PhD Courses in Denmark

This 3-day PhD-course discusses and studies the intersection of gender, religion and law from interdisciplinary perspectives. Women’s rights, and gendered laws are closely connected to religions. Sharia-based laws have always shaped women’s rights in Muslim societies and countries. Likewise, debates on abortion laws in the USA and Poland show that religion has a strong impact on legal processes. To better understand contemporary debates on laws, the course will challenge discourses that focus on the relationship between gender, law and religion as a socio-cultural problem. The course will examine gendered laws as planned by politico-religious power structures to endorse wider socio-economic relations, and orders. The course combines lectures by invited scholars, discussions, and case studies in the classroom, and peer-feedback on writings. The course examines and relates diverse topics such as the intersection of religion, gender and laws, politicized religions and religionized political decisions, law, culture and the female body, and gender and theological debates.

Programme: The course runs for three days. Day One examines the intersection between gender, religion and law in the Middle East using interdisciplinary perspectives. WE use feminist, political and legal perspectives asking how the dualism of political authoritarianism and religious patriarchy, particularly political Islam movements impact the development of women’s legal rights and activism for reform of sexist laws. Day Two examines the role of religious-political interests and common goals in determining women’s rights in western contexts including USA, Poland, and religious minorities in the west. It asks whether the rise of populism has a direct impact on empowering religious fundamentalism. Day Three provides theological approaches towards gender and law in a global context. It also progresses discussions and group work on the interdisciplinary attitudes towards gender, religion, and law, using participants’ papers for practical notes.

Academic Aim:
- To encourage the participants to relate and advance studies on the interplay between gender, religion and law within global contexts.
- To strengthen mutual understandings in interdisciplinary explorations of the (political) uses of the religious to restrict/liberate gendered laws.
- To create and support networking between colleagues and peers with a scholarly interest in the connections between gender, religious and legal studies.

Target group: PhD students from theology, middle eastern studies, law, sociology, and anthropology (or the humanities and social sciences in general) working with issues related to gender and law, religions and political power relations, Sharia laws, debates on polish and American abortion laws, the rise of populism and its impacts on gender rights, and culture and legal change.

Course organiser: Jihan Zakarriya, Associate Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

Course Lecturers and Speakers:
- Jihan Zakarriya, Associate Professor, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
- Jesper Petersen, Professor, Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen
- Ezio Di Nucci, Professor, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen​
- Mark Sedgwick, Professor, School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University.

International Speakers: TBA

Language: ​The course is taught in English

The program details will be distributed two weeks before the course starts. We aim for three days with lectures, classroom discussions, exercises, paper sessions, and case studies, starting 9 AM and ending 5 PM.

Requirements: Participants are required to pre-circulate their written assignments and to have prepared for the course by reading the articles from the reading list (ca. 300 pages). Participants are also expected to actively participate in classroom activities, including peer-feedback, and if possible, case studies.

The assignment is to be submitted to the course organizers two weeks before the course begins. The assignment is a minimum of three pages and maximum 8 pages (in pdf-format) on the intersection of gender, religion, and law as it relates to their individual projects. Specifically, we ask each participant to write about how they would examine the different uses of religion in drafting and propagating gendered laws worldwide in relation to their current research. How are concepts of gender, and law related to your dissertation as an angle of research (what is the theme, the aims, and the methods?) and how will they be analytically treated (how can it be used as an analytical concept, theory, or perspective?). The organizers will distribute the papers to all participants in the course and these papers will be integrated into the program in paper peer-feedback sessions. The deadline for handling in and circulating to everybody is (date TBA). The paper must be submitted by e-mail to phd@hrsc.ku.dk.

Paper peer-feedback sessions: The papers circulated ahead of the course to all participants serve as a basis for feedback and discussion. At the course, the format will be a 10-minutes introduction by PhD-student, followed by discussants (two PhD-students will be assigned to each paper, ten minutes each), total 30 minutes structured discussion. This will be followed by 30 minutes of general discussion for each presentation.

ECTS: 3.1

Max. numbers of participants: 20

Course fee: The PhD School at the Faculty of Humanities participates in Denmark’s national network for PhD courses. Participation in the course is free of charge for PhD students enrolled at participating Universities. Other PhD students will be charged a course fee of DKK 1,200 per ECTS.

Further information: For more information 

Registration: Please register via the link in the box and send an abstract outlining your PhD project (no more than half a page) by e-mail to phd@hrsc.ku.dk no later than 30 June 2025.

Further information: For more information about the PhD course, please contact the PhD Administration (phd@hrsc.ku.dk) or the course organiser

Literature: A list of publications (circa 300 pages) to be read before the course begins, will be distributed on our web page in June 2025