 2nd century AD. The work focuses on forms of religious practices and local cults during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, with an emphasis on their regional diversity. We draw on the analysis of ancient works as sources of lived religion and local cult traditions. Using a comparative method, we examine selected regions of ancient Greece – the Peloponnese, Attica, and Central Greece. |
