The main field of interest of the research group for religious minorities and religious diversity is majority and minority relations. These topics are explored in the thematic intersection between globalization, migration and media. The group members are conducting research on central issues such as individualisation, gender constructions and integration processes, but also concerning political and legal issues such as national minorities, minority rights and identity politics.
Background and projects
The research group, active researchers from different research projects concerning religious minorities and religious diversity meet to exchange and discuss relevant research questions, empirical findings and theoretical approaches. The projects deal with religion in the public sphere, media and religion in social conflicts, migrant communities and media, church and Ethiopian state relations in the media, Jewish identity in Norway today, minority history and educational texts, religious dialogue as political tools, nonreligion, meditation and mind-body consciousness, radicalization and violent extremism, Christian identity construction among young people in low- and free churches and ethnic boundaries and transnational activities among young Muslims.
The research group Religious Minorities and Religious Diversity launches seminaries that enable a comprehensive and multidimensional view on critical issues. The discussions help the researcher to develop and expand their research project, and in particular, where the topic is related to the same research question. The research group has turn out to be a creative community. There is a lot of process-related cooperation between the members, and several of the members are working with the same theories, strategies and methods. All the members are emphasizing the importance of working towards an international research contribution and international publications.
The research group has developed cooperation with visiting scholars to hold lectures on specific issues that are brought up for examination. PhD candidates and MA students are also involved in the group as members. They get a response to paper from senior researchers and fellow PhD candidates. To be enrolled in the research group, the PhD candidates are required to be admitted to the department’s PhD programme. Furthermore, their research project has to be in the field of religious minorities and religious diversity and have a contemporary, empirical and societal perspective.
Activities
Tuesday, 4 June 2024
- Solveig Omland: An idea for a new project: Young Muslims practising Islam in Norway: What are their questions, where do they seek answers, and how do they apply them to their everyday life?
- Ida Marie Høeg: Meg, oss og dem. Religion og livssyn som bestemmende for etnisitet (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Kees de Groot: Snow and water. Solid and liquid presence of religion and nature in Tintin and Habibi
Monday, 3 June 2024
- Oddrun Bråten: Livssynsbegrepet og livssynsdanning i Norge i dag (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Hege Kristin Ringnes: Livssyn og emosjonsregulerende funksjoner (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Sissel Kveinå Tonstad: Hva kjennetegner muslimske kvinners veier inn i den norske offentligheten? (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ingvild Thu Kro: Extract from the theory-chapter. The Mediatization of Religion
Thursday, 1 February 2024
- Annette Leis-Peters: Nordic Majority Church Transition in a Multi-Religious Time. Perspectives from national and local levels
- Levi Eidhamar: Hvordan den enkelte kontinuerlig former sin unike livssynskonstruksjon (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Hege Kristin Ringnes: Jehovas Vitne som livssyn (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Pål Ketil Botvar: Livssyn i Norge nå. Hva sier statistikken? (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ida Marie Høeg: Ethnicity, Worldview and Religion
- MA Projects: Sindri Emilia Heiland og Svenja Katharina Kraushaar
Thursday, 7 December 2023
- Undheim: Minorities, religious pluralism and stereotypes in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus
- Olav Elgvin: Dialog eller felles interessekamp? Hvordan forstå det interreligiøse samarbeidet i Norge (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Rizka Pramadita: Making Sense of Jihad. The Emotional Appeal in Jihadist Propaganda
- Sissel Kveinå Tonstad: Deltakelse og tilbaketrekking (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Sileshie Semahagne Kumlachew: The EOTC’s situation in the limelight of Ethiopian state media
Wednesday, 11 October 2023
- Lars Laird-Iversen: Hva er forholdet mellom religiøs diskriminering og rasisme? Refleksjoner med utgangspunkt i intervjuer med hvite muslimske kvinner." (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ingvild Thue: «Film in confirmation teaching; Experiences and reflections of the participating confirmands»
- Kees de Grot: Diaconia going liquid? Faith-based initiatives for migrants in three transforming Nordic welfare societies
- Ida Marie Høeg: «Jewish identity in Trondheim» (PK og Kees)
Tuesday, 30 March 2023
- Ingvild Tu: Film in confirmation teaching; Framing or being framed?
