The University of Helsinki is the oldest and largest institution of academic education in Finland, an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. In international university rankings, the University of Helsinki typically ranks among the top 100. The University of Helsinki is the only Finnish university to be a member of the League of European Research Universities, or LERU. The Faculty of Theology in the Helsinki University prepares students for duties requiring expertise in religions, worldviews and values. The Faculty studies the individual, cultural and social significance of religions from times past to the present. The Faculty of Theology is an international academic community, unaffiliated with any particular religion or belief.

The Helsinki University’s Department of Church History (Faculty of Theology) has an outstanding reputation in the fields of theology, incl. Lutheranism and Orthodoxy, and Christian ecumenism, and world history, and has a wide expertise in networks as Secretary of the Commission internationale d'histoire écclésiastique comparée (CIHEC). The University recently publicly recognized and awarded the successful research which the Department of Church History has carried out in these fields. The Faculty of Theology is also known for its encouraging of teachers and researchers to acquire advanced university pedagogical training.

Key personnel

Mikko Ketola, Principal Investigator, Adjunct Professor, and University Lecturer in Church History at the Department of Church History, is has specialized in contemporary church history. His main research topics are Baltic, especially Estonian, church history, Finnish church history in the 1960s, Ukrainian Churches in the post-Communist Ukraine, and the contemporary Catholic church history. He also has long experience of reviewing religion-themed movies for Finnish scholarly journals. He has acted as the Chairman of the Finnish Society for Church History and is currently the General Secretary of the Commission Internationale d'Histoire et d'Etudes du Christianisme (CIHEC). He belongs to the editorial board of the scholarly journal Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte.

Päivi Salmesvuori, Postdoctoral researcher, is doctor of theology, (main Church History, seconds Gender Studies and Latin) who has researched issues of gender, power, authority and religion from the Middle Ages to present times. She has published Power and Sainthood. The Case of Birgitta of Sweden (Palgrave Macmillan, The New Middle Ages 2014) and Finnish Women Making Religion. Between Ancestors and Angels, eds. Terhi Utriainen. & Päivi Salmesvuori, Palgrave Macmillan 2014) and numerous articles. Her latest research has dealt with a Finnish and an American trance-preacher from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. She is interested in promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and finding ways to enhance the cooperation between Academia and policy makers. She has been awarded the membership of the Teachers’ Academy of University of Helsinki for her achievements in university pedagogics. She is thus both qualified and keen on promoting pedagogical implementations of research.

Arpad Welker, Postdoctoral researcher, works as an Accredited Parliamentary Assistant at the European Parliament. His earlier positions include archivist in Municipal Archives Budapest and post-doctoral researcher in the University of Helsinki. He has a PhD in comparative history from the Central European University (Budapest) in 2007. His PhD thesis was titled “Jewish Politics in Hungary. Jewish Parliamentary Politicians 1867–1890”. He also has studied archival science in Budapest and Finnish History in the University of Helsinki. He has gained university pedagogical training and teaching experience in the University of Helsinki. He has held several lecture series on Central European thematics in the University of Helsinki.

Relevant publications and/or other products and services

Ketola, M. (2017) ’The Reception of Vatican II in Finland 1959–1967’ in Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte

Vol. 29, Heft 2, pp. 279–291.

Ketola, M. (2017) ’Finland and the 450th Jubilee of Reformation in 1967’ in Nord-Ost Archiv Vol. 25,

pp. 167–183.

Salmesvuori, P. ed. (2014) Finnish Women Making Religion. Between Ancestors and Angels. New

York: Palgrave Macmillan. 304 p.

Ketola, M. (2007) ‘The Baltic churches in the process of transformation and consolidation of

democracy since 1985.’ In Kirchliche Zeitgschichte Vol. 20, pp. 66–80.

Welker, A. (2002) ‘Between Emancipation and Antisemitism. The Jewish Presence in Parliamentary

Politics in Hungary’ in Jewish Studies at the CEU 1999-2001. Budapest: 2002, pp. 239-269.

Relevant previous projects or activities

2016: International Conference ’Ecumenical cooperation and world politics’. Helsinki. Mikko Ketola, organizer.

2016: Conference ”Glass ceiling or career ladder? – Young people in Academia”. Keynote speaker. Päivi Salmesvuori. Mikko Ketola, organizer.

2015: Conference ’Interactive Borderlands: Rethinking networks and organizations in Europe’. Riga. Mikko Ketola, speaker.

2010–present: General Secretary, Commission Internationale d'Histoire et d'Etudes du Christianisme, Mikko Ketola.