Need time to finalize a book manuscript? Apply for a research stint at the Polin Institute for theological research within Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

The Polin Institute is an international center for theological research in Finland. We announce two research stints of maximum six months between the beginning of September 2026 and the end of February 2027 for researchers coming from abroad. The scholarship is residential – the scholarship holder is expected to stay at the institute and be a part of the community.

Polin monographs-fellowship provides you the following:
-travel costs
-housing
-research infrastructure: desk, internet access, library services, printing, scanning
-monthly tax free (in Finland) scholarship between 2400 and 3000€ depending on your career stage

Eligibility
-all doctors in any field of theology who work to finalize a monograph or other substantial publication within theology
-applicants should come from abroad (Finland-based researchers are not eligible)

Publishing policy
-The Polin Institute is mentioned in publications and presentations that have been worked upon during the time of the stint
-The author states the Polin Institute as a scholarly affiliation (double affiliation is fine)
-Åbo Akademi University prefers open access publication

Assessment criteria
-your research track record in relation to your career stage
-balance of realism and ambition in your work plan
-the academic quality of your ongoing research and its contribution to academic theology as well as the quality of the planned publisher
-relevance of your planned research for the ongoing theological research at the Polin Institute and Åbo Akademi University in general

Application should be sent by e-mail to mika.vahakangas@abo.fi by the 28th of February 2026 and contain the following:
-application letter stating how long and when you would wish to stay and whether the dates are flexible or not as well as pointing out how you see your research in relation to the ongoing Polin Institute & Åbo Akademi University research in theology
-work plan of one page
-CV of maximum 3 pages
-list of publications
-sample chapter and table of contents or other documentation that facilitates the assessment of the quality of the ongoing research and whether it is realistic to finalize it in the given time
-a publishing agreement or other supporting document from the publisher, if available

Kl 16.30 en minnesstund vid ”snubbelstenen” till minnet av Hans Szybilski vid Vårdbergsgatan 1, Åbo. Ett kort tal, ljuständning till minnet av de åtta deporterade och recitation av El Male Rachamim -bönen.

En gemensam promenad kl 16.00 från Teologicum (Biskopsgatan 16) till Vårdbergsgatan. Man kan också komma direkt till Vårdbergsgatan.

Efter minnesstunden, kl 17.30, filmen ”Aldrig ensam” (red. Klaus Härö, 2024; 85 min) i Auditorium Theologicum.

Även elever från två gymnasier i Åbo deltar. Kvällen är tvåspråkig.

Hans Szybilski är en av de åtta judiska flyktingarna som överlämnades till Gestapo den 6 november 1942. Sju av dem, inkl. Hans Szybilski, mördades i Auschwitz.

Bilder från fjolårets evenemang: https://blogs.abo.fi/institutumjudaicum/2024/11/09/an-evening-in-commemoration-of-kristallnacht-and-the-eight-deported-jews/

Arr. Institutum Judaicum Aboense

May 9-25, Turku, Finland – Ísafjörður, Iceland

KNOWLEDGE AT SEA – TRANSDISCIPLINARY COMMUNITY PRACTICES FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Study trip for artists, students, researchers and cultural workers

What happens when artists, researchers, and cultural workers set sail together to explore sustainability—not just as a concept, but as a lived, shared practice?

Dive into transdisciplinary action—share knowledge, build skills, and co create sustainable futures aboard across the North Atlantic and ashore at the Icelandic Westfjords.

Research shows that tackling complex challenges like biodiversity loss and sustainable ocean living requires collaboration and partnerships across diverse knowledge traditions. Transdisciplinary approaches—bringing together artists, societal actors, and researchers—are often highlighted as especially powerful in generating new questions and deeper understandings of these planetary issues.

Studies also emphasise that both trans- and interdisciplinary work demand facilitation, the development of transversal skills, and the ability to engage with localised, situated knowledge found in varied practices and perspectives.

