Scholars as Resources

There are many scholars researching religion and diversity who are not members of the Religion and Diversity Project. We wanted to highlight those scholars and provide some information about their research interest.

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Alidadi, Katayoun

Title or Position: Project Researcher, EU FP7 "Religare" - Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe (2010-2013), PhD Researcher

Affiliation: Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Department: Institute for Migration Law and Legal Anthropology 

Research Area and Research Interests:

Law & Religion, Human Rights, Equality Law, Employment Law, Private International Law, Religious/Islamic Law.

Website

Amarasingam, Amarnath

Title or Position: Postdoctoral Fellow 

Affiliation: University of Waterloo

Department: Sociology

Research Area and Research Interests:

Amarnath Amarasingam is a Fellow at The George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, and Co-Directs a study of Western foreign fighters based at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of Pain, Pride, and Politics: Sri Lankan Tamil Activism in Canada (2015). His research interests are in radicalization, terrorism, diaspora politics, post-war reconstruction, and the sociology of religion. He is the editor of Sri Lanka: The Struggle for Peace in the Aftermath of War (2016), The Stewart/Colbert Effect: Essays on the Real Impacts of Fake News (2011) and Religion and the New Atheism: A Critical Appraisal (2010). He is also the author of several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, has presented papers at over 80 national and international conferences, and has written for Foreign Affairs, Vice News, Al-Jazeera English, War on the Rocks, The Toronto Star, and The Globe and Mail. Follow him on Twitter at: @AmarAmarasingam.

Key Publications: 

• Amarasingam, Amarnath. 2015. Pain, Pride, and Politics: Social Movement Activism and the Sri Lankan Tamil Diaspora in Canada. Series: Geographies of Justice and Social Transformation. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
• Amarasingam, Amarnath. 2015. "The Cultural, the Nominal and the Secular: The Social Reality of Religious Identity among Sri Lankan Tamil Youth in Canada." In Atheist Identities: Spaces and Social Contexts, edited by Lori Beaman, and Steven Tomlins, 69-85. New York: Springer Publishing. 
• Hyndman, Jennifer, and Amarasingam, Amarnath. 2014. "Touring ‘Terrorism’: Landscapes of Memory in Post-War Sri Lanka." Geography Compass 8(8): 560-575. 
• Amarasingam, Amarnath. 2014. "Religion, Politics, and Tamil Militancy in Sri Lanka and the Diaspora." In Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond, edited by Paul Bramadat and Lorne Dawson, 201-228. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Website

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Årsheim, Helge

Title or Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Affiliation: University of Oslo

Department: Faculty of Theology

Research Area and Research Interests:

My main area of research is the interrelationship between law and religion, broadly conceived. I work with this relationship theoretically and empirically in the Norwegian context and in the international domain, with a particular emphasis on the United Nations, emphasizing the transactions between the international and the domestic level. I am presently part of a four-year research project entitled Good Protestant, Bad Religion? Formatting Religion in Modern Society (2014-2018), under which I will be examining how the role of Protestantism as a hegemonic majority religion influences the formation of law and policy on religion in Norway and Canada. I am looking into three themes in particular, (1) the use of Country of Origin Information on the assessment of conversion claims in asylum determination procedures, (2) the rise of political initiatives promoting the freedom of religion or belief, and (3) the legal and political approach to the concept of 'indigenous religion'. I am also part of the Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief, whose work seeks to bring together scholarly and activist perspectives on the right to freedom of religion or belief under The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights article 18.  

Website 1, Website 2

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Benfquih, Yousra

Title or Position: PhD Researcher

Affiliation: Research Foundation Flanders, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium

Department: Research Group Law and Development – Faculty of Law 

Research Area and Research Interests:

Is a Sikh schoolboy allowed to wear his patka in school? Can public schools display a Christian crucifix in their classrooms? What about a Jewish student having an exam on Saturday, sabbath? Should school canteens provide for halal or kosher meals? Lately, these questions have been troubling educational institutions. They challenge long-established assumptions on the neutrality of secular societal environments while unveiling how seemingly neutral standards, woven through the sociocultural cloth of everyday life, often shelter majority views. My research aims at the conceptualization of a human rights and children’s rights informed legal framework for public and private educational institutions to encounter the increasing religious diversity of their students. The research will intensely reflect on a tripartite normative basis of religious educational accommodation consisting of the principles of non-discrimination, freedom of religion and inclusive education. Subsequently, the compatibility of such accommodation with public educational neutrality on the one hand, and the freedom of education and religion of private educational institutions on the other hand, will be studied. The research focuses on Belgium/Flanders, but comparatively looks into law and practice in the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa. The research will primarily be conducted on the basis of a descriptive and normative legal qualitative analysis, with a so-called ‘limited interdisciplinary approach’ embracing political-philosophical and sociological angles where needed to enrich the legal perspective.

Keywords: Law & Religion, Human Rights Law, Children’s Rights Law, Constitutional Law, Equality Law, Freedom of Religion, Inclusive Education, Education Law

Website
   

Birnbaum, Maria

Title or Position: Post-doctoral Researcher

Affiliation: University of Oslo

Department: Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages

Research Area and Research Interests:

International politics of religion and culture, international relations theory, political philosophy, social theory, colonial history, and the history of political thought 

Publications:

• Birnbaum, Maria. "Exclusive Pluralism: The problems of Habermas' postsecular argument and the 'making of' religion." In Modern Government, Sovereignty and the Category of Religion, edited by Stack, Goldenberg, and Fitzgerald. Leiden: Brill, (forthcoming).

Website

Bradstock, Helen

Title or Position: PhD Candidate

Affiliation: University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Department: Theology and Religion

Research Area and Research Interests:

Helen’s research critically examines the historic and contemporary debates about religion in New Zealand’s primary schools, where Religious Education is not a curriculum subject, but where church volunteers have access to 42% of New Zealand’s primary schools for Christian religious instruction. The research – undertaken during 2012 – adopts a case approach and is set in 6 schools in two areas of contrasting religious diversity. Forty four interviews with teachers, parents, principals, CRE teachers and key stakeholders have been undertaken.  Adopting a methodology of Foucaultian discourse analysis and a critical realist epistemology, the research analyses interview data, policy documents, legislation and both scholarly and public debate to identify the discourses within which current policy is constructed. This policy is problematised in the light of the inclusive agenda of New Zealand Curriculum 2007, Human Rights legislation and international guidelines on teaching religion and beliefs.

Helen has first class B.Ed Honours in Religious Studies, from the University of Southampton, and 12 years experience as a primary school teacher in the UK.

Website
 

Bromley, David G.

Title or Position: Professor

Affiliation: School of World Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virgina, United States

Department: Religious Studies Program

Research Area and Research Interests: 

My research interests are contemporary religious movements and theories of religion. My primary project currently is the World Religions and Spirituality Project http://wrldrels.org/. Other projects include a second edition of A Brief History of Cults and Religious Movements (co-authored with Douglas Cowan). Previous major projects include Teaching New Religious Movements (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Cults, Religion, and Violence (with J. Gordon Melton) (Cambridge University Press, 2001).

World Religions and Spirituality Website

Byrne, Catherine

Title or Position: PhD scholar

Affiliation: Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Department: Centre for Research on Social Inclusion

Research Area and Research Interests:

I have examined religions and ethics education in Australian public schools (primary and secondary) and the implications of this on social inclusion and cohesion, particularly regarding child identity development and cultural diversity capability. A key focus area has been Christian privileging in these ostensibly secular systems. I am interested in how variant conceptions of secularism relate to ideological and pedagogical approaches to religions and ethics education. My research has focused on Australia, but includes broad international comparisons. I am interested in developing pedagogical applications for a fluid conception of complex spiritual identification (multiple and changing belonging). I hope to contribute to policy development and teaching practice.

