Dr. Martin Gansinger

Martin Abdel Matin Gansinger’s expertise ranges from journalism and public relations to media and culture, specifically concerning representations of religion and perennial philosophy in popular music.
His interdisciplinary research borders on comparative religion and sociology and covers forms of Black American Islam, mainly the Five Percent Nation, and its influence on Hip Hop culture and rap music. Recent publications discuss the dynamic interchange between Five Percenter rap and Sunni Islam (From Ghetto to Gods, from Protest to Priest: The (pro)creative transformation of Self in Five Percenter Rap and its analogies to sapiential traditions in Islamic theology, 2023), as well as commonalities between Five Percenter thought and the Pythagorean Tetractys (Supreme Mathematics, 2023).
Current research extends the existing framework towards perennial concepts of Blackness in scripture and religion, as well as possible correspondences in field physics. His latest monograph, entitled ‘Intuitive Instructional Speech in Sufism,’ investigates extemporaneous communication in traditional knowledge systems and its application in modern classroom environments.
In his fifteen years of international experience in higher education he held positions as Assistant Professor at several universities in Germany, Cyprus and Morocco, among them Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. He served as Head of Department for Public Relations as well as Radio, TV and Cinema at Girne American University, taught a wide range of courses, contributed to accreditation processes and supervised PhD and Master students. Since 2025 he holds the position of Assistant Professor at the College of Mass Media and Communication of the American University in the Emirates in Dubai.
Martin holds a PhD in Journalism and Communications from the University of Vienna, awarded in 2009 and passed with distinction. He was awarded a research grant from the University of Vienna to conduct an ethnographic field study on intercultural communication and improvised music, as well as the Bobo Shanti Rasta Mansion, in Ghana throughout 2007. His dissertation juxtaposes Jürgen Habermas’ concept of the ideal speech situation with communal practices in collective improvisation.
He worked as a journalist for print, radio, and web, as well as a PR coordinator in the music industry.