New research school in Islamology – important to keep the competence alive

Early December this year the Swedish Research Council granted funds of almost SEK 25 million for a new research school in religious studies, with a focus on Islamology. It´s a collaborating between several universities in Sweden. Jenny Berglund and Susanne Olsson from Stockholm University are involved in the work.

Jenny Berglund och Susanne Olsson.
From the left: Jenny Berglund och Susanne Olsson. Photo: Privat.

– We are so happy to start this research school, and hope that it will be the start of something new, says Jenny Berglund, professor of religious education at the Department of Teaching and Learning and Susanne Olsson, professor of religious history at the Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies.

– Our school received the most money from the Swedish Research Council this round, compared to others. It feels fantastic! And at the same time it´s an acknowledgment that our research is relevant and important to society. Islam is the world's second largest religion and has great political and social influence in many places in the world. With our research in Islamology, we want to investigate and explain the expressions that religion takes. Islam, like most other religions, changes over time – and the research school will cover Islam both historically and present, examining many different aspects of Islam.

 

Collaboration between seven universities

– The new research school is a collaboration between Gothenburg University, Lund University, Stockholm University (SU), Södertörn University, Uppsala University, Umeå University and Linnaeus University, which coordinates the graduate school.

– The investment is the largest in Sweden and the research school will have room for a total of twelve PhD students. Two of them will be placed at SU, and the rest are distributed across the other universities. The students must have a master's or master's degree in religious studies and Islamology, or an equivalent background. The announcements for the PhD positions will be international and will be announced continuously during the spring of 2023. For SU's part, the announcement will take place in March.

 

Secure the competence

– An important purpose of the research school is that we want to ensure that the competence around the subject is maintained so that Islamology lives on - and that there are competent people who can teach the subject in the future as well. The subject emerged during the 80s and 90s, when it also had its heyday. But we already notice the lack of competent people - and that it can be difficult to get hold of competent teachers, says Jenny Berglund and Susanne Olsson.

– We hope that the research school will contribute in many new collaborations, which will make the subject continue to flourish. We who work on the issues today have had a very close collaboration over the years - and we hope that these PhD students will have as good a cohesion as we had. They will be offered a stimulating environment with many interesting and developing elements in the education. Some parts will also be located abroad in a Muslim-majority country such as Egypt, Jordan or Turkey. It will be exciting!