Key Publications: 

• Byrne, Catherine. 2012. "Compulsory free and (not) secular: the failed idea in Australian education." Journal of Religious History, Forthcoming.
• Byrne, Catherine. 2012. "'Mummy, Jeesis is Alive! He is the King of Australia': segregated religious instruction, child identity and exclusion." British Journal of Religious Education, Forthcoming.
• Byrne, Catherine. 2011. "Freirean critical pedagogy’s challenge to interfaith education: What is interfaith? What is education?" British Journal of Religious Education 33(1): 47-60.
• Byrne, Catherine. 2009. "Public School Religion Education and the ‘hot potato’ of religious diversity." Journal of Religious Education 57(3): 26-37.
• Byrne, Catherine. 2011. "Why tolerate racism, discrimination and segregation in our schools?" www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/04/12/3188943.htm? topic1=&topic2=.
• Byrne, Catherine. 2010. "Special Religious Education: the good, the bad and the ugly." www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2010/11/01/3054122.htm? topic1=&topic2=.

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Cotter, Christopher R.

Title or Position: Tutor

Affiliation: Lancaster University/University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Department: Politics, Philosophy and Religion/Divinity

Research Area and Research Interests:

Christopher R. Cotter completed his doctorate in Religious Studies at Lancaster University, UK in 2016. His thesis – Religion-Related Discourse: A Critical Approach to Non-Religion in Edinburgh’s Southside – focused upon the discourses on ‘religion’ in the Southside of Edinburgh, the concepts of ‘non-religion’ and ‘the secular’, and the ensuing critical and theoretical implications for Religious Studies. His previous degrees at the University of Edinburgh focused upon ‘New Atheism’ and alternative typologies of ‘non-religion’. His wider interests include New Religious Movements, qualitative methods, , discourse analysis, spatial approaches, critical theory, and Religious Studies as a discipline. Chris has published journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews in these areas. He is co-editor of Social Identities between the Sacred and the Secular with Abby Day and Giselle Vincett (Ashgate, 2013), and After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies with David G. Robertson (Routledge, 2016). He is also Co-Founder of The Religious Studies Project, Co-Director at the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network, and Honorary Treasurer of the British Association for the Study of Religions.  

Key Publications:

• Quadrio, Philip, Christopher R. Cotter, and Jonathan Tuckett, eds. 2016. New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Cotter, Christopher R. and David G. Robertson. eds. 2016. After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies. London: Routledge.
• Day, Abby, Giselle Vincett and Christopher R. Cotter. eds. 2013. Social Identities between the Sacred and the Secular. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Cotter, Christopher R. and Kim Knott. Invited. “Spatial Approaches to Leaving Religion,” In The Brill Handbook of Leaving Religion, edited by Daniel Enstedt, Göran Larsson, and Teemu T. Mantsinen. Leiden: Brill.
• Cotter, Christopher R. “New Atheism, Open-Mindedness, and Critical Thinking,” In New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates, edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Philip Quadrio and Jonathan Tuckett. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Cotter, Christopher R., Philip Quadrio and Jonathan Tuckett. “Introduction,” In New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates, edited by Christopher R. Cotter, Philip Quadrio and Jonathan Tuckett. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Cotter, Christopher R. “You’re Greek? Well... I’m (Northern) Irish, Kind’a," In Fabricating Identities, edited by Russell T. McCutcheon. Sheffield: Equinox.
• Cotter, Christopher R. 2017. “A Discursive Approach to ‘Religious Indifference’: Critical Reflections from Edinburgh’s Southside,” In Religious Indifferences: Between and Beyond Religion and Nonreligion, edited by Johannes Quack and Cora Schuh. Dordrecht: Springer. 
• Cotter, Christopher R., Grace Davie, James A. Beckford, Saliha Chattoo, Mia Lövheim, Manuel A. Vásquez, and Abby Day. 2016. “Around Abby Day’s Believing in Belonging: Belief & Social identity in the Modern World,” In Religion and Society: Advances in Research, 7:97–115. 
• Cotter, Christopher R. and David G. Robertson. 2016. “Introduction: The ‘World Religions’ Paradigm in Contemporary Religious Studies,” In After ‘World Religions’: Reconstructing Religious Studies, edited by Christopher R. Cotter and David G. Robertson. London: Routledge. 1–26. 
• Cotter, Christopher R. 2015. “Without God yet not Without Nuance: A Qualitative Study of Atheism and Non-religion among Scottish University Students,” In Atheist Identities: Spaces and Social Contexts, edited by Lori G. Beaman and Steven Tomlins. Dordrecht: Springer, 171–193. 
• Lee, Lois, with Stephen Bullivant and Christopher R. Cotter. 2013. “Irreligion: A Contemporary Bibliography,” In Toward a Sociology of Irreligion, Colin Campbell. Alcuin Academics. 
• Day, Abby, Giselle Vincett and Christopher R. Cotter. 2013. “What Lies Between: Exploring the Depths of Social Identities between the Sacred and the Secular,” In Social Identities Between the Sacred and the Secular, edited by Abby Day, Giselle Vincett and Christopher R. Cotter. Farnham: Ashgate: 1-6.
• Cotter, Christopher R. 2011. “Consciousness Raising: The critique, agenda, and inherent precariousness of contemporary Anglophone atheism,” In International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 2(1): 77–103.

Website

Cragun, Ryan T.

Title or Position: Associate Professor of Sociology

Affiliation: University of Tampa, Tampa, Florida, United States

Research Area and Research Interests:

I have two broad areas of interest in the Sociology of Religion: Mormonism and the Nonreligious. Both of these areas of interest are geared toward testing ideas I have about a macro theory of religion: secularization. For instance, I used growth data from the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists to test the hypothesis that countries pass through a “secular transition” in their level of socioeconomic development after which interest in these religions drops precipitously (see my article on this in Sociology of Religion). I have also examined the growth of the nonreligious, primarily in the US but also in North America more broadly. The growth of the nonreligious is arguably a manifestation of secularization, though precisely how the nonreligious are growing is very nuanced. For instance, discrimination against the nonreligious may curtail religious exiting in the US (see my article on this in the Journal of Contemporary Religion).

Key Publications: 

• Cragun, Ryan T., and Ronald Lawson. 2010. “The Secular Transition: The Worldwide Growth of Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Seventh-day Adventists,” Sociology of Religion, 71(3):349–373. 
• Cragun, Ryan T., Barry A. Kosmin, Ariela Keysar, Joseph H. Hammer, and Michael E. Nielsen. 2012. “On the Receiving End: Discrimination Toward the Non-Religious,” Journal of Contemporary Religion, 27(1):105–127.

Website

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Dabby, Dia

Title or Position: Doctor in Civil Law (Candidate)

Affiliation: McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Department: Faculty of Law

Research Area and Research Interests:

Current Research: "Children’s Rights, Religion and the Complexity of Identity" (provisional title)

Research interests: comparative constitutional law, law & religion, sociology of religion, children’s rights, equality rights, legal theory and legal education.
 

Website
 

Dinham, Adam

Title or Position: Professor of Faith and Public Policy and Professor of Religious Literacy, VID Specialised University, Oslo

Affiliation: Goldsmiths, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Department: Faiths & Civil Society Unit

Research Area and Research Interests:

Adam Dinham is Professor of Faith & Public Policy and Director of the Faiths and Civil Society Unit, Goldsmiths, University of London. With degrees in Theology & Religious Studies (BA, MA Cambridge University), Applied Social Studies and Social Work (MA Brunel University), and Politics (PhD, Goldsmiths), his work focuses on religion through the lens of community engagement, social policy, professional practice and publics. Central themes include religious literacy in the public sphere, the role of faith-based organisations in the mixed economy of welfare, and theories and practices of faith based social action. Adam has a professional background in faith-based grant-making, social work and community development. He is director of the Religious Literacy Leadership Programme, Professor of Religious Literacy at VID Specialised University, Oslo, Honorary Professor of Religion, Leadership and Society at the University of Sheffield UK, and Fellow of the Westminster Abbey Institute for Faith and Public Life. 

