Blog Archives

Prof Marcus Moberg is Professor in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. His primary research interests include the sociology of religion, the discursive study of religion, and religion, media and digital culture. Prof Moberg has led and held leading positions in several large-scale research projects and functions as the local PI for Recovira in Finland. His work on the present-day relationship between religion and digital media has mainly focused on religious communities’ own uses of digital media and young adults’ engagements with digital media for religion-related purposes. Key publications in these areas include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2022), Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion (Routledge 2020, co-ed), Church, Market, and Media (Bloomsbury 2017), and Religion, Media and Social Change (Routledge 2015, co-ed). His work in the area has also appeared in journals such as New Media & Society, Religion, and Journal of Religion, Media and Digital Culture.

Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Åbo/Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study of religions at Åbo Akademi University and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions and Jewish studies. Dr Illman’s main research interests include contemporary Judaism, interreligious dialogue, religion and the arts (especially music) as well as ethnographic research methodologies.

Among her latest publications are articles in journals such as Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, Journal of Contemporary Religion and Contemporary Jewry, chapters in the volumes Vernacular Knowledge (eds. M. Bowman; Ü. Valk, 2022) and The Georgetown Companion to Interreligious Studies (ed. L. Mosher, 2022) as well as the books Music and Religious Change among Progressive Jews in London: Being Liberal and Doing Traditional (Lexington, 2018) and Theology and the Arts: Engaging Faith (Routledge, 2013/2016) co-authored with W. Alan Smith. Since 2016 she is the editor of the journal Nordisk judaistik Scandinavian Jewish Studies. She is the director of the Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland research project and local Co-PI of the Recovira project in Finland.

Dr. Katriina Hulkkonen works as Postdoctoral Researcher for Recovira in Finland. Hulkkonen is specialized in the study of new spirituality, contemporary religious change, and ethnographic methods. In her dissertation in the field of Study of Religion, she examined spiritual entrepreneurship and the epistemological aspects of new spirituality. Her recent interests include holistic well-being practices and the relationship between new spirituality and Christianity.

Dr Annunen holds a PhD in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University and works as Postdoctoral Researcher for Recovira in Finland. Her research interests include ritual studies, ethnographic methods, religion and wellbeing, and religion and sound. Her previous work consists of ethnographic fieldwork and publications focusing on neo shamanistic and west African drumming, as well as singing bowl sound healing rituals as they are performed in present-day Finland.

Dr Broo is a lecturer in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. His primary research interests include the history of religion, with a particular focus on Indian religions, both in history and in the contemporary world. His work has thus been both ethnographic and philological in nature. His recent work includes a critical edition and annotated translation of the Radha Tantra (Routledge, 2017), a Finnish translation of two key works on bhakti (Gaudeamus, 2021) and two articles in Handbook of Hinduism in Europe (Brill, 2020).