Donner Institute

The '''Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History''' (or '''The Donner Institute''', {{langx|sv|Donnerska Institutet}}) is a private institute in Finland maintained by the Åbo Akademi University.<ref name=FAA>{{cite web|title=Institut|url=http://stiftelsenabo.fi/institut/|work=Stiftelsens för Åbo Akademi|accessdate=21 January 2014|language=Swedish}}</ref> The Institute was founded in 1959 with an extensive donation by Uno and Olly Donner.<ref name=FAA/> It hosts the largest special library on Comparative Religion in the Nordic countries, supports research in the area of the Institute through grants, and organizes conferences and seminars.<ref name=FAA /><ref name=DI>{{cite web |title=The Donner institute |url=http://www.abo.fi/forskning/donnerska_institutet |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140116213007/http://www.abo.fi/forskning/donnerska_institutet |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 January 2014 |work=Abo Akademi University |accessdate=21 January 2014}}</ref> It publishes the journal ''Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis'',<ref name="SIDA">{{cite web |title=Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis |url=https://journal.fi/scripta |publisher=Donner Institute |access-date=5 October 2024}}</ref> and the journal ''Approaching Religion''.<ref>{{cite web |title=About the Journal |url=https://journal.fi/ar/about |website=Approaching Religion |publisher=Donner Institute |access-date=7 April 2026 |quote=Approaching Religion (AR) is an academic open access journal published by the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Åbo, Finland.}}</ref>

==Award==

In 2010 the Donner Institute established an annual prize for "outstanding research into religion conducted at a Nordic university" to researchers in the field of religious studies for a significant and relatively new published monograph.<ref name=DI/>

The recipients of this award have been:

2010: Ferdinando Sardella of University of Gothenburg, Sweden, for ''Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati: the context and significance of a modern Hindu personalist'' (2010)

2011: Olle Sundström of Umeå University, for ''"The Wild Reindeer is Itself the Same as a God": "Gods" and "Spirits" in Soviet Ethnographers' Descriptions of Samoyedic World Views'' [''{{langx|sv|Vildrenen är själv detsamma som en gud": "gudar" och "andar" i sovjetiska etnografers beskrivningar av samojediska världsåskådningar}}''] (2008)

2012: Niklas Foxeus of Stockholm University, Sweden, for '': The Buddhist World Emperor's Mission: Millenarian Buddhism in Postcolonial Burma'' (2011)

2013: Jessica Moberg of Södertörn University, Sweden, for ''Piety, Intimacy and Mobility. A Case Study of Charismatic Christianity in Present-day Stockholm'' (2013)

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Schools of religion Category:Research institutes in Finland Category:Åbo Akademi University Category:Research institutes established in 1959 Category:1959 establishments in Finland