Key Publications:

• Dinham Adam, and Matthew Francis. 2015. Religious Literacy in Policy and Practice. Bristol: Policy Press. 
• Dinham, Adam. 2012. Faith & Social Capital After the Debt Crisis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dinham, Adam. 2009. Faiths, Public Policy and Civil Society: policies, problems and concepts in faith based public action. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dinham, Adam, Robert, Furbey, and Vivien Lowndes, eds. 2009. Faith in the Public Realm. Bristol: Policy Press.
• Dinham Adam, Richard Farnell, Doreen, Finneron, and Robert Furbey. 2006. Faith as Social Capital: connecting or dividing? Bristol: Policy Press, Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 
• Dinham, Adam. 2016. "Developing Religious Literacy," In Higher Education, In K. Aune and J. Stevenson, Religion and Higher Education in Europe and North America, Coventry: Taylor and Francis. 
• Davie, G. and Adam Dinham. 2016. "Religious Illiteracy in Modern Europe," In F. Caddedu and A. Melloni, European Religious Illiteracy in a Pluralistic Context, Bologne: Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose Giovanni XXIII.
• Dinham, Adam. 2016. "Religious Literacy in Public and Professional Settings," In Routledge Handbook of Religion, Spirituality and Social Work, edited by B. Crisp, Melbourne: Routledge.
• Dinham, Adam. 2014. "Public Religion in an Age of Ambivalence: Recovering Religious Literacy after a Century of Secularism." In Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, edited by Lori G. Beaman, and Leo Van Arragon, 19-33. Leiden: Brill
• Dinham, Adam. 2014. "Grace Davie and Religious Literacy." In Modernities, Memory and Mutations: Grace Davie and the Study of Religion, edited by Abby Day, and Mia Lovheim. Farham: Ashgate. 
• Dinham, Adam. 2014. "Religious Literacy and Welfare." In Religious Literacy in Policy and Practice, edited by Adam Dinham, and Matthew Francis, 101-112. Bristol: Policy Press
• Dinham, Adam. 2013. "Measurement as Reflection in Faith Based Social Action." In Community Research for Community Development, edited by M. Mayo, Z. Mendiwelson-Bendek, and C. Packham, 92-110. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 
• Dinham, Adam, and Robert Rackson. 2012. "Welfare, Education and Religion." In Religion and Change in Modern Britain Routledge, edited by Linda Woodhead, and Rebecca Catto. Milton Park: Routeledge.  
• Dinham, Adam and Baker, Christopher. 2017. "New Interdisciplinary Spaces of Religions and Beliefs," In Contemporary Thought and Practice: an analysis Religions, 8(1),Basel: MDPI.
  
• Dinham. Adam. 2012. "The Multifaith Paradigm in Policy and Practice: problems, challenges, directions." Journal of Social Policy 11(4): 577-587.
• 

Dinham, Adam, and S. Jones. 2011. "Religious Literacy in Higher Education: brokering public faith in a context of ambivalence." Journal of Contemporary Religion.
• Dinham, Adam. 2010. "What is a faith community?" Journal of Community Development. Community Development Journal Advance Access published online on March 14, 2010.
• Dinham, Adam. 2008. "From Faith in the City to Faithful Cities: the 'Third Way', the Church of England and Urban Regeneration." Urban Studies 45(10): 2163-2174.  
• Dinham, Adam, and Vivien Lowndes. 2008. "Religion, Resources and Representation: Three Narratives of Faith Engagement in Urban Governance." Urban Affairs Review 43(6): 817-845. 

Website 1, Website 2 (Religious Literacy), Twitter: @RelLitProg

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Engler, Steven

Title or Position: Professor

Affiliation: Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Department: Humanities

Research Area and Research Interests: 

Evans, Carolyn

Title or Position: Dean

Affiliation: University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

Department: Melbourne Law School

Research Area and Research Interests:

Carolyn Evans researches on the legal protection of religious freedom in international, European and constitutional law. She has a particular interest in the inter-section between religious freedom and other rights, including women’s rights, same sex rights and employee rights. She has particular expertise on the religious freedom case law of the European Court of Human Rights and the legal protection of religious freedom in Australia.

Website

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Fokas, Effie

Title or Position: Research Fellow, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP); Principal Investigator, ERC-funded GRASSROOTSMOBILISE project, ELIAMEP; Research Associate, Hellenic Observatory, London School of Economics

Affiliation : ELIAMEP, LSE (see above)

Research Area and Research Interests:

Religion in the European public sphere; religion in the European Court of Human Rights; Religious freedom in majority Orthodox countries; religion and politics; religion and nationalism

Key Publications:

• Al-Azmeh, Aziz  and Effie Fokas. 2007. Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity and Influence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Berger, Peter, Grace Davie, and Effie Fokas. 2008. Religious America, Secular Europe? A Theme and Variations. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing.
• Fokas, Effie. 2009. “Religion: towards a post-secular Europe?” In Sage Handbook of European Studies, edited by Chris Rumford, 401-419. London: Sage.
• Fokas, Effie. 2009. “Religion in the Greek Public Sphere: Nuancing the Account.” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 27(2): 349-374.
• Fokas, Effie. 2001. “Islam in Europe: the unexceptional case.” Nordic Journal of Religion and Society 24(1): 1-17.
• Fokas, Effie. 2012. “‘Eastern’ Orthodoxy and ‘Western’ Secularisation in Contemporary Europe.” Religion, State and Society 40(3/4): 395-414.
• Fokas, Effie. 2013. “Religion in the Greek public sphere: Debating Europe’s Influence.” In Orthodox Constructions of the West, edited by George Demacopoulos, and Aristotle Papanikolaou, 181-192. Bronx: Fordham University Press.
• Fokas, Effie. 2013. “Immigrant welfare in Greece: portrait of a town.” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 13(4): 575-594.
• Fokas, Effie. 2014. “Religious Nationalism.” In The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism, edited by Xiaoshuo Hou et al.
• Fokas, Effie. 2014. “Notes towards connecting the disconnect: the role of the religion-national identity link.” In Belief, Law and Politics: What Future for a Secular Europe, edited by Marie-Claire Foblets, Katayoun Alidadi, Joergen Nielsen, and Zeynep Yanasmayan, 197-200. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Fokas, Effie, and Evangelos Karagianni. 2015. "Greek identity and Europe: Entanglement and tensions." In Religion and Nationhood in an Enlarged Europe, edited by Wolfgang Knöbl, Matthias Koenig, and Willfried Spohn, forthcoming.
• Fokas, Effie. 2015. “Directions in Religious Pluralism in Europe: Mobilizations in the Shadow of European Court of Human Rights Religious Freedom Jurisprudence.” Oxford Journal of Law and Religion 4(1): 54-74.
• Effie Fokas. 2015. “The Secular Court? Trends in the United States Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights Compared.” In Modernities, Memory, Mutations: Grace Davie and the Study of Religion, edited by Abby Day, and Mia Lovheim. Farhman: Ashgate. 
• Effie Fokas. 2015. “Sociology at the intersection between law and religion.” In Routlege Handbook of Law and Religion, edited by Silvio Ferrari. New York: Routledge.

Website, Website (Grassroots Mobilise)
  

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Grelle, Bruce

Title or Position: Professor and Director of the Religion and Public Education Project

Affiliation: California State University, Chico, California, United States       

Department: Comparative Religion and Humanities

Research Area and Research Interests:

My teaching and research are focused on comparative ethics, religion and public education, and religion and politics. I have co-chaired the “Religion in Public Schools: International Perspectives” group in the American Academy of Religion and served on the AAR Task Force on “Religion in the Schools.” I am a member of the statewide steering committee for the California 3 Rs Project (Rights, Responsibilities, and Respect): A Program for Finding Common Ground on Issues of Religion and Values in Public Schools, and serve on editorial boards or advisory committees for Religion & Education, the British Journal of Religious Education, the Religious Education Journal of Australia, and Religious Studies Review. Publications include Antonio Gramsci and the Question of Religion: Ideology, Ethics, and Hegemony (Routledge, 2016); The Practices of Global Ethics: Historical Developments, Current Issues and Future Prospects (co-author, University of Edinburgh Press, 2016); Explorations in Global Ethics: Comparative Religious Ethics and Interreligious Dialogue (co-editor, Westview Press, 2000); "The First Amendment and the '3 Rs' of Religious Liberty: A U.S. Approach to Religion and Human Rights," in Human Rights and Religion in Educational Contexts, M. L. Pirner, J. Lähnemann, and H. Bielefeldt, co-editors (Springer, 2016); “Neutrality in Public School Religion Education: Theory and Politics,” in Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, L. Beaman and L. Van Aragon, co-editors, (Brill, 2015); “The First Amendment Consensus Approach to Teaching about Religion in U.S. Public Schools: Applications and Assessment,” in Civility and Education in a World of Religious Pluralism, V. F. Biondo, III, and A. Fiala, co-editors, (Routledge, 2014).

