News
Want to join the RVS? New call out now
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An new call for application is out now. The deadline for applying is 13 March 2019. Read more about the call and find the application form here:
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
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)
Annual Seminar and Autumn Seminar 2018: a small report
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Please follow this link for this news item which was published on the MF website (in Norwegian only).
Gender and marriage: a case from Ghana. RVS member Dominic W. Amonzen (UiO) defended his PhD-thesis
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RVS member Dominic Wemochiga Amonzem defended his PhD at the Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo, on 30 November 2018.
We warmly congratulate Dominic with his efforts!
The title of his PhD is "Gendering Marriage: Exploring Kasena Marriage Practices in North-East Ghana"
This thesis outlines the major elements in the academic, African feminist, and popular discourses on marriage in Africa, focusing on two core issues: the conceptual divide between the marriage practices of the Kasena, a Ghanaian ethnic group, and the context-dependent social construction and production of gender in marriage through the marriage practices of the Kasena people of North-East Ghana.
By comparing the functionalist assumptions of the purpose of marriage in the literature on marriage in African societies with ethnographic material from Navrongo, this thesis demonstrates that marriage in Kasena society does more to individuals and the society than it has been seen to do in the functionalist explanations of marriage offered by earlier anthropologists researching on marriage in Africa.
For more about the project and the public defence visit this link
Exploring the non-religious in Norway. Congratulations to Skålvoll Urstad on his PhD-defence
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The RVS congratulate RVS member Sivert Skålvoll Urstad on his succsesful defence of his thesis "Ikke religiøse i Norge. Sosiologiske analyser av individer uten religion."!
The thesis was defended at the University of Agder on 4 June. To read more about his thesis and findings see here.
Family therapy and spirituality: Congratulations Åse Holmberg!
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RVS member Åse Holmberg defended her thesis "Making room for spirituality? Family therapists' and clients' perceptions and experiences about spirituality in family therapy" at VID, 30 May 2018.
RVS congratulate her!
You can find information on the defence as well as a link to her thesis on this page. And here is a summary of her main findings.