Developed in parallel with the Practitioners’ Network, with the aim of producing “research that is immediately helpful to what AWoN is doing”, in AWoN Head of Research Ulrich Schmiedel’s words, the Researchers’ Network started with two main missions: the constitution of a pool of scholars affiliated to AWoN, serving as resources to practitioners looking for expertise, and the conducting of specific research projects.

It is the first of those original academic projects that the Lund Mission Society has decided to finance for its second year, a support warmly welcomed by our researchers. Titled “Public Theology in the Post-Migrant Society: The Role of Religion in Multi-Faith Refugee Relief”, the study questions the impact of the multifaith approach of AWoN, exploring the ways in which religion is being defined by the practitioners themselves in order to identify how the multi-faith approach can help in the practice of integrating people on the move.

After one year of research, in close collaboration with practitioners, whom researchers, relying on the original methodology of co-production of knowledge, wish to involve from the design through the delivery to the dissemination of the results, preliminary findings reveal to be very promising.

We cannot wait to learn and tell you more about those in an upcoming article! In the meantime, read an interview with Ulrich Schmiedel, discussing his work as a researcher, his accidental encounter with AWoN and the exciting projects and ambitions of the Researchers’ Network:

“If you had a team of scholars at your disposal, what would you ask them to do?”