Graduate school in Islamic studies
In December 2022, the Swedish Research Council granted SEK 24.8 million in partial funding of salaries for doctoral students within a new graduate school in Islamic studies (Islamologi). On this page you will find the latest information on the development of the graduate school.
General information
Even though it is only at Lund University that Islamic studies, or "Islamologi", is a research subject in its own right, the term “islamologist” has become established for researchers within religious studies who specialise on Islam. It is this broader understanding of Islamic studies that is applied at the graduate school.
Admission
Linnaeus University coordinates the graduate school in Islamic studies/Islamologi, in which also Lund University, University of Gothenburg, Stockholm University, Södertörn University, Uppsala University, and Umeå University take part as equal parties. Doctoral students within the graduate school will be admitted at one of these universities.
Depending on the university, the doctoral students are admitted within one of the following research subjects: Religious Studies, History of Religions, Subject Didactics and Systematic Theology. The criteria for assessment of applications are determined by the higher education institutions. The doctoral students follow the general syllabus that applies for each respective subject at each respective higher education institution and take part in the established research environments at the higher education institution.
The objective of the graduate school is to provide an infrastructure for the admitted students in the form of collaboration between supervisors, joint courses, seminars, and other activities for the students.
Organisation
The graduate school is led by a supervisors’ committee that appoints a management team of three persons. The current management team consists of:
- Jonas Svensson, Linnaeus University
- Susanne Olsson, Stockholm University
- Jenny Berglund, Stockholm University
- Göran Larsson, University of Gothenburg
Jonas Svensson is coordinator and convener.
Other members are:
- Oliver Scharbrodt, Lund University
- David Thurfjell, Södertörn University
- Simon Sorgenfrei, Södertörn University
- Mohammad Fazlhashemi, Uppsala University
- Tomas Lindgren, Umeå University
Activities
The graduate school is decentralised. Funding of activities takes place within the frame of each respective higher education institution’s regular activities and budget, but activities are coordinated between the higher education institutions through representatives on the supervisors’ committee. The graduate school applies for external and internal funding for special activities.
Courses and seminars
Joint activities are courses and seminars, online and offline. As the admission round is international the language of tuition is currently English.
The graduate school comprises three compulsory courses that all participants study together. The compulsory courses are created and conducted by two or more of the participating higher education institutions. The compulsory courses are:
- Islamic source material and the history of Islam (historical and history of ideas perspectives and methods)
- Islam – lived and experienced (anthropological perspectives and methods)
- Applied Islamic studies (politological and discourse analysis perspectives and methods)
In addition to these compulsory courses, each higher education institution will offer eligible courses that are related to the specialist competence at hand. Themes will be worked out in consultation with the doctoral students and be adapted according to their needs and wishes.
The graduate school has continuous and regular seminar activities. The responsibility for organising and administrating seminars online and offline rotates among the involved higher education institutions. Some seminars have international participation and be organised together with the collaboration partners of the graduate school.
Doctoral projects
• Martin Stenfors Eidrup (Göteborgs universitet) writes on contemporary interpretations of Islamic family law and family norms among Muslims in Europe. Through interviews with Muslims in Sweden and Belgium, the project investigates the interplay between the socio-legal environment—such as state laws on marriage, divorce, and inheritance—and how Muslims see their own faith, social norms, and rules of Islamic family law.
Martin has published his first article in his compilation thesis:
Martin Eidrup, The Study of Muslim Family Norms in Contemporary Europe: A Systematic Scoping Review, Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 2025;, rwaf005, https://doi.org/10.1093/ojlr/rwaf005
• Fatemeh Moslehzadeh (Lunds universitet) does ethnographic work among Iranian Shii women, who are highly educated and at the same time very conservative in terms of religion. This study aims to go further than the secular/Islamic dichotomy by observing the richness and complexity of the experiences of these women, who have connections with both sides.
• Sepideh Atter Motlagh (Södertörns högskola) ethnographically explores identity processes within young and devout Shi’a communities from female perspectives in the Islamic Republic of Iran, where dramatic internal and (intra-)generational tensions and cleavages define its ideological and social fabric. My project aims at offering new theoretical perspectives to Islamic and religious studies by providing insights into broader and hitherto unexplored aspects of young female Muslim identity processes and religious positions in the Iranian society and beyond
• Alena Nikiticheva (Linnéuniversitetet) explores the interconnections between religiosity and ethnic identity within a Muslim context, with a particular focus on conversion as both a process of self-transformation and a distinct social experience. Grounded in an anthropological perspective, the analytical framework draws on social identity theory, and the narrative approach for data collection and analysis. The fieldwork is centered in the post-Soviet area, with a particular focus on northern Central Asia.
• Nargiz Mammadi (Stockholms universitet) investigates the political motivations behind heresy executions in the Islamic world, particularly those linked to ecstatic utterances. The study explores the execution of the Hurufi poet Nasimi in Aleppo in 1417, exploring how his mystical expressions were framed as heretical. By analyzing this case, the research aims to uncover the broader political and social forces at play in the persecution of heterodox figures within Islamic history.
• Olivia Saad (Uppsala universitet) studies the sovereignty concept in Islamic political theology, and how it relates to and conflicts with liberalism, democracy and human rights. Studied within the subject of systematic theology, the project is centered around a critical and constructive reading of Sayyid Qutb´s conceptualization of sovereignty.
• Cailin Kwoh (Lunds universitet) focuses on the intersection of Islam and the Palestinian thob, conceptualizing how Islam influences the creation, adornment, and expression of the thob
• Mustafa Kamal (Linnéuniversitetet) investigates activism promoting non-belief in a Pakistani context, mainly expressed in on-line environments. The main research questions revolve around the forms that discourses on non-belief take in a Pakistani context in comparison with similar discourse in other parts of the world. Is there a specific Pakistani form of public expressions and arguments for non-belief, shaped by local concerns and circumstances?
• Danial Ghasempour (Stockholms universitet) examines how Islam is portrayed in Swedish educational films, which films are being used, and how these films are used in religious education. My research also maps out how the portrayal of Islam has changed over time in Swedish educational films and what this says about Swedish society
• Anna Holmqvist (Uppsala universitet, affiliated) explores how queer Muslim identities are shaped by engagement with queer Muslim groups and networks in contemporary United Kingdom.
• Isak Hannus (Helsingfors universitet, affiliated) investigates the intersection of multiple minority belongings within Finnish public education, more precisely Finland's Swedish-speaking minority's right to education in their own language and Islamic religious education as a minority faith recognized in the Finnish National Core Curriculum. Approaching the topic from administrative, ideological, and pedagogical points of view, the aim is to map out the prevalence and understanding of the phenomenon among school leaders, teachers, and families involved, and what attitudes and processes shape understanding and implementation of governing laws and decrees.
• Lovisa Schau (Göteborgs universitet) investigates the spectatorship of Muslim Arabic-speaking audiences of Egyptian Ramadan TV series in Sweden and Egypt. Her study explores how audiences relate to and reflect on masculinity, religion, identity, and transnationality, as the Ramadan TV serials constitute a large part of Egyptian and even Arabic pop-culture.
Collaboration partners (under development)
The Swedish research Institute in Istanbul
https://www.srii.org/
Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
(AKU-ISMC)
https://www.aku.edu/ismc/