University of Tartu (UT) is Estonia's leading centre of research and training. It preserves the culture of the Estonian people and spearheads the country's reputation in research and provision of higher education. UT belongs to the top 1,2% of world's best universities. As Estonia's national university, UT stresses the importance of international co-operation and partnerships with reputable research universities all over the world. The robust research potential of the university is evidenced by the fact that the University of Tartu has been invited to join the Coimbra Group, a prestigious club of renowned research universities. To support and develop the professional competence of its students and academic staff, the university has entered into bilateral co-operation agreements with 79 partner institutions in 31 countries.

The University of Tartu was founded in 1632 by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus. It was initially called Academia Dorpatensis. The necessary preparations for creating a university in Tartu (then Dorpat) were made by Johan Skytte, governor general of Livonia. Academia Dorpatensis, modelled after the University of Uppsala in Sweden, was intended to pursue research and advance learning in a wide variety of disciplines. The University of Tartu (UT) has continued to adhere to this approach throughout the centuries, and remains today the only classical university in Estonia. Research at UT focuses on subjects as diverse as medicine and philosophy, genetics and computer science.

As a national university, UT is responsible for the preservation and development of Estonian language and culture, advancing the sciences, investigating Estonia and Estonian-language education, preserving cultural heritage and providing related services to the public. The School of Theology and Religious Studies is constantly involved into the interdisciplinary research, being focused on the study of religion in the contemporary world, particularly Estonia; relations between religion and science; ancient Near Eastern studies; biblical studies together with Jewish studies and church history, particularly the 19th and 20th centuries.

Key Personnel

Lea Altnurme, Principal Investigator, Senior Research Fellow of Sociology of Religion at the School of Theology and Religious Studies, is a leading researcher on the contemporary religious situation in Estonia. Estonian Science Foundation acknowledged her project Religious Life in Estonia in the Second Half of the 20th Century as the best project in social sciences in 2006, resulted in book Kristlusest oma usuni [From Christianity to own belief]. She has been research fellow at the EU 5th FP project 2001-2004, and has worked at the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory 2008-2015. She led the research group of contemporary religion at the project Secularization (de-institutionalization and de-Christianization): Religion in Estonia from the Modern Period to the Present 2011-2016. Has served as an author for several textbooks and as an editor for collections of articles on the history of religion. She has published a popular article Esten und Ihre Religion about her research in Frankfurter Allgemeine 2012. Member of the board of the Estonian Society for the Study of Religions (2006-2010) and secretary of the Estonian Society of Academic Theology (1999-2001 and 2003-2006).

Riho Altnurme, Professor of Church History at the School of Theology and Religious Studies and Vice Dean for Research at the Faculty of Humanities and Arts; is a specialist on 19th and 20th century church history, in context of church-state-society relations. Leading author and editor of History of Estonian Ecumenism (2009). 2011-2015 he managed the research group of religious studies at the Centre of Excellence of Cultural Theory (CECT, http://cect.ut.ee/eng.html). Representative of Estonia in Commission Internationale d'Histoire et d'Études du Christianisme (CIHEC, www.cihec.org), member of Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Theologie (WgTh, http://www.wgth.de). Local representative of several Socrates cooperation networks (TRES, EURESIS). Member of editorial boards in several journals in Baltic states, co-founder of International Network of Baltic Church Historians (INBCH, http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/pro/inbch/) and Estonian Society of Church History (ESCH, http://www.kirikulugu.ee).

Relevant publications and/or other products and services

Andreas Ventsel, Atko Remmel, Lea Altnurme, Kristiina Johanson, Roland Karo and Maaris Raudsepp (2017), ’Meaning-making in religious phenomena in the field of tension vernacular and institutional discourses’, In: A. Kannike, V. Lang, K. Kuutma, K. Lindström and A. Riistan (Ed.). Approaches of Culture Theory VII (x-x). Tartu University Press [in Press].

Riho Altnurme (2017), ’Transnationale religionswissenschaftliche Forschungskonzeptionen, besonders in der Kirchen- oder Christentumsgeschichte’, in: Hackmann, Jörg and Loew, Peter Oliver (eds.), Verflechtungen in Politik, Kultur und Wirtschaft im östlichen Europa. Transnationalität als Forschungsproblem (x-x) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz) [in Press]

Riho Altnurme (2012), ’Die Erfahrungen der christlichen Kirchen mit Nationalismus, religiösem Pluralismus und Totalitarismus im 20. Jahrhundert. Das Beispiel Estlands’, in: Dingel, Irene and Duchhardt, Heinz (eds.), Die Europäische Integration und die Kirchen II. Denker und Querdenker, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte Mainz; 93), 95-109.

Lea Altnurme (2001), ’Changes in mythic patterns in Estonian religious life stories’, Social Compass 58 (1), 77-94.

Relevant previous projects or activities

2011-2016: Targeted funding project of Estonian Ministry of Education and Research SF0180026s11.„Secularization (de-institutionalization and de-Christianization): Religion in Estonia from the Modern Period to the Present“.The project examined the genesis of the contemporary religious situation in Estonia, characterized by the diminishing institutionalization of religion (de-institutionalization) and the decline of the Christian practices and beliefs (de-Christianization). The methods of social history, cultural anthropology, and textual analysis were combined with social sciences methods (mostly qualitative). Riho Altnurme – grant holder, Lea Altnurme led the research group. 8 researchers, 13 doctoral students involved.

2011-2015: ESF grant no. 9108 „Contextual factors of young people's attitudes and convictions in relation to religion and religious diversity.“ Lea Altnurme – researcher, 13 researchers involved.

2008-2015: „Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory“, all together approximately 80 researchers and 200 doctoral students involved (all together, with 8 projects attached). The project united 8 internationally recognized research groups in Estonia in cultural theory and empirical cultural studies into one interdisciplinary centre. The centre was made up of the following research groups: semiotics, archaeology, ethnology, folkloristics, contemporary cultural studies, landscape studies, cultural communication studies and religious studies. The main tasks of the centre were: (a) doing comparative cultural studies and (re)presenting the unique materials about Estonian history of culture through interdisciplinary models of interpretation; (b) raising the methodological and theoretical levels in cultural research, and the sustainability of cultural research in Estonia; (c) creating a methodology for the research of cultural systems and processes, uniting different fields. Riho Altnurme was a group leader for religious studies group (24 members), Lea Altnurme senior research fellow.

2007-2009: „History of Estonian Ecumenism“, funded by Estonian Council of Churches, 11 researchers and 7 doctoral students involved. Riho Altnurme – grant holder, Lea Altnurme – researcher.

2006-2009: ESF grant no. 6624 “The Relations between the Church and the State in Estonia in the 20th Century”. Riho Altnurme – grant holder, 3 researchers and 5 doctoral students involved.