معرفی
Stefan Gelfgren is Associate Professor of Sociology of Religion and Senior Lecturer in Didactics of Religion at Umeå University's Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies. He holds a PhD in History of Ideas (Umeå University), MPhil in History of Christianity (Birmingham University), and BA in Construction Engineering.
His research examines:
- Social/technical/religious transformations throughout history
- Digital media's impact on Christian institutions
- Digital humanities methodologies
- Surveillance in everyday life
- Religious geography and mapping
Recent publications (2020-2025) focus on digital religion, surveillance ethics, Swedish revivalism, and geospatial humanities. Key trends include institutional adaptation to digitalization and historical continuities in religious media.
Awards include the 2022 Erik Allardt Fellowship at Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.
He leads multiple research initiatives:
- Wallenberg-funded DINO project on digital privacy/social benefit (Co-investigator)
- Nordic Places of Worship Map (Project Leader)
- iAccept: Soft Surveillance (Principal Investigator 2017-2021)
As former Director of Humlab (2015-2020), he developed digital humanities infrastructure. He chairs the Swedish Association for Sociology of Religion and serves on Umeå University's Faculty Board.