Website

Guest, Mathew

Title or Position: Reader in the Sociology of Religion

Affiliation: Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom

Department: Theology and Religion

Research Area and Research Interests:

Mathew Guest teaches at Durham University in the UK, and focuses on the sociology of religion, particularly the diverse range of Christianities within western cultures, religion in contemporary Britain and religious innovations in the modern age. His previous  research projects have explored the sociology of evangelicalism in late modern western cultures; evangelical influence across the Atlantic; and the sociology of institutions that shape inter-generational transmission of religious values. His current research focuses on the changing status of universities as sites of social and educational change, and on how they function as sites for the negotiation of religious identities, particularly among Christians and Muslims. He is co-investigator on the major research project ‘Re/presenting Islam on Campus’, which is exploring the ways in which Islam and Muslims are represented, perceived and objectified within the contexts of British universities. He has co-edited Congregational Studies in the UK: Christianity in a Post-Christian Context, Religion and Knowledge: Sociological Perspectives and Death, Life and Laughter: Essays on Religion in Honour of Douglas Davies; he is the author of Bishops, Wives and Children: Spiritual Capital Across the Generations (with D. J. Davies), Evangelical Identity and Contemporary Culture: A Congregational Study in Innovation, and Christianity and the University Experience: Understanding Student Faith (with Kristin Aune, Sonya Sharma and Rob Warner).

Website 1, Website 2
  

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Halafoff, Anna

Title or Position: Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Research Associate, UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations - Asia Pacific

Affiliation: Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

Department: Arts and Education

Research Area and Research Interests:

Anna Halafoff is a sociologist of religion and a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Deakin University. Anna’s research interests include religious diversity, education about religions and worldviews, countering violent extremism, Buddhism and gender and Buddhism in Australia. She is a Research Associate of the Canadian Religion and Diversity Project and of the UNESCO Chair of Interreligious and Intercultural Relations – Asia Pacific. Anna was also named a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations' Global Expert in multifaith relations, and religion and peacebuilding in 2011. Her first sole-authored book, The Multifaith Movement: Global Risks and Cosmopolitan Solutions, was published by Springer in 2013. She is also currently co-editing a Book Series with Lori G. Beaman and Lene Kühle on Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies for Springer.

Key Publications: 

• Hedges, Paul, and Anna Halafoff. 2015. "Multifaith Societies: Editorial Introduction." Special Issue: Multifaith Societies (Volume 1). Studies in Interreligious Dialogue 25(1): 37-42.
• Ezzy, Douglas, and Anna Halafoff. 2015. "Spirituality, Religion and Youth: An Introduction." In Handbook of Children and Youth Studies, edited by Johanna Wyn, and Helen Cahill, 845-860. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Halafoff, Anna. 2015. "Multifaith Responses to Global Risks." In The Changing World Religion Map, edited by Stanley Brunn, 2965-2982. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Halafoff, Anna. 2015. "Special Religious Instruction and Worldviews Education in Victoria’s Schools: Social Inclusion, Citizenship and Countering Extremism." Special Issue: Education about Religions and Worldviews: Promoting Intercultural and Interreligious Understanding in Secular Societies, Journal of Intercultural Studies 36(3): 362-379.
• Halafoff, Anna, Elisabeth Arweck, and Donald Boisvert. 2015. "Introduction." Special Issue: Education about Religions and Worldviews: Promoting Intercultural and Interreligious Understanding in Secular Societies, Journal of Intercultural Studies 36(3): 249-254.
  Halafoff, Anna,  and Kim Lam. 2015. "Lagging Behind Other Nations: The Religion and Schools Debate in Australia." In Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, edited by Lori G. Beaman, and Leo Van Arragon, 321-345. Leiden: Brill.
• Halafoff, Anna, and Praveena Rajkobal. 2015. "Sakyadhita International: Gender Equity in Ultramodern Buddhism." Special Issue, Women, Religion and the State, Feminist Theology 23(2): 111–127.     

Website

Hoesly, Dusty

Title or Position: PhD Candidate

Affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara

Department: Religious Studies

Research Area and Research Interests:

Dusty Hoesly is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in Religions in North America and the social scientific study of religion. His research focuses on the sociology and anthropology of religion and secularism, new religious movements, American religious history, contemporary spirituality and secularity, religion in the American West, religion and globalization, and religion and law. 

His dissertation, the first-ever study of the Universal Life Church (ULC), argues that through the strategic adoption of a religious affiliation, the ULC and its many avowedly nonreligious members are transforming America’s wedding culture as well as challenging the ways in which clerks, courts, and scholars determine what counts as religious. He also conducts interviews with scholars for The Religious Studies Project website.

Key Publications:

• Hoesly, Dusty. 2015. "'Need a Minister, How about Your Brother?': The Universal Life Church between Religion and Nonreligion." Secularism & Nonreligion 4(12): 1-13.

Website

Hurd, Elizabeth Shakman

Title or Position: Professor

Affiliation: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, United States

Department: Political Science, Religious Studies

Research Area and Research Interests:

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is the author of The Politics of Secularism in International Relations (Princeton, 2008) and Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (Princeton, 2015). She is co-editor of Politics of Religious Freedom (Chicago, 2015), a Symposium on "Re-Thinking Religious Freedom" in the Journal of Law and Religion (2014), and Comparative Secularisms in a Global Age (Palgrave, 2013). Her interests range broadly from US foreign relations and the politics of the Middle East, to the history and limits of the category of religion, to the legal governance of religious diversity within and between modern states. Hurd’s paper, "The 'Religious Offensive:' The Politics of Religious Engagement" (Chapter 4 of her new book) was co-awarded the 2014 Weber award for the best paper in religion and politics presented at the 2013 APSA meeting.

Hurd co-directs, with Winnifred F. Sullivan, the "Politics of Religion at Home and Abroad,” a three-year research project (2016-2019) funded by the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion in International Affairs. Between 2011 and 2014 she co-organized the "Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms and Local Practice" project, also funded by Luce. She consults on academic, media, and foundation projects involving religion and international affairs, and serves as content consultant for a public radio series, “God and Government.” Her opinion pieces have appeared in Boston Review, Public Culture, The Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, The Globe and Mail, Foreign Policy, Religion Dispatches and Al Jazeera America.

At Northwestern, Hurd directs the Buffett Faculty Research Group on Global Politics and Religion and oversees an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program in Religion and Global Politics. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on topics related to her research interests including America and the world, religion, race and global politics, the Middle East in international relations, and the politics of religious diversity.

Website

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Keenan, Michael

Title or Position: Lecturer in Sociology

Affiliation: Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Department: Sociology

Research Area and Research Interests:

Michael Keenan is a lecturer in Sociology at Nottingham Trent University. His research interests are broadly focussed on issues of religious and sexual identity.  Michael’s research has included a project exploring the religious and sexuall identities of gay men in the Anglican clergy.

Most recently Michael has completed an Society for Research into Higher Education funded research project exploring the university experiences of LGBTQ students at English Universities.

He was co-investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council /Economic and Social Research Council funded ‘Religion, Youth and Sexuality: A Multi-faith Exploration’.

Key Publications:

• Keenan, Michael, Andrew Yip, and Sarah-Jane Page in press. "Exploring sexuality and religion using an online questionnaire." In How to Research Religion: Putting Methods Into Practice, edited by Linda Woodhead. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Keenan, Michael. 2013. Final Report: Coming out and fitting in: A qualitative exploration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer students' university experiences. http://www.srhe.ac.uk/downloads/KeenanReport2012.pdf
• Keenan, Michael. 2012. "The Politics of Telling: Beyond Similarity and Difference in the Interview Relationship." In Ethics in Social Research, edited by K. Love. Bingley: Emerald.
• Keenan, Michael. 2012. "Separating Church and God:  An exploration of gay clergymen’s negotiations with institutional Church." In The Ashgate Research Companion on Sexuality and Religion, edited by Stephen J. Hunt, and Andrew K.T. Yip, 173-188. Aldershot: Ashgate.
• Yip, Andrew K.T., Michael Keenan, and Sarah-Jane Page. 2011. Religion, Youth and Sexuality: Selected Key Findings from a Multi-faith Exploration. Nottingham: University of Nottingham.

