Call for Applications 2019

We live in a world and in societies where religion and values are changing. There is an increased emphasis on, and appreciation for, acquiring knowledge to understand these processes in their many forms and on their many levels. Currently, empirical studies of religion, values and society are spread across a number of institutions, in relatively small communities. The Research School Religion-Values-Society (RVS) is an initiative by the major Norwegian academic institutions within this field, as well as important institutions in Sweden and the United States, to bring together PhD-students and established scholars in order to develop better research and foster national and international cooperation, primarily through a strengthened and more comprehensive PhD education. For more, please visit our website https://rvs.mf.no/

RVS welcomes members researching either religion or values (or both) in a contemporary and empirical perspective. The research school is now open to 10 new PhD-students members that are already enrolled in PhD programs at the participating institutions at RVS. These are: the University of Agder, VID Specialized University, Volda University College, Umeå University, University of Oslo, University of Tromsø, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Bergen, MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, and Uppsala University, with Boston University as an international partner. There are approximately 60 PhD-student members in RVS.

RVS is a national research school, with a grant of over NOK 23 million over eight years from the Norwegian Research Council. This grant ensures that the costs connected to participating in RVS courses and seminars will be covered by the RVS for our members.

The RVS Research School offers both mandatory and voluntary courses. Members are eligible to participate in the annual summer school in Lesbos, Greece, which focuses on questions of methodology, theory and practical research in empirical studies, as well as one course each spring and fall that deal with a specific interdisciplinary theme related to religion and/or values, and society. These courses consist of lectures by top international scholars and group sessions that discuss the participants’ own projects and work. In addition, there will be an annual national PhD-seminar for all RVS-students and supervisors, two thematic courses each year, a bi-annual seminar in Boston with Boston University and one online group-session each semester.

Members are required to participate in the annual PhD seminars, the online group-sessions and at least one of the thematic spring/fall-courses each year, with the possibility to take part in more courses of course. This means that members will get a better and more comprehensive education, but the RVS is still an addition to the regular PhD-program at their institutions.

We then invite PhD-students to apply to become members of the RVS. Please fill in the form below, and return it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. before March 13th 2019. The main criteria of evaluation are the academic quality of the project, relevance for RVS and institutional affiliation. The evaluation process will be finished by end of March 2019.

Application Form

Name:

Project title:

Main discipline:

Contact details:

Institution & PhD-program:

Supervisor(s):

Start date of PhD-project and Project Schedule:

Presentation of PhD-project (1-2 pages)

(including research question(s), data material, theoretical perspectives, methods and possible research contribution)

Motivation for Joining RVS (1 paragraph)

Relevance of RVS for your project (1 paragraph)

In September 2017 RVS hosted its autumn course on "Intercultural Encounters: Migration, Religion and Values". The course was held at VID Specialized University in Stavanger (Norway), and brought together senior academics from RVS member institutions, staff at VID, speakers and 27 RVS PhD students. The two intense days included paper workshops and lectures by renowned scholars of migration and intercultural studies from different disciplines. For the full program see here  

The speakers at the course were:

• Marta Bivand Erdal, Senior Researcher PRIO is a Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO). She is a Human Geographer and conducts research in South Asia (mainly Pakistan), Norway and Poland. She combines research on migration and transnational practices, with research on living together in culturally and religiously diverse societies.
• Afe Adogame, Professor Princeton Theological Seminary is Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Christianity and Society at Princeton Theological Seminary, a leading scholar of the African Diaspora. He holds a PhD in history of religions from the University of Bayreuth in Germany. He focuses on interrogating new dynamics of religious experiences and expressions in Africa and the African Diaspora, with a particular focus on African Christianities and new indigenous religious movements; the interconnectedness between religion and migration, globalization, politics, economy, media and the civil society.
• Steven Sandage, Professor Boston University is Albert and Jessie Danielsen Professor of Psychology of Religion and Theology at Boston University and Director of Research at the Danielsen Institute. He has received rewards for combining theology and psychology in research on topics like forgiveness, spiritual development, family therapy and relational development, and he is also a licensed psychologist practicing at the Danielsen Institute.