This is the foundation of the study trip Knowledge at Sea – Transdisciplinary Community Practices for Sustainability, which gathers students, artists, researchers, and cultural workers for a facilitated learning experience where we learn from and with each other.

If you’re interested in learning beyond the siloed structures of academia, sharing your knowledge practices in a dialogical and cross-pollinating environment, and building long-term collaborations for sustainability work—you’re warmly invited to submit a proposal.

Facilitators

Your facilitators for this study trip are postdoctoral researchers Laura Hellsten (Theological Doctorate) and Eduardo Abrantes (PhD in Philosophy), working alongside a community of learners.

The facilitation draws on selected passages from Olaus Magnus’ Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555), explored through experimental reading practices and artistic research methods. These texts—describing the seas, landscapes, flora, fauna, myths, and cultural customs of the Nordic-Baltic region—offer a worldview markedly different from our own.

This contrast provides a rich foundation for dialogue on scientific worldviews and fosters collaborative partnerships beyond disciplinary boundaries, opening space for multiple ways of knowing.

Travel itinerary

• May 8: Departure from your institution
  (Åbo Akademi students depart from Turku Harbour at night)
• May 9: Arrival in Frederikshavn, Denmark
• May 10: Ferry departure from Hirtshals, Denmark (The sea journey is a core component of the course methodology)
• May 13: Arrival in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland
• May 13–21: Workshops and field encounters in Ísafjörður and the Westfjords
• May 21: Ferry departure from Seyðisfjörður
• May 24: Arrival in Hirtshals, Denmark (Return travel to home destinations follows)

Participation in the full study trip is required for students and collaborators planning community projects together on the return trip.

Researchers or others may return home on their own expense as early as May 21st. If this is your preference, please indicate in your application that your option is participation with individual return.

How to participate

Students

You are a master’s or doctoral student at Åbo Akademi University or one of its CHARM-EU partner institutions. To participate, you must enroll in the course TE00CS16-3005 Social Imaginaries and Transdisciplinary Learning https://studiehandboken.abo.fi/sv/kurs/TE00CS16/31252?period=2024-2027 and send us a letter of interest where you specify why you want to take part in this course. Places are limited, so we will base the selection on your motivational letter!

Artists

If you’d like to contribute to the study trip, you’re invited to propose a workshop or facilitation that introduces the community to your artistic research practices. To apply, please submit a short bio and a description of the workshop you wish to offer.

Knowledge partner

Are you a researcher, cultural worker, or entrepreneur engaged with sustainability or blue humanities? If you’re interested in forming partnerships and participating in communal learning environments that deepen your work, expand your knowledge, and enhance your contributions to knowledge of the seas you’re warmly invited to join us.

Send your motivational letters and suggestions for workshops to laura.hellsten@abo.fi by December 15th 2025!

For more details: https://laurahellsten.polininstitutet.fi/events/knowledge-at-sea/

Political Theologies of Constitutions, the Rule of Law, and the Common Good

23-24 April 2026
University of Cambridge

The constitution functions not only as a legal framework but also as a symbolic and practical foundation for societal life. This brings to the fore the role of constitutional values and principles as shared reference points. Constitutions may be seen as manifestations of common values and principles, as articulations of normative frameworks, as institutional responses to collective challenges, expressions of a general will, or articulations of a covenant. However, polarisation, individualisation, and the fragmentation of social life are altering the role of constitutions in Western democracies. Today, constitutions have become caught up in the so-called ‘culture wars’.

This sixth Political Theologies conference interrogates social, political, legal, ethical, and theological foundations of constitutions and related to that, how constitutions are seen to embody and be directed toward the common good. What are the stories of constitutions that are told across the political spectrum? How have they been shaped by political memory (and forgetfulness), confessional commitments, and conceptions of the common good? How can stories of constitutions and the ways that they are understood to enable the common good adapt to the needs of pluralistic and polarised political communities? What can they say about the international community as well as domestic politics? How do different political theologies enable or disable democratic visions of the role of constitutions and the rule of law?

