Postdoctoral researchers
Carl Johan Berglund, ThD, Associate Professor,
Postdoctoral researcher in exegesis
In 2019, I defended my thesis on Herakleon’s commentary on the Gospel of John from the 11th century, which has now been published as a monograph by Mohr Siebecks förlag. My research has since revolved around genre issues in early Christian literature, especially how the Gospels’ genre affiliation appears in relation to contemporary literature, and around the many apocryphal stories about the disciples that circulated from the 11th century onwards. In my post-doctoral project at Åbo Akademi University, I seek to combine these two interests by examining how the ideal image of Christian discipleship developed within the genre of early Christian apostle stories.
Carl Johan Berglunds publications →
Martina Björkander, ThD,
Postdoctoral researcher in practical theology
In the autumn of 2021 I defended my thesis in global Christianity with interreligious relations at Lund University. My thesis, {1}A Rhythm that Connects my Heart with God: Worship, Ritual and Pentecostal Spirituality as Theology,{2} is based on fieldwork in Nairobi, Kenya and addresses the role of worship in Pentecostal spirituality from a ritual theoretical and theological perspective. In my post-doctoral research, I’ll continue to delve into African Pentecostalism but now with a focus on the genocide in Rwanda and its aftermath. I will examine historical, religious psychological, and theological elements to explore how Pentecostal churches and individuals related to and were affected by the trauma that affected an entire people.
Martina Björkanders publications →
Laura Hellsten, ThD,
Postdoctoral researcher in systematic theology
In 2020 I defended my thesis in systematic theology titled Through the Bone and Marrow: Re-examining Theological Encounters with Dance in Medieval Europe at Åbo Akademi University. In my post-doctoral research, I’ll lead the project The Praxis of Social Imaginaries: Cosmologies, Othering and Liminality together with Lindsey Drury (PhD, Freie Universität Berlin). The aim of this project is to create a platform for transdisciplinary research collaboration that simultaneously educates scholars in science communication and examines the relationship between practice and the social spaces of imagination when reading medieval travelogues. The project is structured around a number of winter and summer symposia organised in collaboration with the Nordic Summer University, where researchers, artists, and activists together investigate how the notions of the other, racialisation, and the relationship to creation change from the early Middle Ages to the early modern era. We’re looking forward to seeing the new knowledge and artistic collaboration that the project produces.
Laura Hellstens publications →
Chongpongmeren Jamir, ThD,
Postdoctoral researcher in church history
My research interest revolves around the cultural history of Christianity, particularly in modern India. I am interested in the interface of culture and religion and the semiotic value of rituals and artifacts in historiography. In my postdoctoral research at the Åbo Akademi University, I am looking at the religious and cultural experiences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Christian revival movements in India. I am primarily interested in the meaning-making and the communal attitudes within which the revivals took place.
Chongpongmeren Jamirs publications →
Clementine Nishimwe, PhD,
Postdoctoral researcher in the study of religions
My research focuses on the intersection of Christianity and social issues, including the lived experiences of individuals through gender and migration lenses. My research previously examined faith expressions in Anglican and Pentecostal churches in South Africa, using an ethnographic approach to understand how church communities respond to social issues and the role of gender and migration in shaping religious identities. Recently, I shifted my research to Finland, studying how religion influences migrants’ experiences of belonging. At Åbo Akademi University, I am part of a project exploring the interplay between religion and social exclusion. The project involves developing a mixed-methods framework for studying these complex issues.
Clementine Nishimwes publications →Former researchers:
Oskari Juurikkala, TD, ED, JD,
Postdokforskare i systematisk teologi
In my research, I combine patristics and historical theology with contemporary issues in systematic theology. I defended my dissertation in September 2019 in Rome, titled “The Patristic and Medieval Metaphor of the Book of Nature.” I am currently working on its publication and writing a new book titled “God’s Two Books” in collaboration with my former supervisor, Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. In addition to theology of revelation and general dogmatics, I am interested in fundamental questions related to Christian ethics. Another dimension of my postdoctoral research is the idea of natural law in the church fathers.
Oskari Juurikkalas publications →
Jakob Dahlbacka, ThD, Associate Professor,
Project researcher in church history
In my research, I’m primarily interested in questions concerning the religious use of history, cultural/collective memory, and the spatiality and materiality of memory. This is currently expressed in research into the memory and meaning-making function of church buildings. I’m also interested in revival research from a combined church history and contemporary history perspective. Here, the focus is on the so-called Ostrobothnian Bible Belt and its characteristics.
Jakob Dahlbackas publications →
Marie Rosenius, ThD,
Postdoctoral researcher in practical theology
In December 2015 at Umeå University, I defended my thesis Svenska kyrkan samma kyrka? Ecklesiologi före och efter relationsförändringen mellan kyrka och stat. My primary research interest is ecclesiology and liturgy, as well as theoretical and methodological issues related to these two fields. In current research projects, different ways of understanding participation in worship are addressed by way of an arsenal of theories drawn from pedagogy, ecclesiology, and liturgical theology. BA focus of the project is the modern liturgical movement in the Western Church, which is characterised by an ambition to promote the participation of the laity in religious services but which has at the same time run parallel to societal changes such as modernisation, democratisation, and individualisation, which has affected the way of associating oneself with this liturgical vision. One aim of the project is to discuss and problematise implicit learning theories and ecclesiology in different types of research and participation strategies and their possible consequences for children, liturgy, and the church.
Marie Roseniuss publications →
Lotta Valve, TD,
Post-doctoral researcher in Old Testament exegesis
My research interests revolve around the prophetic texts of the Old Testament in general and the reception history of the books of Isaiah and Malachi in particular. Another area of interest is the reading strategies that people in the antiquity applied to texts and especially their interpretation of Old Testament texts in the New Testament. In my project funded by The Polin Institute, I’m examining the exegetical background to the emergence of the idea of a prophetic messiah figure in Second Temple Judaism.
Lotta Valves publications →