Doctoral Projects
Joakim Björkelid
Visions of a Saffron State
The project explores in what ways Indian national and religious identity has been shaped by Hindu nationalist organizations within the so-called Sangh Parivar. A particular focus is on the representation of religions and religious affiliation within India in publications by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council).
Lisa Bukhave Jensen
Speaking of the gods
Through textual studies that combine philological analysis and theories from the Study of Religion, the project will study and compare key aspects of the religious symbolic systems of ancient Vedic India, the Hittite Empire, and Old Norse Scandinavia. This is to study how shared Proto-Indo-European ideas of sovereignty, godhood, and the moral sphere developed and were expressed distinctively in diverse milieus.
Angelica Drigo
Polish Catholics in Lutheran Sweden
The project explores and analyses negotiations of Polish Catholicism in a Swedish Lutheran and post-Lutheran society. The project combines historical and contemporary perspectives from the early 20th century to the present day and is based on hitherto unused source material in the form of journals, correspondence and interviews.
Anthony Fiorucci
Discourses on kāma in early Buddhist scriptures
The project explores how a discourse of sense gratification (kāma) has influenced the development of the Buddhist monastic discipline in the Pali scriptures dealing with life as monks and nuns. Analytical focus is on materiality, physicality and the everyday.
Ove Gustafsson
The Rhema Bible Church in South Africa 1975-1990
The project analyses printed material, interviews, and videotapes from the Rhema Bible Church during its formative years with regard to the political involvement of the Church and its pastor Ray McCauley.
Elie Kabwe
Historical Study of The Community Episcopal Baptist Church in Africa
The project focuses on the emergence and development of The Community Episcopal Baptist Church in Africa (CEBA) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The study is based on source material in the form of interviews and personal memories.
Hans Nicklasson
Attitudes to Apartheid among Swedish Christian Missions in South Africa 1948–1961
The sources material consists of periodicals published by four Swedish missionary organizations that sent missionaries to South Africa during the 1950s, namely the Church of Sweden Mission, the Swedish Alliance Mission, the Free Baptist Union and the Swedish Holiness Covenant. The project examines the different attitudes of the mission organizations to how the mission and the churches related to the apartheid system.
Sofia Oreland
Faith-based climate activism – theologies in practice as resources in times of climate emergency
The project aims to study the theologies of faith-based climate activists’ who take a stand and act in public arenas for a changed climate politics. The study draws on interviews with climate activists in Sweden and South Africa.
Emma Sundström
Religious conversion in Sweden and Tanzania: conversion stories about the transition from Islam to Lutheran Christianity
The project studies change of religion and religious conversion, with a focus on Lutheran Christian converts from a Muslim background in Sweden and Tanzania, where special attention is paid to conversion stories and the view of the religious Other.