Prof. Hansjörg Schmid

Hansjörg Schmid is Professor of Interreligious Social Ethics at the Faculty of Theology and Executive Director of the Swiss Centre for Islam and Society (SZIG) at the University of Fribourg. His academic career has taken him from Freiburg im Breisgau via Jerusalem, Basel, Stuttgart, Munich and Salzburg to Fribourg.

Since 2015, Dr. Schmid has established the SZIG as a national competence centre, coordinating its activities in basic and applied research, teaching and continuing education. In this context, he collaborates with numerous authorities at federal and cantonal level and is responsible for two continuing education courses (certificates of advanced studies) on Muslim pastoral work and on the prevention of radicalisation. He conducts research on the topic of Muslims in Europe and Switzerland, focusing on social ethics as well as practical spheres of activity (spiritual care, social work, imams).

He is particularly interested in interdisciplinary work, which led him to become President of the Institute Councils of the Centre for European Studies and the Environmental Sciences and Humanities Institute at the University of Fribourg.

Prior to taking up his position in Fribourg, he founded the first research network of Muslim and Christian theologians in the German-speaking world in 2003, which he led until 2014. The second edition of his habilitation thesis, published in 2013, bears the programmatic title “Islam in the European House”.