The national interdisciplinary Research School Religion-Values-Society

The national interdisciplinary Research School Religion-Values-Society (RVS) RVS is centred on interdisciplinary research in the intersection between religion, values and society, exploring the dynamic interplay between these three thematic poles. The focus is contemporary and empirical, and provides specialised PhD-training to complement that offered through regular PhD-programmes. Research on contemporary religion, values and society in Norway and Scandinavia is currently fragmented across different disciplines and different institutions. RVS provides a network that coordinates this research and promotes cooperation, creating a research community of international quality and impact. RVS also has a strategic partnership with Boston University, to draw on their expertise in these fields and to further foster the international orientation of our members.

Norwegian and Nordic research on contemporary religion, values and society is currently fragmented into different disciplines and smaller and larger institutions. There is a need for a network that can coordinate studies on these phenomena; not at least because religious and value change are complex processes, and best understood through inter-disciplinary research. The Research School Religion - Values - Society (RVS) is an already existing network of 7 academic institutions, which with this application is expanded to 11 institutions and a more ambitious level of activity. RVS will organize inter-disciplinary courses, including a yearly one-week long summer school, annual PhD-seminars, online group sessions, and an extensive international cooperation with Boston University. An aim is to integrate an international perspective on all activities in RVS, and in all phases of the PhD-students? research. RVS will be a supplement to, not a replacement of, the regular PhD-programs. In RVS religion and values are researched empirically and as formed through social interaction. RVS is interdisciplinary, gathering religious studies, theology, sociology, education, psychology and health sciences. RVS will constitute a network that will contribute to a better understanding of the changing role of religion and values in society and strengthen the quality, reflexivity and efficiency of the PhD-process among its student members. The PhD-students will benefit from a wider range of courses, seminars and supervision, in addition to new perspectives from other relevant disciplines. RVS will also build bridges between a number of different academic disciplines, which will help understanding religion and values as complex phenomena.