Simon Stjernholm

Current research

My research primarily focuses on Sufism, Muslim religious oratory, religious life writing, and the senses. I am currently working on an investigation of modern Sufi autobiographical life writings. 

My book Sensing Islam: Engaging and Contesting the Senses in Muslim Religiosity was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2025 as part of the series Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion. 

During the spring of 2026, I will be a visiting fellow at the University of Edinburgh's Alwaleed Centre for the Study of Islam in the Contemporary World. 

Between 2019 and 2022, I was the Principal Investigator (PI) of the collective research project Rearticulating Islam: A New Generation of Muslim Religious Leaders  (funded by the Velux Foundation), which investigated how a range of different Muslim actors attempt to speak and act for Islam in Europe in educational, homiletic and political contexts. One output of the project was a 2024 special isse of Journal of Religion in Europe called "Negotiating Relevant Islamic Knowledge for European Muslims".  

In the 2022 issue of the journal Religion and Society: Advances in Research, Andreas Bandak and I have jointly edited a collection of articles on the theme "Engaging Religion". Together with Elisabeth Özdalga, I have also edited Muslim Preaching in the Middle East and Beyond: Historical and Contemporary Case Studies (Edinburgh University Press, 2020).

Together with colleagues at the department, I am coordinating an interdisciplinary research seminar series focused on religion. I am a member of the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul's (SRII) collegium of researchers and 2021-2025 was the general editor of FSIV's annual popular science journal Dragomanen. In 2022, I joined the editorial team of the Danish-language academic journal Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift. In 2024, me and my colleagues in the Study of Religion at the University of Copenhagen launched the Danish-language journal RELevans, where I serve as one of its editors. 

Primary fields of research

My research primarily engages with the Anthropology and History of Islam, with particular focus on Sufism and Muslim preaching. My research thereby also relates to broader research fields like Islamic Studies, the Study of Religion, Anthropology of Religion, and Sensory Studies. Some of the topics I have addressed in my recent publications are: contemporary Sufism; Islam and Muslims in Europe; lived religion; Muslim preaching; voices and listening; senses and mediation.

Teaching

At the BA program in the Study of Religion, I regularly teach the introductory course in History of Religions as well as the education-specific part of Theory of Science. At the MA program, I regularly teach a course on theories and analytical strategies in the Study of Religion. I supervise student essays on all levels on a broad variety of topics. 

I am a member of the Faculty of Humanities' PhD Committee. 

PhD supervision

I have supervised/am supervising the following PhD projects: 

• Anna Holmqvist, Uppsala University (assistant supervisor). 
• Maximilian Lasa, "German Muslims on the International Theology Programme in Turkey: Temporalities, Spatialities, and Contingency" (University of Copenhagen, 2022). 
• Maria Lyngsøe, "Engaged Subjects: Danish Muslim Women's Islamic Educational Activities" (University of Copenhagen, 2022). 

PhD Assessment

I have been part of the assessment committee of the following PhD dissertations: 

• Anne-Mai Flyvholm, "'You Can't Take Anything for Granted': Understanding the Impact of Hate Incidents through the Lens of Trust" (University of Copenhagen, 2025). Chair of the assessment committee. 
• Gustav Larsson, "Positioned Orthodoxies: Debating Islamic Faith and Practice in Contemporary Sweden" (Linnaeus University, 2024). 
• Emma Sundkvist, "Human Rights as Law, Language, and Space-Making: Women's Rights Movement in Post-revolutionary Egypt" (Lund University, 2022). 
• Vibeke Moe, "Community, Boundaries, and Meaning in Narratives about Jews among Muslims in Norway" (University of Oslo, 2022). First opponent. 
• Jesper Petersen, "The Making of the Mariam Mosque: Serendipities and Structures in the Production of Female Authority in Denmark" (Lund University, 2020). 
• Selma Bukovica Gundersen, "Historieundervisning som erindringsarena: Brug af historie, sprog og religion til etnisk adskillelse og konstruktion af en umulighedsdiskurs i Bosnien-Hercegovina" (University of Copenhagen, 2020). Chair of the assessment committee. 
• Gry Hvass Pedersen, "Modernity, Islamic Tradition and Higher Education: Visions of Modern Muslim Selfhoods among Contemporary Students at Islamic Universities in Asia" (University of Southern Denmark, 2020).