Ruth Illman’s research

Current research

Curriculum Vitae (2/2024)

List of Publications (2/2024)

Keynotes and Conferences (2/2024)

My main research interests concern questions pertaining to Jewish life in the Nordics today, cultural encounters and interreligious dialogue, ethnographic research methodology within cultural studies. I am especially interested in the relationship between the arts (particularly music) and religion. Chronologically, I work predominantly with contemporary religion, combining ethnographic research methods with content analysis and approaches deriving from the philosophy of religion.

Since 2016, I am, together with Associate Professor Svante Lundgren (Lund University), editor of the scholarly journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies. At the Donner Institute, I am the editor of the journal Approaching Religion (since 2011).

I was the director of the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland finansed by the Polin Institute (2018-2022) and currently take part in the EU-funded research project Recovira – Religious Communities in the Virtual Age as part of the Finnish research team at Åbo Akademi University. During the years 2024-27 I also take part in the research project Exploring the Contested Construction of Sense of Safety in Religious Spaces at the University of Helsinki, PI Prof. Anne Birgitta Pessi (funded by the Research Council of Finland).

Since 2018, I am also the Research Director of Åbo Akademi University Foundation, where I am responsible for the strategic co-operation relating to research funding, primarily with Åbo Akademi University, including the societal relevance and impact of research.

Research fields and issues I have worked with include:

• Contemporary Judaism: Ethnographic research on vernacular Judaism in Finland. Also progressive Judaism in today’s Europe with particular focus on the role of music as an instigator of change in contemporary identity processes.
• Ritual innovation and renewal: How rituals change, are shaped and accomodated to personal preferences and contextual frames (within the Recovira project).
• Interreligious dialogue: Ethnographic research on interreligious dialogue especially in the world of art.
• Religion and the arts: Ethnographic and theoretical research on art and religion, religion in art and art (especially music) as a platform for expressing religious identities.
• Dialogue philosophy: Interpreting Jewish dialogue philosophy and its importance for cultural and interreligious dialogue in practice.
• Religion, diversity and change in Finland: Ethnographic, theoretical and methodological research on religious diversity in contemporary Finland.
• Ethnographic research on religion and methodology: Methodological reflections on hermeneutics and methodology for contemporary ethnographic research on religion.

For information about publications, collaborations and expert assignments, see the Åbo Akademi University Research Portal AboCRIS