Kislowicz, Howard

Title or Position: Assistant professor

Affiliation: University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Department: Law

Research Area and Research Interests:

My research focuses on the intersection of law and religion; I am particularly interested in the lived experiences of Canadians who have had experiences with the state legal system.

• “Faithful Translations? Cross-Cultural Communication in Canadian Religious Freedom Litigation”
• “Legal Articles of Faith: What Canadian Law Believes in the Absence or Contrary to Proof”
• “Judging Religion and Judges’ Religions: An exploration of the role of religion in judicial decision-making”
• “Civic Belonging in Canadian Religious Freedom Litigation”

Keywords:

Religious Freedom; Multiculturalism; Legal Pluralism; Narratives of litigation; Qualitative inquiry; Canadian Constitutional Law; Administrative Law

Website

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Laxer, Emily

Title or Position: SSHRC post-doctoral fellow

Affiliation: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Department: Sociology

Research Area and Research Interests:

My research bridges the sociological study of politics, nationalism, immigration and gender to examine how contests for political power shape policies that affect immigrants’ religious inclusion and exclusion in diverse societies.  I am particularly interested in the ways that religious coverings – most notably the Islamic headscarf, niqab and burqa – have become sites for debate among politicians and activists about which conceptions of gender (in)equality and the public sphere best coincide with the national project.  I have published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Nations and Nationalism, and Recherches Sociographiques.  I have also contributed to the Globe and Mail.

Key publications:

• Laxer, Emily and Anna C. Korteweg. Forthcoming 2016. “Culture politique et politique de la culture: Luttes démocratiques dans le débat sur la charte des valeurs québécoises,” Recherches Sociographiques, LVII(2-3): 427-453.
• Laxer, Emily, Rachael D. Carson and Anna C. Korteweg. 2014. “Articulating Minority Nationhood: Cultural and Political Dimensions in Québec’s Reasonable Accommodation Debate,” Nations and Nationalism, 20(1): 133-153.
• Laxer, Emily. 2013. “Integration Discourses and Generational Trajectories of Civic Participation in Multi-Nation States: A Comparison of the Canadian Provinces of Québec and Ontario,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(10): 1577-1599.

Website 

LeDrew, Stephen

Title or Position: Visiting Assistant Professor

Affiliation: Memorial University of Newfoundland

Department: Sociology

Research Area and Research Interests:

Stephen LeDrew completed a Ph.D. in Sociology at York University. His dissertation and subsequent book The Evolution of Atheism explored the ideological characteristics of the New Atheism and its social movement manifestations. His current research interests include the politics of the secular movement, and the religious qualities of some forms of atheism and scientism, particularly with regard to the idea of evolution.

Key Publications:

• LeDrew, Stephen. 2015. The Evolution of Atheism: The Politics of a Modern Movement. New York: Oxford University Press.
  
• LeDrew, Stephen. 2013. “Discovering Atheism: Heterogeneity in Trajectories to Atheist Identity and Activism.” Sociology of Religion 74(4): 431-453.
• LeDrew, Stephen. 2013. “Reply: Toward a Critical Sociology of Atheism: Identity, Politics, Ideology.” Sociology of Religion 74(4): 464-470.  
• LeDrew, Stephen. 2012. “The Evolution of Atheism: Scientific and Humanistic Approaches.” History of the Human Sciences 25(3): 70-87.

Litalien, Manuel

Title or Position: Assistant Professor

Affiliation: Nipissing University, North Bay, Ontario, Canada

Department: Department of Social Welfare and Social Development

Research Area and Research Interests:

Manuel Litalien is currently an associate professor at Nipissing University at the Department of Social Welfare and Social Development. His research focuses on transnational theologico-political movements, welfare regimes, philanthropy, diaspora, violence and religion in Southeast Asia. His interests include the democratization process, social policy issues, identity politics, ethnicity and governance, as well as religion and the state in Southeast Asia. He has co-written various articles such as, “Blurred Boundaries, Buddhist Communities in the Greater Montréal Region,” in Buddhism in Canada (Routledge, 2006). He also has co-written the article, “The Tzu Chi Merit Society from Taiwan to Canada,” in Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010). His latest contribution is a book published by the Presses de l’Université Laval (PUL), La philanthropie religieuse en tant que nouveau capital démocratique: développement social et régime providentiel en Thaïlande (2016). He also published book chapters with UBC Press such as “Establishing a Buddhist Economy in Thailand: Competing Perspectives on Moral Economy in State and Society” (2016) or “Changing State Monopoly on Religion and Secular Views in Thailand” (2013). Forthcoming is the article “Social Inequalities and the Promotion of Women in Buddhism in Thailand” in the Journal of Buddhist Ethics (2017).

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Maddox, Marion

Title or Position: Professor of Politics and ARC Future Fellow

Affiliation: Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Research Area and Research Interests:

Marion Maddox specialises in religion and politics. She has written about religion in parliaments, politicans’ religious beliefs and protecting Indigenous peoples’ religious heritage.

She is currently a Future Fellow funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC). Her major project (2011-2016) is entitled ‘Religion, State and Social Inclusion: Lessons from Schools in three countries’. It investigates how governments support or suppress religion in schools as a case-study of how particular religion-state arrangements enhance or diminish social inclusion.

In 2016, she was awarded an ARC grant entitled “Charles Strong's Australian Church (1885-1917) and Australian Secularism”.

She led a five-researcher ARC-funded project entitled ‘Religion and Political Thought (RAPT)’ (2012-2015), the Australian arm of an international project of the same name.

Key Publications:

• Maddox, Marion. 2014. Taking God to School: The End of Australia’s Egalitarian Education? Sydney: Allen & Unwin. 
• Maddox, Marion, Amanda Wise, Kais Al Momani, and Nour Dados. 2010. "Political Participation of Australian Muslims." Canberra: Department of Immigration and Citizenship. 
• Maddox, Marion. 2005. God Under Howard: The Rise of the Religious Right in Australian Politics. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. 
• Maddox, Marion. 2001. For God and Country: Religious Dynamics in Australian Federal Politics. Canberra: Parliament of Australia. 
• Maddox, Marion, Norman Habel, and Michael O’Donoghue. 1994. Myth, Ritual and the Sacred. Adelaide: Texts in Humanities. 

Website 1, Website 2

Mawhinney, Alison

Title or Position: Reader in Law

Affiliation: Bangor University, Gwynedd, United Kingdom

Department: School of Law

Research Area and Research Interests:

Alison Mawhinney’s main research interests are in the areas of freedom of religion and belief in schools, religious discrimination in employment and the human rights obligations of non-state service providers. She is currently co-ordinator (with Peter Cumper) of a UK Research Council funded interdisciplinary network entitled "Collective Worship in Schools: A Evaluation of Law and Policy in the United Kingdom" (http://collectiveschoolworship.com/).

