Ruth Illman

Curriculum Vitae (1/2021)

List of Publications (1/2021)

Current position

Director, the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture, Turku, Finland (start: June 2013). Leading the work at the institute, including research and library facilities, own research, arranging of conferences and networks, granting scholarships, academic publishing.

My main research interests concern contemporary Judaism, interreligious dialogue and ethnographic research methodology within the humanities. 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 have been editor of the scholarly journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies, currently together with Dr. Svante Lundgren, Lund University.

I am also the director of the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland finansed by the Polin Institute.

Education 

• Docent (Associate Professor), History of Religions, Uppsala University (29.5 2018). 
• Docent (Associate Professor), Study of Religions, Åbo Akademi University (11.8 2006).

• Doctor of Theology, Åbo Akademi University (30.11 2018). Jewish studies
• Doctor of Philosophy, Åbo Akademi University (18.6 2004). Study of Religions
• Master of Theology, Åbo Akademi University (31.5 2015). Jewish studies
• Master of Arts, Åbo Akademi University (12.5 2000). Study of Religions

• Information Studies (60 credits), Åbo Akademi University (qualification for librarian), 2012.