Papers and panel suggestions are invited from scholars in political theory, sociology, law, theology and religious studies, politics, history, anthropology, and philosophy, and may refer to any of the categories below. Applications from early- and mid-career scholars are especially encouraged.
1) Constitutions and the common good
2) ‘Common good constitutionalism’ – its champions and its critics
3) Founding narratives and myths of nationalism and statehood
4) The place of religion in constitutional frameworks, preambles, or constitutional texts (for example, establishment clauses)
5) Justificatory discourses for historical or future political settlements and constitutional arrangements
6) Political theologies of the rule of law and democratic resilience
7) Political theologies of pluralism and a democratic common life
8) The role of transnational religious movements/networks in anti-liberal and liberal political movements, ‘lawfare’ and culture wars as these relate to fundamental questions of political order
9) Constitutions and the role of religion in relation to the politics of exception, emergency politics, and the suspension of the rule of law

Please send a proposed paper title, short abstract (c. 200 words) and short biography to mdcv2@cam.ac.uk or pamela.slotte.russo@abo.fi by 6 December 2025. Decisions will be released by 17 December 2025. Short conference briefs of ca. 2,000 words are due by 1 April 2026.

Associated events

A college dinner will be hosted on the evening of Thursday 23 April 2026. The dinner will be included as an optional item at registration and is open to speakers and attendees of the conference.

Funding and embedding

A limited number of travel bursaries may be offered to speakers based on need. Cost of travel will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and applicants must make a strong case that no other funding is available to them. All requests for bursaries must be submitted by 6 December 2025.

This conference is generously funded by the Landecker Foundation, DAAD-Cambridge Research Hub for German Studies, the Chair of Religion and Law at Åbo Akademi University, the Huffington Ecumenical Institute of Loyola Marymount University, the Inez and Julius Polin Institute for Theological Research and the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at the University of Oxford.

The Political Theologies conference series grew out of the Protestant Political Thought project, hosted at the Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford and continues as part of the Landecker Lectureship ‘Imagining Sacred Lands’ at the University of Cambridge. This project has featured a series of workshops and conferences, many of which have led to collaborative publications, including in The Journal of the Bible and its Reception (2021), Religion, State, Society (2022), as well as the edited collection The Many Faces of Christianism: The ‘Russian World’ in Europe (2025). For more information, email Marietta van der Tol at mdcv2@cam.ac.uk.

More information: https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/cfp-political-theologies-2026

Join us as we engage in critical, interdisciplinary discussions on the potential of political theologies to shape a peaceable and vibrant democratic common life. We hope to see you there!

Need time to finalize a book manuscript? Apply for a research stint at the Polin Institute for theological research within Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

The Polin Institute is an international center for theological research in Finland. We announce two research stints of maximum six months between the beginning of September 2026 and the end of February 2027 for researchers coming from abroad. The scholarship is residential – the scholarship holder is expected to stay at the institute and be a part of the community.

Polin monographs-fellowship provides you the following:
-travel costs
-housing
-research infrastructure: desk, internet access, library services, printing, scanning
-monthly tax free (in Finland) scholarship between 2400 and 3000€ depending on your career stage

Eligibility
-all doctors in any field of theology who work to finalize a monograph or other substantial publication within theology
-applicants should come from abroad (Finland-based researchers are not eligible)

Publishing policy
-The Polin Institute is mentioned in publications and presentations that have been worked upon during the time of the stint
-The author states the Polin Institute as a scholarly affiliation (double affiliation is fine)
-Åbo Akademi University prefers open access publication

Assessment criteria
-your research track record in relation to your career stage
-balance of realism and ambition in your work plan
-the academic quality of your ongoing research and its contribution to academic theology as well as the quality of the planned publisher
-relevance of your planned research for the ongoing theological research at the Polin Institute and Åbo Akademi University in general