- Rizka Pramadita: Making Sense of Jihad: The Emotional Appeal in Jihadist Propaganda
Tuesday, 6 December 2022
- Magdalena Nordin: Integration and Tradition. The Making of The Syriac Orthodox Church in Sweden.
- Sileshie Semahagne Kumlachew: When politics and religion fuse: The nature and implication of the Ethiopian Mesqel Square confrontation in Ethiopia
- Hilde Kristin Dahlstrøm & Solveig Omland: The perfect faith
- Magdalena Nordin: Family and the transmission of traditions in the Syriac Orthodox Church in Sweden
Wednesday, 7 December 2022
- Kees de Groot: Research proposal: The dissemination of diakonia in a neoliberal age in the Netherlands and Norway
- Karin Jarnkvist: Constructions of religion in Swedish newspaper articles on funerals during the pandemic Covid -19
- Sissel Kveinå Tonstad: Deltakelse og tilbaketrekking. Muslimske kvinner i den norske offentligheten (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar Wednesday, 26 October 2022
- Roald Seifert: Forholdet mellom religiøs sosialisering og det personlige valget i omvendelseserfaringer (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Pål Repstad: Religion and non-religion – definitions and dimensions
Mini-conference related to the Complexity and Beyond project: Religious Complexity and Beyond, Monday 26 – Wednesday 28 September 2022
Opening of the seminar: Peter B. Andersen
Keynote lectures:
- Ida Marie Høeg: Secularization of the Norwegian death culture? The Social Transformation of Religious Spatial and Ritual Institutions.
- Karin Jarnkvist: Emerging rituals in secular societies. Performing of non-religion
Discussion with prepared commentator by Pål Repstad
- Sara Evelina Lundmark and Maria Klingenberg: New concepts of religion: Nones and Nationalism
- Hans Morten Haugen: Majority churches and the immigration discourse in Scandinavia
Seminar Wednesday, 31 August 2022
- Karin Jarnkvist: Critical studies of funerals – a way to grasp the rite’s complexity
Seminar Wednesday, 1 June 2022
- Sileshie Semahagne Kumlachew: Where politics and religion collide: The nature and implication of the Ethiopian Meskel Square confrontation in the Ethiopian media
- Hege Kristin Ringnes: Gains and costs of membership or active participation in sects, cults, or New religious movements: a qualitative evidence synthesis
- Kjetil Grødum: Innvandringsmotstand og antirasisme på Agder – en studie av Arne Myrdal og Folkebevegelse mot Innvandrings (FMI) som linse for å si noe om fenomenet i dag (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Olav Hovdelien/Pål Ketil Botvar: How religion and secularism are portrayed in Valhalla and Asterix
Seminar Thursday, 2 June 2022
- Evelina Lundmark: Cancelling the Second Coming: Manufactured Christian Outrage Online
- Ida Marie Høeg: ‘Bury me, but not in a school gymnasium’. Social transformations of religion and funeral space
- Line Reichelt Føreland: Comics and religious studies: Comics created for educational purposes and comics used in educational context
Seminar Wednesday, 27 April 2022
- Pål Repstad: The Great Narratives
- Roald Zeiffert: Does the Bible contribute to a meaningful life for young Christians?
