Pernille Friis Jensen

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Current research

Current research
The (working) title of my PhD-project is Women in the Mosques, and focuses on mosques in Denmark seen through the eyes of female participants. The project examines women's mosque experiences and ask questions of faith, religious practise, gender and equality in order to shed light on women's presence and use of mosques in Denmark.

The projekt thus offers a concise examination of the roles women have played and still play in the practice of institutional Islam, as well as construction and maintenance of islamic institutions in Denmark. I hereby wish to shed light upon the enormous impact of female members on the islamic religious landscape in Denmark. It highlights womens mosque history as well as explores women's experice of mosques today, thus contributes to realize a fuller understanding of Islam in Denmark.

The project builds on interviews with women in a varied sample of mosques in Denmark, supplemented by observation in mosques, conversations with mosque leaders, and documents.   

My Ph.D. project is a part of the research project Power of the Mosques: Mosques.ku.dk, funded by Independent Research Fund Denmark, which runs from 2017 to 2020. The project is led by associate professor Brian Arly Jacobsen, joined by associate professor Kirstine Sinclair, post.doc. Niels Valdemar Vinding, and me as Ph.D. fellow supervised by Brian Arly Jacobsen. 
The overall purpose of Power of the Mosques is to investigate the forms, rationales and relations of power associated with the perceptions, authority, relational positions, internal dynamics and (counter-)power of mosques in Denmark. My project contributes to this by exploring reactions (and resistance) to gender-norms, to see how women navigate the power of mosques between subjectivity, authority and wider societal expectations and imperatives. 

For more information about the reserach project, conferences, events, publications, press and more, visit our webside: mosques.ku.dk 

Research interest includes

• Religious organizations
• Religion and Gender
• Islam in Denmark
• Religious Beliefs and Practices

Teaching

• Theories of Sociology of Religion
• Qualitative Methods
• Religion and Gender
• Islam in Denmark
• Minorities, Religion and Society
• Religious Beliefs and Practices
• Religious organizations 

Profile 

I hold a graduate degree in Sociology of Religion from University of Copenhagen, as well as a bachelor's degree in Studies of Religion. Before my current position as a Ph.D.-student, I worked as an officer in the Danish Immigration Service, Ministry of Immigration and Integration.