Application should be sent by e-mail to mika.vahakangas@abo.fi by the 28th of February 2026 and contain the following:
-application letter stating how long and when you would wish to stay and whether the dates are flexible or not as well as pointing out how you see your research in relation to the ongoing Polin Institute & Åbo Akademi University research in theology
-work plan of one page
-CV of maximum 3 pages
-list of publications
-sample chapter and table of contents or other documentation that facilitates the assessment of the quality of the ongoing research and whether it is realistic to finalize it in the given time
-a publishing agreement or other supporting document from the publisher, if available

A seminar with Andriy Fert ”Churches and the War-Time ’Spiritual Decolonization’ in Ukraine” that takes place online, 21 January at 9:30am CET (10.30 EET/Finnish time). The meeting will be chaired by Zuzanna Bogumił.  

Please register in order to participate https://shorturl.at/1Ilwy

Abstract:

The colonial nature of the subordination of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church to the Patriarch of Moscow came to the fore in the late 2010s, prompted by the state campaign to gain official recognition of ecclesiastical independence from the Russian church administration. Unsurprisingly, with the Russian full-fledged invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the issue of coping with the legacy of Russian colonialism in church matters gained significant relevance for Ukrainian lawmakers and civil society activists. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) faced increasing critique for spreading Russian propaganda in the form of religious practices, particularly venerating saints such as Russian emperor Nicolas II and medieval prince Alexander Nevsky or refusing to hold communal prayers in Ukrainian language in lieu of Old Slavonic. This presentation explores rank-and-file church members’ responses to decolonization discourse by focusing on (un)changing saints’ veneration practices and language issues at the grassroots level. 

Andriy Fert holds PhD in history; he is the head of the Center for the Study of Religion at Kyiv School of Economics. Recently, he was a research fellow at the Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) in Berlin (2023 – 24) and principal investigator for Ukraine in the research project Postsecular Approach to Memory Processes in Central-Eastern Europe (2023–2024). Since 2017, he has been working for the Institute for International Cooperation of the Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband e.V. (DVV), coordinating projects related to history education in secondary schools in Ukraine. He teaches at Kyiv School of Economics. 

About the seminar series:

Series ”Postcolonial perspectives–postdependance entanglements” is organized in frames of two research projects sponsored by the National Science Centre, Poland ”Remembering Soviet repressions in the post-multiple colonial RussianFar East”, no. 2020/39/B/HS6/02809 and SocialMemory and the Post-ImperialRussianHeritage in Poland no. 2021/41/B/HS3/00852.

Polin-institutet får en ny logo från och med början av år 2025. Den nya logon bygger på den förra bekanta röda färgen och symboliserar det lokala genom återkopplingen till Åbo Domkyrkas fönster och dörrar. Samtidigt symboliserar logon det nya genom att antingen betrakta världen genom fönstret eller genom att gå genom dörren.

Logon har designats av grafiska designern Jake Papinaho på Å Communications.

Vår studieresa började lugnt med ta oss från Åbo till det ortodoxa kyrkomuseet Riisa i Kuopio. Sedan startade bussen mot Valamo kloster. Där slogs jag slogs av den välkomnande och lugna atmosfären vid klostret och hela dess omgivning.

Det var tidig väckning (kl. 05:40) för att hinna till morgongudstjänsten, men å andra sidan fick man komma och gå som man ville medan gudstjänsterna pågick. Gudstjänsterna var angenäma, och det var intressant att se hur munkarna bytte av varandra i de pågående recitationerna och sångerna. Man får vara beredd på att stå en hel del, kanske genom hela gudstjänsten, men möjlighet finns också att sitta ner.

Jan-Anders Strandberg

Det var fascinerande att få uppleva hur klosterlivet i Valamo var annorlunda än vad vi fått höra om Athosberget från fader Damaskinos. På Athosberget får munkarna t.ex. bara duscha en gång i veckan och kvinnor är inte välkomna, medan det i Valamo inte finns några sådana regler. Naturligtvis finns även många likheter, som dagliga gudstjänster och löften om fattigdom och lydnad. Jag förväntade mig inte att det skulle finnas en IT-munk i Valamo, eller att munkarna skulle ha Facebook eller gå på gym. En gång om året går Valamomunkarna på pilgrimsfärd till nunneklostret Lintula.