Key Publications:

• Mawhinney, Alison. 2016. "Claims of Religious Morality: The Limits of Religious Freedom in International Human Rights Law," The Law & Ethics of Human Rights, 10(2): 341–365.
• Mawhinney, Alison. 2016. "Coercion, oaths and conscience: conceptual confusion in the right to freedom of religion or belief," In The Confluence of Law and Religion Interdisciplinary: Reflections on the Work of Norman Doe, edited by Cranmer F, Hill M, Kenny C and Sandberg R: 205-217. Cambridge University Press.
• Mawhinney, Alison. 2015. "Religion in Schools: A Human Rights Contribution to the Debate". In Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, edited by Lori G. Beaman, and Leo Van Arragon, 282-303. Leiden: Brill. 
• Mawhinney Alison. 2015. "International human rights law: its potential and limitations in effecting change to the place of religion in the Irish education system." Journal of Intercultural Studies 291-305. 
• Niens Ulrike, Mawhinney Alison, Richardson Norman, and Yuko Chiba. 2013. "Acculturation and religion in schools: the views of young people from minority belief backgrounds." British Educational Research Journal 39(5): 907-924. DOI: 10.1002/berj.3016
• Mawhinney, Alison. 2012. "A discriminating education system: religious admission policies in Irish schools and international human rights law" International Journal of Children’s Rights 20(4): 603-623.
• Mawhinney, Alison. 2012. "Crucifixes, classrooms and children: a semiotic cocktail." In The Lautsi Papers: Multidisciplinary Reflections on Religious Symbols in the Public School Classroom, edited by Jeroen Temperman,  93-112. Leiden: Brill/Martinus Nijhoff.
• Mawhinney Alison, Niens, Ulrike, Richardson Norman, and Yuko Chiba. 2012. "Religious education and Religious Liberty: Opt-outs and Young People’s Sense of Belonging." In Law, Religious Freedoms and Education in Europe, edited by Myriam Hunter-Henin, 229-250. London: Ashgate.
• Mawhinney, Alison, and Iorwerth Griffiths. 2011. "Ensuring others behave responsibly: Giddens, governance and international human rights law" Social and Legal Studies 20(4): 481-498. 

Website

Mayrl, Damon

Title or Position: Assistant Professor

Affiliation: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Department: Comparative Sociology Group, Department of Social Sciences

Research Area and Research Interests:

Damon Mayrl works in the areas of comparative-historical sociology, the sociology of religion, and political sociology. His research investigates how institutional forces transform religious beliefs, the political behavior of religious groups, and religion´s position in society over time; as well as how politics and public policy have been influenced by religious actors and their ideas. He has a particular interest in understanding how democratic societies grapple practically with the challenges posed by religious pluralism, and why they arrive at different solutions. His first book, Secular Conversions: Political Institutions and Religious Education in the United States and Australia (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press), examines how political conflict and institutional structures have shaped patterns of secularization in the United States and Australia since 1800. His writings on secularization, religion and higher education, and sociological theory have also appeared in Social Forces, Social Science Research, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, European Journal of Sociology, and Sociological Inquiry and he is co-author (with Craig Calhoun, Melissa Aronczyk, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen) of an online booklet, The Religious Engagements of American Undergraduates (Social Science Research Council, 2007).

Keywords: Comparative Secularization, Religion and Politics, Religion and Education, Religion and Public Policy

Website

Mjaaland, Marius Timman

Title or Position: Professor

Affiliation: University of Oslo, Norway

Department: Faculty of Theology

Research Area and Research Interests:

The notion of the sacred as constructed within the political or legal realm is a persistent focus of my research, under the headline Topologies of the Sacred. In the projects Memory and Good Protestant, Bad Religion? I am investigating the topography of Nordic Protestantism and the formatting of religion by Kant, Kierkegaard, and Weber.

As academic director of the inter-disciplinary PluRel project at the Unviersity of Oslo, I am concerned with how we conceive of religion/s and society from a philosophical point of view: What is considered a ‘religion’ and how may we analyze the public role of religions in provoking conflict and/or enabling processes of peace and reconciliation?

Key Publications:

• Mjaaland, Marius T. 2016. The Hidden God: Luther, Philosophy, and Political Theology. Bloogmington: Indiana University Press.
• Mjaaland, Marius T. 2016. "Sacrifice and Suicide in the Post-Secular Society." BThZ 1/2016. 
• Mjaaland, Marius T. 2014. "Apocalypse and the Spirit of Revolution: The Political Legacy of the Early Reformation." Political Theology 14: 155-173. 

Website (Faculty)
Website (PluRel)

Morris, Paul

Title or Position: Professor of Religious Studies, UNESCO Chair in Interreligious Understanding and Relations in New Zealand and the Pacific

Affiliation: Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

Department: Religious Studies

Research Area and Research Interests:

Religious diversity in New Zealand and the Pacific; modern Jewish religious thought; religion, law and politics in the Pacific; interreligious dialogue and relations; religion and human rights 

Key Publications:

• Morris, Paul. 2014. The Study and Teaching of Islam in Western Universities. Oxford, New York: Routledge. 
• Morris, Paul. 2007, 2009. "Statement on Religious Diversity in New Zealand." UNESCO. 
• Morris, Paul. 2011. "Religious Diversity in the New Zealand Workplace". NZ Human Rights Commission. 
• Morris, Paul. 2009. "Religion in New Zealand Schools." NZ Human Rights Commission.
• plus articles on religion in the Pacific; modern Jewish theology; multiculturalism and religion; and Jews in New Zealand.

Website

Moustafa, Tamir

Title or Position: Professor

Affiliation: Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada

Department: School for International Studies

Research Area and Research Interests:

Tamir Moustafa is a Professor of International Studies and Stephen Jarislowsky Chair at Simon Fraser University. His research stands at the intersection of law, religion, and politics in Egypt and Malaysia.

Website
  

Mukherjee, Asha

Title or Position: Professor of Philosophy

Affiliation: Visva-Bharati Central University, Bolpur, West Bengal, India

Department: Department of Philosophy and Religion

Research Area and Research Interests:

Academic Study of Religion in Asian Countries has been my area of interest for almost a decade and I have been contributing papers in various International Conferences including IAHR meetings at Tokyo and Toronto. The study of religion is extremely important in the context of recent times especially after 9/11 but in Asian countries we hardly have academic study of religion. This is not to say that there is no study of religion but often it is either part of other disciplines or it is theological study- from one particular faith. One wonders why this is so? Why such an important area of human understanding is neglected or not taken as a serious subject of study? There could be various historical or political reasons but the need is gradually felt and in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Japan, Philippines and some other countries the Academic Study of Religion is coming up. More and more universities are starting the study. The founder of my own university, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore felt the need from the beginning and Visva-Bharati is the first institution of the country where B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in Comparative Religion was started before independence. My research articles deal with Tagore’s concept of Religion, Academic Study of Religion in India and its history and other related issues drawing from my experience of teaching Religion for more than three decades.

Website
  

Mumford, Lorna

Title or Position: PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology

Affiliation: University College London, London, United Kingdom

Department: Anthropology

Research Area and Research Interests:

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Page, Sarah-Jane

Title or Position: Lecturer

Affiliation: Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Department: School of Languages and Social Sciences

Research Area and Research Interests:

Sarah-Jane Page’s research interests encompass religious identities, gender, discrimination, feminism, sexuality, youth, clergy families, and parenthood. She has studied clergy mothers in the Church of England as well as male clergy spouses and how they negotiate a role that has historically been occupied by women. She was the Research Fellow on a project entitled Religion, Youth and Sexuality: A Multi-faith Exploration (https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/icemic/research/rys/index.aspx). This research focused on young religious people who identified with one of six different religions and explored how religion and sexuality was managed.

