DI Research Prize

Since 2010, the Donner Institute has awarded an annual prize for outstanding research pertaining to the field of religion conducted at a Nordic university. This year, the prize is awarded for a doctoral dissertation within the field of religion, understood in a broad sense, which may include, but is not limited to, dissertations in the study of religions, theology and culture. The dissertation must have been defended relatively recently (2021 or later) in printed or digital form. The research should have been carried out at a Nordic university. The prize amounts to 5000 euros.

Previous receivers of the research prize

2023 Dr Helena Schmidt, University of Oslo, for the book Eating No-Bodies: The paradox of disembodied hospitality. Looking through the meal lens at diaconal hospitality and embodied citizenship in Oslo

2022 Dr Maija Butters, University of Helsinki, for the book Death and Dying Mediated by Medicine, Rituals, and Aesthetics: An Ethnographic Study on the Experiences of Palliative Patients in Finland

2021 Dr Laura Hellsten, Åbo Akademi University, for the book Through the bone and marrow : re-examining theological encounters with dance in medieval Europe

2020 Dr Ernils Larsson, Uppsala University, for the book Rituals of a Secular Nation: Shinto Normativity and the Separation of Religion and State in Postwar Japan

2019 Dr Oriol Poveda Guillén, Uppsala University, for the book According to whose will: The entanglements of gender & religion in the lives of transgender Jews with an Orthodox background

2018 Dr Henni Alava, University of Helsinki, for the book ’ There is Confusion.’ The Politics of Silence, Fear and Hope in Catholic and Protestant Northern Uganda

2017 Dr Måns Broo, Åbo Akademi University, for the book The Radha Tantra: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation (2017)

2016 Dr Anu Isotalo, University of Turku, for the book Mistä on hyvät tytöt tehty? Somalitytöt ja maineen merkitykset [What are good girls made of? Somali Girls and the Meanings of Reputation]

2015 Dr Per Faxneld, Stockholm University, for the book Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Women in Nineteenth Century Culture

2014 Dr Elina Hankela, University of Helsinki, for the book Challenging Ubuntu: Open Doors and Exclusionary Boundaries in Johannesburg (2013)

2013 Dr Jessica Moberg, Södertörns University, for the book Piety, Intimacy and Mobility. A Case Study of Charismatic Christianity in Present-day Stockholm

2012 Dr Niklas Foxeus, Stockholm University, for the book The Buddhist World Emperor’s Mission: Millenarian Buddhism in Postcolonial Burma

2011 Dr Olle Sundström, Umeå University, for the book “Vildrenen är själv detsamma som en gud”: “gudar” och “andar” i sovjetiska etnografers beskrivningar av samojediska världsåskådningar

2010 Dr Ferdinando Sardella, University of Gothenburg, for the book Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati: The Context and Significance of a Modern Hindu Personalist