PhD course: Indigenous and Minority Perspectives in the Sociology of Religion

PhD course: Indigenous and Minority Perspectives in the Sociology of Religion: A two-day event on Ethics, Positionality and Responsibility in Research. This day will focus on PhD fellows presenting and discussing their ongoing work, with particular attention to how perspectives from Indigenous research can inform, challenge, and enrich their projects. Supervisors are encouraged to participate.

Credits for PhD course

Participants send a draft paper in advance of 3-5 pages based on specified readings applied to their PhD project. After the event a full paper should be developed based on insights from the discussions of the paper and workshop. Active participation in the whole event and paper is equivalent to 3 ECTS credits. Instructions on readings and questions for the examination will be sent out in September 2025.

Please send a registration to Lars Laird Iversen before September 12th 2025. 

Invitation

The Nordic Association for the Sociology of Religion invite you to join a two-day event on researching religious and cultural minority populations, taking place in Oslo, November 4–5, 2025. The event combines a PhD course and workshop on Tuesday and an open academic workshop on Wednesday. You may attend one or both days. The first day is open to PhD students and supervisors, the second day to all interested scholars.

The program actualizes questions concerning the position of the researcher vis-a-vis research participants in a marginalized position. It also invites reflection on the shifting boundaries between research on and with minority populations, including the blurred boundaries and complexities between academic work and activism.

Research with indigenous people in the Nordic countries and elsewhere have brought such questions into focus. Indigenous studies have, however been largely neglected in the sociology of religion in the Nordic countries. This may reflect enduring colonial divisions of academic labour, in which the study of Indigenous religions was traditionally assigned to anthropology and religious studies. Another reason might be how boundaries between the researcher and the research “object”, as well as between “objective” analysis and activism, have traditionally been perceived in sociology.

This two-day event invites PhD fellows and other researchers in the social scientific study of religion to engage with, and reflect on, a range of critical questions, including:

• What insights do Indigenous and postcolonial perspectives offer into debates on positionality, insider/outsider dynamics, and the relationship between research and activism?
• How can sociology of religion contribute relevant and responsible knowledge – and to whom?
• How might insights from Indigenous studies inform research on both minority and majority populations?
   

The key case for discussion will be religion in Sápmi, though reflections on Greenland/Kalaallit Nunaat, other Nordic national minorities and indigenous peoples elsewhere are also welcome.

The event is co-organized with KIFO, MF vitenskapelig høyskole and Religionssociologiska föreningen i Sverige.

Questions and contact

Lars Laird Iversen, Nordic Association for Sociologi of Religion
Mia Lövheim, Religionssociologiska föreningen I Sverige

The full program will be available here.