She has published a number of articles connected with these projects. Some recently-published items are listed below:

Key Publications:

• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2016. “Altruism and Sacrifice: Anglican Priests Managing ‘Intensive’ Priesthood and Motherhood.”, Religion and Gender 6(1): 47-63.
• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2016. “Navigating Equality: Religious Young Women’s Perceptions of Gender and Sexuality Equality.” In Contemporary Encounters in Gender and Religion, edited by  Lena Gemzöe,  Marja-Liisa Keinänen and Avril Maddrell, 131-150, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2016. “Double Scrutiny at the Vicarage: Clergy Mothers, Expectations and the Public Gaze” In Angels on Earth: Mothering, Religion and Spirituality, edited by Vanessa Reimer, 17-38, Bradford: Demeter Press.
• Page, Sarah-Jane and Heather Shipley. 2016. “Sexuality” in Handbook of Religion and Society, edited by David Yamane, 395-419, New York: Springer.
• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2016. “Counter-normative Identities: Religious Young Adults Subverting Sexual Norms” In Sexuality, Citizenship and Belonging: Trans-national and Intersectional Perspectives, edited by Francesca Stella, Yvette Taylor, Tracey Reynolds and Antoine Rogers, 199-217, London: Routledge.
• Yip, Andrew K. T., Sarah-Jane Page. 2014. "Religious Faith and Heterosexuality: A Multi-faith Exploration of Young Adults." Research in Social Scientific Study of Religion 25: 78-108.
• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2014. "The Scrutinised Priest: Women in the Church of England Negotiating Professional and Sacred Clothing Regimes."Gender, Work and Organization 21(4): 295-307
• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2014. "Sexuality and Christianity: Understanding the Attitudes and Negotiations of Young Adults in the UK." In Christianity in the Modern World: Changes and Controversies, edited by Giselle Vincett, and Elijah Obinna, 95-118. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2013. "Feminist Faith Lives? Exploring Perceptions of Feminism among Two Anglican Cohorts." In The Faith Lives of Women and Girls: Qualitative Research Perspectives, edited by Nicola Slee, Fran Porter, and Anne Phillips, 51-63. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Yip, Andrew K. T., and Sarah-Jane Page. 2013. Religious and Sexual Identities: A Multi-faith Exploration of Young Adults. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Page, Sarah-Jane, and Andrew K. T. Yip. 2012. "Recounting the Past: Narrating Sexual and Religious Cultures in School." Journal of Beliefs and Values 33(3): 405-415.
• Page, Sarah-Jane. 2012. "Femmes, Mères et Prêtres dans l’Église d’Angleterre: Quels Sacerdoces." Travail, Genre et Sociétés 27: 55-71. 
• Page, Sarah-Jane, Andrew K. T. Yip, and Michael Keenan. 2012. "Risk and the Imagined Future: Young Adults Negotiating Religious and Sexual Identities." In The Ashgate Research Companion to Contemporary Religion and Sexuality, edited by Stephen Hunt, and Andrew K. T. Yip, 255-274. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Page, Sarah-Jane, and Andrew K. T. Yip. 2012. "Hindu, Muslim and Sikh Young Adults: Gendered Practices in the Negotiation of Sexuality and Relationship." In Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life, edited by Peter Nynäs, and Andrew K. T. Yip, 51-70. Farnham: Ashgate.

Website

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Raimondo, Francesca

Title or Position: PhD Candidate in Comparative Public Law

Affiliation: Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna

Department: School of Law

Research Area and Research Interests:

Francesca holds a Masters’ degree in Law from the University of Bologna. Her thesis, in the area of comparative public law, examined legal issues surrounding the Islamic headscarf in the UK, Canada and Italy.

From January to June 2015 she was a visiting researcher at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto under the supervision of Benjamin L. Berger. Throughout her research, she continued to study issues surrounding the Islamic headscarf, narrowing the scope of her research on the Canadian context. Her research examined the development of the concept of identity and how religious and cultural diversity impacts on perceptions of national identity and the role of citizenship in these dynamics. She examined the case of Ishaq v. Canada, an important Canadian federal court case which had a number of implications for Canadian law. Her findings are summarized in her article "Religion and Canadian Identity": la sfida del niqab al giuramento di cittadinanza (Ragion Pratica 45: 385-402).

Francesca is currently a PhD candidate in Comparative Public Law at University of Bologna’s School of Law. Francesca’s thesis is entitled: Dall’identità alla cittadinanza: le contemporanee sfide della diversità. Una prospettiva comparata. (From identity to citizenship: contemporary challenges in diverse societies. A comparative perspective). Her supervisor is Susanna Mancini. She aims to study the concept of identity as it continues to shift in increasingly diverse and multicultural societies, with the construction of identity in the constitution as her starting point looking how religious and cultural diversity impacts on it. Furthermore, she aims to determine what the consequences of these dynamics will be on conceptions of citizenship moving forward.

Keywords: Comparative Public Law, Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, Law and Society, Freedom of religion, Religious symbols, Women’s Rights, Identity, Citizenship.
  

Reimer-Kirkham, Sheryl

Title or Position: Professor, School of Nursing

Affiliation: Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Department: School of Nursing

Research Area and Research Interests:

Sheryl Reimer-Kirkham’s research is in the area of plurality and equity in healthcare, focusing on the intersections of religion, spirituality, culture, class, and gender. Her research is demonstrating how religion and spirituality are negotiated for social inclusion or exclusion in healthcare settings, and how religion and spirituality may form social pathways to health and illness.  She is a founding member of TWU’s Religion in Canada Institute and Institute of Gender Studies, and the Critical Research in Health and Health Inequities Unit at University of British Columbia.  She was recently inducted as a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.  A current project examines the expression of prayer in residential care facilities.

Key Publications:

• Reimer-Kirkham, Sheryl, and Marie Cochrane. forthcoming. "Resistant, reluctant or responsible? The negotiation of religious and cultural plurality in Canadian healthcare." In Religion, equality, and inequalities, edited by Sonta Sharma and Dawn Llewellyn. Surrey:  Ashgate.
• Reimer-Kirkham. Sheryl. 2014. "Nursing research on religion and spirituality through a social justice lens." Advances in Nursing Science37(3): 249–257. 
• Sharma, Sonya, Sheryl Reimer-Kirkham, and Marie Cochrane. 2013. "Prayer as transgression:  Stories from healthcare." In Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, edited by Giuseppe Giordan, and LindaWoodhead, 189-204.  Oxford: Brill.
• Fowler, Marsha, Sheryl Reimer Kirkham, Rick Sawatzky, and Elizabeth Johnston Taylor. 2011. Religion, Religious Ethics, and Nursing. New Yorl: Springer. 
• Reimer-Kirkham, Sheryl, and Sonya Sharma. 2011. "Adding religion to gender, race, and class: Seeking new insights on intersectionality in health care contexts." In Intersectionality-type Health Research in Canada, edited by Olena Havinsky, 112-127. Vancouver: UBC Press.
• Reimer-Kirkham, Sheryl, Sonya Sharma, Barb Pesut, Richard Sawatzky, Heather Meyerhoff, and Marie Cochrane. 2011. "Sacred spaces in public places: Religious and Spiritual Plurality in Healthcare." Nursing Inquiry. Published online. DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1800.2011.00571.

Rennick, Joanne Benham 

Title or Position: Associate Professor

Affiliation: Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Department: Global Studies (Social Entrepreneurship)

Research Area and Research Interests:

My research examines organizational culture and the ways that institutionalized values and norms affect the collective behaviours and assumptions of members. Research themes include: globalisation, internationalisation, diversity, leadership and values, social innovation, development and entrepreneurship, pedagogy and higher education.

Website

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Roose, Joshua

Title or Position: Research Fellow

Affiliation: Australian Catholic University

Department: Institute for Religion, Politics and Society

Research Area and Research Interests:

Joshua Roose is a political sociologist whose main interests include Islam in western contexts, political Islam, sharia and legal pluralism, multiculturalism, citizenship and the new populism. He has written numerous peer-reviewed articles about these subjects in key journals and is founding co-editor, with Bryan S. Turner, of the New Directions in Islam series (Palgrave Macmillan).

Roose is a visiting research scholar at the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School and is the Legal Theory Section Associate Editor for the Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, due for release in 2017. He currently sits on the Attorney-General’s Department’s National Panel of Experts for Countering Violent Extremism and was the Secretary of The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) for 2015-16. 

