From its inception in 2009, The Research school RVS has provided support for PhD projects within the fields of “religion, values and society”. RVS offers courses on relevant methodological, theoretical and thematic issues. The research school’s inter-disciplinary profile helps students to widen their academic horizon and explicate their own tacit assumptions. The RVS community offers network and friendship, and gives much-needed encouragement during the many difficult periods in a PhD project.
A research school is a supplement to the PhD programs run by all universities. Based on massive feedback from both participants and supervisors, we are confident that RVS has made a real difference for many members. If you are a PhD student at one of our partner institutions, check out the possibilities of becoming an RVS member!
Aim
The goal of the Research School is to mobilize and enhance academic expertise in the interplay between religion, values and society, as well as forming long-lasting research networks in the field, and to promote cooperation between PhD students and senior researchers on relevant subjects in the field.
Brief RVS history
The Research School Religion, Values and Society (RVS) was established in 2009, with University of Agder and MF Norwegian school of Theology, Religion and Society as main partners.
In 2016, RVS was adopted by The Research Council of Norway (RCN) in the program for National Researcher Schools, and the number of participating institutions increased.
From 2025, RVS continues with nine universities in Norway, Denmark and Sweden as partner institutions.
Board and leadership
The Research school RVS is initiated by MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion & Society, and VID Specialized University. In 2025 and 2026, the director and administration is hosted and covered by MF, with VID having the board chair. In 2027-2029, the roles are changed.
The board is composed by one representative from each partner institution. Two of the institutions have two representatives (but only one vote) each, representing two departments (Århus) or centres (VID). There will be two student representatives, elected by participants at the Spring course 2025. Subsequent elections of student representatives may be conducted digitally.
Bookends
The first RVS summer school at Metochi, Lesbos in 2010, resulted in the anthology Difficult Normativity: Normative Dimensions in Research on Religion and Theology (Peter Lang, 2011), edited by Jan-Olav Henriksen and with contributions from Ulla Schmidt, Paul Leer-Salvesen, Harald Hegstad, Ingvild Sælid Gilhus, Ole Riis and Kari Storstein Haug.
In 2021, then RVS director Geir Afdal and Uppsala professor Mia Lövheim agreed that RVS had given valuable insights into aspects of Ph.D. supervision that are little researched. First and foremost, supervision of inter-disciplinary projects, but also the informal and community aspects of supervision practices. Together with scholars who have been involved in RVS courses, they are writing an anthology that hopefully will be published in 2025.
Interdisciplinarity
Religion, values and society are fields of study available for a large number of academic traditions and disciplines. This is one imporant reason why the RVS approach is inter-disciplinary: We learn a lot about our own tradition from familiarizing ourselves with other traditions.
At the same time: RVS as research school primarily caters to empirical projects that explore these phenomena in a contemporary context. The majority of projects involved in RVS have been qualitative in methodology, often employing interviews, ethnographically inspired observations, document analysis, etc. At the same time, the whole group of RVS members have represented a larger variety of approaches, including quantitative projects, and more historically and textually based projects. If you are interested in RVS, but not sure if your project is a good fit, feel free to contact us. We are happy to answer all questions, and we can also take part in a conversation with PhD student and supervisor about the relevance of RVS for your project.
More about religion, values and society
- Religion as a field of research is traditionally constituted by disciplines like religious studies, theology, sociology of religion, psychology of religion, religious education, anthropology, and political science. RVS has offered courses across these disciplines, mainly focusing on contemporary and empirical studies of religion.
- Values open the way for critical and analytic studies of various value-based and value-mediating institutions, professions, and forms of communication. RVS courses have given special attention to critical investigations of how values are performed and understood in social practices and professions. Education, health and ethics are examples of fields and disciplines where RVS has particular interest and competence.
- Society as a thematic focus represents the theoretical and methodological context and the empirical and pragmatic horizons of studies within the above thematic fields. This means that religion and values are understood as formed through social interaction.