Project members

Project members in alphabetical order:

Lidia Gripenberg: Holds a PhD from the University of Helsinki (2019). She has studied the role of nationality, ethnic identity, and charismatic Christianity in the interaction of Finnish Roma and East European Roma in Finland. She has also written on the influence of social and political conditions, ethnic identity and charismatic spirituality in building connections between Roma groups, during missionary work of Finnish Roma in Estonia (2022). Gripenberg’s studies of Christian theology are supported by her diaconal education and ordination as a Deacon of the Finnish Lutheran Church (2011).

Katharina Kunter (group leader): Since 2020, a Professor of Contemporary Church History at the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki. 2109 Title of Docent of Church History by the University of Helsinki, 2004 German Habilitation and “Privatdozent” for Modern and Contemporary History (University of Karlsruhe), 1998 PhD (Dr. phil, University of Gießen, Germany) Her research includes Church, Cold War and Communism, Religion and Human rights since 1948, and Churches and international politics in the 20th century.

Igor Mikeshin: Holds a PhD from the University of Helsinki (2016). His research focuses on Russian-speaking evangelical Christianity in Russia and abroad, Christian conservatism, and gender and family. In 2020, he published an edited volume “Eight Essays on Russian Christianities.” Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, a member of a research group “Religion, Self, and the Ethical Life.”

Maija Penttilä (neé Turunen) has a title of docent in Church and Social Studies at the University of Helsinki. She is also a university lecturer at the Department of Practical Theology. Penttilä has conducted empirical research on the neo-charismatic movement in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the religiosity of younger generations in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Her newest research concerns Russian-speaking communities of worship and everyday religion of Russian-speakers in Finland.