Seminar Wednesday, 16 March 2022
- Paulina Niechciał, Jagiellonian University, Department: Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations, Krakow: ‘Lived Religion’ in the Context of Migration: The Case of Zoroastrian Women in the USA
- David Herbert, University of Bergen: Factors shaping attitudes to immigration in the UK and Austria. Survey study
Seminar Friday, 11 February 2022
- Anne Lundahl Mauritsen, Department for the Study of Religion, School of Culture and Society, Arts, Aarhus University: Understanding the Scandinavian Paradox – an Interdisciplinary Investigation of Nonreligion and Cultural Religion in a Nordic Context
Seminar Thursday, 13 January 2022
- Pål Ketil Botvar: How to be a cartoonist after the Muhammad cartoons
- Hilde Kristin Dahlstrøm & Solveig Omland: Nyheter om religion for barn (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar Wednesday, 24 November 2021
- Pål Ketil Botvar: How to be a cartoonist after the Mohammad cartoons?. Religious satire in a globalised world
Seminar Tuesday, 14 December 2021
- Andreas Häger & Ralf Kauranen: Autobiographical comics and minority religion. Commentators: Hege Kristin Ringnes & Solveig Omland
- Hilde Kristin Dahlstrøm & Solveig Omland: Nyheter om religion for barn. Kommentator: Evelina Lundmark, Pål Ketil Botvar, Birgitte Jaksholt, Elise Renstrøm (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Sissel Undheim: Theology, religious studies and literary theory on comics. Commentators: Hilde Kristin Dahlstrøm & Olav Hovdelien
- MA-studenter: Birgitte Jaksholt: Emotional Energy and Spiritual Growth. Perspectives from Self-Help Leaders and Artists og Elise Renstrøm: Psykedelika og mystiske erfaringer - En kvalitativ studie av klassiske psykedeliske substanser, mystiske erfaringer og ettervirkninger av fenomenet «egoopplosning». Commentator: Pål Repstad, Gwyneth Øverland, Levi Eidhamar
Seminar Wednesday, 15 December 2021
- Olav Hovdelien & Pål Ketil Botvar: A comparison of Asterix and the Nordic counterpart Valhalla. Commentators: Kees de Groot & Line Reichelt Føreland
- Sofia Sjö: Material approaches to religion and comics: Commentators: Ida Marie Høeg & Pål Ketil Botvar
- Pål Repstad: «Hvorfor er sosial klasse så lite påaktet i religionssosiologien?» Kommentatorer: Evelina Lundmark, Andreas Häger (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar Wednesday, 27 October 2021
- Evelina Lundmark: Cultural Christianity and Religious Nostalgia: The Affective Space of the Christmas Calendar within Swedish Secularism
- Kees de Grot: Taking a walk with a saint in a secular city. Sociological reflections on the St. Martin's parade
Seminar Wednesday, 22 September 2021
- Ida Marie Høeg: Culturally Jewishness and geographically bounded identity. Negotiating Jewish identity and the Jewish cemetery in the local context of Trondheim
Seminar Wednesday, 25 August 2021
- Odin Lysaker: Planetary ethics. Rereading Seyla Benhabib in times of climate refugees
Seminar Friday, 4 June 2021
- Michael Prince: Darkness of Light: Blasphemous Inversions of Genesis and the Word in Garth Innis Steve Dillon’s Preacher Series”
- Line Reichelt Føreland: Using comics in religious studies
- Kees De Groot: The Comics Project as a way of studying religion in liquid modernity
- Uwe Bongsted: Empirical Findings. Attitudes toward the Body in Contemplative Practice
Seminar Thursday, 3 June 2021
- Hilde Kristin Dahlstrøm & Solveig Omland: An idea for a project: Norwegian National Broadcasting’ Supernytt. Medialisation of religion
- Pål Ketil Botvar: High on cultural capital, low on social capital? A comparison of comic book-readers in Norway and France
- Roald Zeiffert: Political views among young Norwegian Evangelicals
- Jamie Glisson: Who will save Us? Mapping values for environmentally-sustainable futures through alternative education in Southern Norway
Seminar Thursday, 6 May 2021
- Kees de Groot: God in Frames. A Sociology of Comics and Religion. Commentator: Sissel
- Evelina Lundmark: Cultural Christianity and National Identity: A Danish Case Study. Commentator: Jamie & David
Seminar Thursday, 8 April 2021
- Irene Trysnes & Katja Haaversen-Westhassel Skjølberg: Tittel: Læreres erfaringer med og håndtering av ekstreme ytringer i klasserommet. Kommentator: Uwe (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ida Marie Høeg: En trøndersk flerkulturell jødisk forsamling. Det jødiske samfunnet i Trondheim. (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar 4 March
- Ph.D Research Fellow Monika Praczyk: Politics of Religion and the Revival of the “Great Catholic Poland”
- Ph.D Research Fellow Sileshie Semahagne Kumlachew: Literature Draft
Seminar 4 February
- Guest professor Kees de Grot: Disaster theatre. Play when things go awry.
