Jonas Svensson

The focus of my research has been Islam, particularly modern interpretations, and gender issues. My doctoral thesis "Women’s human rights and Islam. A study of three attempts at accommodation" concerned the intra-Muslim debate on Islam and women’s human rights, i.e. rights stipulated in UN declarations and conventions. Earlier on, I wrote the book Muslimsk feminism (1996). After completing my PhD I have done research in areas such as Muslim everyday views and uses of the Qur’an, Islam and sexuality, Muslim bioethical discourses, religious education in a secular context and the nature of the academic study of religions in Sweden.

Between 2003 and 2006 I worked on a project concerning Islamic religious education (IRE) in Kisumu, Kenya, financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). Recently I have worked on two projects. One concerned the contemporary intra-Muslim discourses on HIV/AIDS, the other concerned mawlid, or the celebration of the Prophet Muhammad's birthday.

Since 2012 I have come to involve myself theoretically in the field of the Cognitive Science of Religion and its potential in relation to the study of Islam. Besides a series of articles in this field, I 2015 published the monograph Människans Muhammed which constitutes a systematic application of theoretical perspectives in CSR on the issue of the place and role of Muhammad in Islamic tradition. 

More recently, I have come to expand my research methodologically in investigating the potential for applying approaches within Digital Humanities to the study of Islam. In a recently concluded project I have used computer assisted methods in comparative studies on English Qur'an translations, the public discourse on hounour culture as a social problem and Wahhabi missionary actitivities in Sweden.