Det jag beundra mest under våran resa var kyrkoarkitekturen. I kyrkorna fanns massor föremål, ikoner och små detaljer. Flesta av kyrkorummen gav en känsla av vördnad och mystik. När vi besökte St. Johannes kyrka var vädret väldigt mulet och grått. När vi kom fram till kyrkan, kom det plötsligt fram igenom det dystra vädret en intensiv ljusblå färg av kyrkans tak och kupoler. 

Siri Mathisen

Det jag fann mest intressant under resan var hur djupt vi fick stiga in i den ortodoxa kyrkans tro och liv. Vi fick bekanta oss med klosterlivet i Finland och med flera små församlingar i östra Finland – deras heliga utrymmen, trosutövande och församlingsliv. Vi blev varmt bemötta och fick ställa frågor kring tro, teologi och praxis, medan vi delade gemenskap över en kopp varm dryck.

Tack vare Polin-Institutets finansiering behövde vi inte oroa oss gällande boende eller transport under dagarna. Vi fick fokusera all tid på att vara närvarande och observanta. Det var en bra balans mellan fokuserat praktiskt studium och gemenskapsmåltider. Tack vare bra planering och genomförande hölls gemenskapen och energin på topp, så att vi alltid kunde fokusera väl vid nästa programpunkt.

Förslag: Studieresan gav inte bara mycket ny information, utan också praktisk kunskap som annars varit svår att nå; flera av oss har inte besökt östra Finland eller någon ortodox kyrka tidigare. Dessutom kastade alla våra besök ljus över det vi tidigare tagit del av – i teorin – under de föregående föreläsningarna.

Mezmur Holmström

Må denna text finna er väl i ert läsande, och må denna text fungera som inspiration till dem som tänker sig att gå temakursen i händelse av att den hålls igen!

Vi önskar med detta en fridfull väntan på jul och nyår, och med det frid och fröjd till er!

Skribenterna: Mezmur Holmström, Siri Mathisen och Jan-Anders Strandberg

Need time to finalize a book manuscript? Research stint at the Polin Institute for theological research within Åbo Akademi University, Finland

The Polin Institute is a growing international center of theological research in Finland. We announce two research stints of maximum six months between the beginning of September 2025 and the end of February 2026 for researchers coming from abroad.

Polin monographs-fellowship provides you the following:

-travel costs

-housing

-research infrastructure: desk, internet access, library services, printing, scanning

-monthly tax free (in Finland) scholarship between 2400 and 3000€ depending on your career stage

Eligibility

-all doctors in any field of theology who work to finalize a monograph or other substantial publication within theology

-applicants should come from abroad (Finland-based researchers are not eligible)

Publishing policy

-The Polin Institute is mentioned in publications and presentations that have been worked upon during the time of the stint

-The author states the Polin Institute as a scholarly affiliation (double affiliation is fine)

-Åbo Akademi University prefers open access publication

Assessment criteria

-your research track record in relation to your career stage

-balance of realism and ambition in your work plan

-the academic quality of your ongoing research and its contribution to academic theology as well as the quality of the planned publisher

-relevance of your planned research for the ongoing theological research at the Polin Institute and Åbo Akademi in general

Application should be sent by e-mail to mika.vahakangas@abo.fi by the 14^th of February 2025 and contain the following:

-application letter stating how long and when would you wish to stay and whether the dates are flexible or not as well as pointing out how you see your research in relation to the ongoing Polin Institute & Åbo Akademi University research in theology

-work plan of one page

-CV of maximum 3 pages

-list of publications

-sample chapter and table of contents or other documentation that facilitates the assessment of the quality of the ongoing research and whether it is realistic to finalize it in the given time

-a publishing agreement or other supporting document from the publisher, if available