- Postdoctoral fellow Evelina Lundmark: Cultural Christianity and National Identity
Seminar 10 December
Hotel Scandic Kristiansand Bystranda
- Uwe Bongsted: Silent worship in the Quaker tradition
- MA-students: Elin Berggren (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Hege Kristin Ringnes: The Church of Scientology project
- Roald Zeiffert: Young Evangelicals in Norway
- Levi Eidhamar: Dimensions of the relationship between the individual and her unique worldview construction (Pål Repstad, Uwe, Sileshie)
Seminar 30 October 2020
- Sileshie Semahagne Kumlachew: The Nation of the Cross: Contemporary relationship of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church and state
- Rizka Pramadita: Processes of radicalization and deradicalization among female jihadists in Indonesia
Seminar 25 September 2020
- Pål Repstad: Om å forske på klasse og religion (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Pål Ketil Botvar: Celebration of the Norwegian National Day: Religious or nonreligious rituals?
Seminar 15 June 2020 (digital seminar)
- Astrid Krabbe Trolle: Majority Religion in the Public Sphere: Attitudes to the Presence of the Evangelical Lutheran Church among Church Members, Religiously Non-Affiliated and Religious Minorities in Denmark. Kommentatorere: Tale Steen-Johnsen, Pål Ketil Botvar.
Seminar 12 May 2020 (digital seminar)
- Pål Ketil Botvar: Humour and religion in the welfare state context. Kommentatorer: Astrid Krabbe Trolle, Tale Steen-Johnsen
- Ida Marie Høeg: Contesting religious space – Spatiality, religion and identity-making among Jews in Trondheim. Kommentatorere: Kjetil Grødum, David E. Herbert.
Seminar 28 February 2020
- Sissel Undheim: Procession of lights. The celebration of Saint Lucy’s day in Norway as example of contemporary religion?
- Rizka Pramadita: Understanding Jihad in Their Own Words. A Propaganda Analysis.
Seminar 11-12 November 2019
Monday 11:
- 14:00 Marianne Bøe: Hva er feminisme i islam? Kommentator: Solveig Omland, Levi Eidhamar (Paper given in Norwegian).
- 15:00. Ane Steinsland-Tønnesen. Sjelevandring på Sørlandet. Kommentator: Hanne Tharaldsen Åsmundsen, Hege Kristin Ringnes (Paper given in Norwegian).
- 16:00 Eva Elana Saltvedt. Reflections from people with Muslim background in Indonesia. Kommentator: Ragnhild Elisabeth Sørbotten, Marianne Bøe
- 17:00. Levi Eidhamar: Dimensions of the Relationship between the Individual and her Unique Belief and Worldview Construction. Kommentator: Ronald Synnes, Pål Repstad
Tuesday 12:
- 09:00 Pål Repstad: Erving Goffman - mellom manipulasjon og aktelse. Kommentator: Ronald, Levi (Paper given in Norwegian).
- 10:00 Hanne Tharaldsen Åsmundsen: Varme voksne, et bidrag til forståelse av kontaktpersoner i kommunalt barnevern sine refleksjoner om fenomenet kjærlighet. Kommentator: Eva, Hege (Paper given in Norwegian).
- 11:00. Marte Andersen. Med Gud på flukt? En kvalitativ studie av ortodokse eritreiske flyktningers erfaringsvirkelighet med henblikk på religionens rolle i migrasjonsprosessen. Kommentator: Hanne, Ragnhild (Paper given in Norwegian).
- 12:00 Pål Ketil: Talende tall. Med Religionsundersøkelsen som stifinner i det religiøse landskapet. Kommentator: Marte, Pål Repstad (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar 6 June 2019
Sted: E2 002
- Stig Andre Storli: Presentasjon av prosjektskisse til masteroppgaven i religion (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Tale Steen-Johnsen: Values and violence in Cambodian Parenting Practices
- Uwe Bongsted: Dimensions of practice
- Sileshie Semahagne Kumlachew: Outline to a PhD-project: Religion in the Ethiopian media
- Pål Ketil Botvar: Religiøs humor i et majoritets- og minoritetsperspektiv (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Kjetil Grødum: Annerkjennelse (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar 14-15 March 2019
14 March:
- Ragnhild Sørbotten Moen: «Exits and Turningpoints»
- Hege Kristin Ringnes: «Jehovas vitner og avvisning av medisinsk blodoverføring» (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Irene Trysnes & Ronald Synnes: «Bruk av sosiale medier om religionsrelaterte temaer blant unge muslimer og kristne i Oslo» (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ida Marie Høeg: «Solid and floating burial places. Ash disposal and constituting of burial places»
15 March:
- Pål Repstad: «Skolegudstjenester. Mellom kirkeprofilering, kulturarv og inkludering» (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Kåre Husveg «Ikkje-vald og vald i islam sett med eit palestinsk blikk» (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Innspill til heldagsseminar 31. mai 2019 på UiA Gimlemoen (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar 20-21 september 2018:
20 September:
- Tale Steen-Johnsen: Extra/ordinary religion in extra/ordinary circumstances. Religion, faith and spirituality among humanitarians in South Sudan
- MA-oppgavens forskningsdesign: Bjørge Aardal og Vegard Nicolaysen (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Solveig Omland: En ide til et forskningsprosjekt: Young Muslims (negotiating?) in a Norwegian context: What are their questions, where do they seek answers and how do they apply the answers to their everyday life?
- Levi Eidhamar: «Spenningen mellom åpen og lukket livssynsmessig sosialisering» (Paper given in Norwegian).
21 Sept:
- Presentasjon av et nytt PhD-prosjekt Uwe Bongsted: Contemplative body. A comparative study of experiences and conceptualisations of embodiment in meditation communities in Norway
- Kjetil Grødum: Religion, ideologi og identitet i forståelsen av fenomenet radikalisering og voldelig ekstremisme (Paper given in Norwegian).
Seminar 27 April 2018
- Ronald Mayora Synnes: Etniske grenser og transnasjonale aktiviteter blant unge muslimer og kristne (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ida Marie Høeg: Rooms of silence at three Scandinavian universities.
Seminar 19 October 2017
- Louise Lund Liebman postdoc på prosjektet Medier og religion i samfunnskonflikter (CoMRel): Islam and Muslims as elephants in the interfaith room. Frame-governance of dialogue and de-radicalisation.
- Cora Alexa Døving forsker på HL-senteret: Negotiating Jewish Identity - Jewish Life in 21st Century Norway (Forskerprosjekt - SAMKUL)
- Ånund Brottveit forskningssjef KIFO: Dialogue as a political tool in religious diversity
Papers and presentations spring 2017:
- Ann Kristin Gresaker: Religion og humor i norske medier (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Stefan Tørnquist Fisher-Høyrem: The Dynamics of Religion, Media and Locality in North European Cities
- Louise Lund Liebman: Medier og religion i samfunnskonflikter (CoMRel). Et utkast til en analyse basert på intervjuer i Norge og Danmark. (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Gwynyth Marshall Øverland: Presentasjon av prosjektet:" Working with values: a culturally appropriate intervention”
Papers and presentations autumn 2016:
- Helje Sødal: Konservativ modernitet. Luthersk mangfold i og utenfor Den norske kirke (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ragnhild Sørbotten Moen: En empirisk analyse av beretninger om islamisme i Norge (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ronald Mayora Synnes: Ungdom i kristne og muslimske migrantmenigheter (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Levi Eidhamar: Religious legitimations of physical violence among Muslims in Norway and Indonesia
- Vidar Kalsås: Mellom vitskap og etnopolitikk. Forskningsetikk og normativitet i romanistudier (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Ida Marie Høeg: Introduksjonskapittel til boka Ung religion (Paper given in Norwegian).
- Stephan Fisher-Høyrem: Rapport fra prosjektet Cultural Conflicts 2.0 (Paper given in Norwegian).