Key Publications:

• Roose, J.M. (2016) Political Islam and Masculinity: Australian Muslim Men, New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Harris, A. Roose, J.M. (2017) ‘Young Muslims and Everyday Political Practice: A DIY Citizenship Approach’ in P. Kelly (Ed.) The Politics of Hope and Outrage’ Brill.
• Roose, J.M. Turner, B.S. (2015) Islam and Globalization: Islamophobia, Security and Terrorism in B. Turner and R. Holton. (eds.) The Routledge International Handbook of Globalization Studies. pp.253-268.
• Voyce, M. Worthington, L. Possamai, A. Roose, J.M. Turner, B.S. (2016)  ‘Islamic Inheritance and Sharia Wills: The Recognition of Muslim Inheritance Traditions in Australia’ in Malcolm Voyce and Erich Kolig (Eds.) Muslim Integration, Pluralism and Multiculturalism in the West’. Virginia: Lexington Books.
• Possamai, A.; Turner, B.; Roose, J.M.; Dagistanli, S., Voyce, M. (2016) ‘Shari’a in Cyberspace: A case study from Australia’. Sociologica, Italian Journal of Sociology Vol. 1. No. 1.
• Roose, J.M., Harris, A. (2015) ‘Multicultural Citizenship in Everyday Australian Civic Spaces’, Journal of Intercultural Studies, Vol. 36, No. 4. 
• Roose, J.M. Turner, B.S. (2016) Islam and Globalization: Islamophobia, Security and Terrorism in B. Turner and R. Holton. (eds.) The Routledge International Handbook of Globalization Studies. pp.253-268.
• Roose, J.M. Possamai, A. (2015) ‘Between Rhetoric and Reality: Shari’a and the Shift towards Neo-Liberal Multiculturalism in Australia’ in Mansouri, F. (ed.) Cultural, Religious and Political Contestations: The Multicultural Challenge, Springer. pp.91-105.
• Peucker, M. Roose, J.M. Akbarzadeh, S. (2014) 'Muslim active citizenship in Australia: Socioeconomic challenges and the emergence of a Muslim elite', Australian Journal of Political Science, Vol.49, No.2. pp.282-299.
• Harris, A. Roose, J.M., (2014) ‘DIY Citizenship amongst Young Muslims: Experiences of the Ordinary.’ Journal of Youth Studies, Vol.16, No.6. pp.794-813.

Website

Ruml, Mark F.

Title or Position: Associate Professor

Affiliation: University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Department: Religion and Culture

Research Area and Research Interests:

Aboriginal Religious Traditions (especially Anishinaabe, Dakota and Omushkego); Aboriginal-Christian Encounter (Residential Schools); Traditional Medicine and Healing; Methodological and Ethical Procedures for Aboriginal Research.

Website

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Schonthal, Benjamin

Title or Position: Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor)

Affiliation: University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Department: Religion Programme

Research Area and Research Interests:

My work explores the intersections of religion, politics and law in South and Southeast Asia.  While my research looks especially at Sri Lanka and Buddhism, my questions are comparative in nature.  I try to think broadly about the legal and bureaucratic management (and construction) of religious difference, contestations between state power and religious authority, and the links between democratic governance (and its practices and imaginaries) and the organisation, activities and discourses of religious actors.  I was trained in the field of History of Religions, but methodologicallyI am somewhat eclectic. I mix archival research with interview and ethnography. Right now I’m completing my first book, Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law: The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka (CUP 2016).

Website

Selby, Jennifer

Title or Position: Associate Professor

Affiliation: Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

Department: Religious Studies

Research Area and Research Interests:

My research focuses broadly on Islam in the West, secularism and gender studies.

More specifically, my work emphasizes two contexts: the first is ethnographic-based research focused on gender politics, Islam and public policy on secularism in contemporary France. Questioning French Secularism: Muslim Women and Gender Politics in a Parisian Suburb (2012, Palgrave Macmillan’s Contemporary Anthropology of Religion series) examines the implications of French secular discourse on gender politics among first-generation Muslim women in a Parisian suburb.

A second research area examines Islam in Canada. Here I have examined the so-called Sharia debate in the Greater Toronto Area (see Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration, 2012, University of Toronto Press); Islam online in Canada; and negotiations of diversity and orthodoxy in Muslim communities in St. John’s, NL.

Website
 

Seljak, David

Title or Position: Associate Professor

Affiliation: St. Jerome’s University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Department: Religious Studies

Research Area and Research Interests:

• Religion and multiculturalism in Canada
• Roman Catholicism in Canada, especially Quebec
• History of Christianity in Canada
  

Key Publications:

• Bramadat, Paul, and David Seljak. 2009. Religion and Ethnicity in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009 (originally published with Pearson Longman, 2005).
• Bramadat, Paul, and David Seljak. 2008. Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Website

Sikka, Sonia

Title or Position: Professor

Affiliation: University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Department: Philosophy

Research Area and Research Interests:

My current research deals with secularism and religious identity, exploring at the same time intersections between religion and culture. Canada and India form the central subjects of my engagement with these issues in the contemporary context. I also work on the history of philosophy, focussing on attitudes towards cultural and religious diversity, as well as the problem of Eurocentrism.

Key Publications:

• Sikka, Sonia. 2012. "Moral Relativism and the Concept of Culture." Theoria 59(133): 50-69.
• Sikka, Sonia. 2012. "Untouchable Cultures: Memory, Power and the Construction of Dalit Selfhood." Identities 19(1): 43-60.
• Sikka, Sonia. 2012. "The Perils of Indian Secularism." Constellations 19(2): 288-304.
• Sikka, Sonia. 2011. Herder on Humanity and Cultural Difference: Enlightened Relativism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Sikka, Sonia. 2010. "Liberalism, Multiculturalism and the Case for Public Religion." Politics and Religion 3: 580-609.

Website

Singh, Jasjit

Title or Position: University Academic Fellow

Affiliation: University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

Department: School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science

Research Area and Research Interests:

My research examines religious identity and processes of religious and cultural transmission among members of minority religious communities. I am particularly interested in the role played by traditional areas of religious transmission such as the family environment and religious institutions and newer areas of transmission including camps, university faith societies and the internet. My research interests include religion and youth, religion and media, religious identity, Sikh studies and religion in the diaspora. Under my wide research interest in ‘Religious transmission’ I have examined religious cultural production and have a growing interest in the role of minority religious media.

As a recognised expert on the Sikh tradition, I have been invited to participate in a number of academic networks including the 'Religion and Society Programme', 'Sikhs in Europe', 'Religious Literacy Leadership in Higher Education' and the 'Religion and Diversity Project' in Canada and am currently a visiting fellow at the Faiths and Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths University of London. I have presented at a number of national and international conferences and have a growing media profile having been appointed as a BBC BAME Expert Voice and having appeared a number of times on national and international media. I have an emerging track record in publications including peer-reviewed journals and edited collections.

Key Publications:

• Singh, Jasjit. 2015. "A sense of place: Sikh identity in Great Britain and Hong Kong." Asian Anthropology 14: 103–114.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2015. "Gurdwaras, Associations and Organisations: Who speaks for British Sikhs?" In Religion in Diaspora, edited by Jane Garnett, and Sondra Hausner. London: Palgrave.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2015. "Young Sikh Religious Engagement Online." In Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion and Belief - Theory, Method and Ethics, edited by Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor, and Suha Shakkour. London: Continuum.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2015. "Family Values: The Impact of Family Background on the Religious Lives of Young British Sikhs." In Young Sikhs in a Global World, edited by Knut A. Jacobsen, and Kristina Myrvoldé Farnham: Ashgate
• Singh, Jasjit. 2014. "The Guru's Way: Exploring diversity among British Khalsa Sikhs." Religion Compass 8(7): 209-219.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2014. "Sikh-ing Online: The role of the Internet in the religious lives of young British Sikhs." Contemporary South Asia 22(1): 82-97.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2012. "Keeping the Faith: Reflections on religious nurture among young British Sikhs." Journal of Beliefs and Values 33(3): 369-383.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2012. "Global Sikh-ers: Transnational Learning Practices of Young British Sikhs." In Sikhs Across Borders, edited by Knut A. Jacobsen, and Kristina Myrvold, 167-192. London: Continuum.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2011. "Sikh-ing Beliefs: British Sikh Camps in the UK." In Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representation, edited by Knut A. Jacobsen, and Kristina Myrvold, 253-277. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Singh, Jasjit. 2010. "British Sikhs, Hair and the Turban." In Religion and Youth, edited by Sylvie Collins-Mayo, and Ben P. Dandelion, 131-137. Farnham: Ashgate.
• Singh, Jasjit . 2010. "Head First: A Study of the perspectives of young British Sikhs on Hair and the Turban." Journal of Contemporary Religion 25(2): 203-220.

Website

Skeie, Geir

Title or Position: Professor

Affiliation: Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden and University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway

Department: Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Education (Stockholm University); Department of Cultural Studies and Languages (University of Stavanger, Norway)

Research Area and Research Interests:

Geir Skeie is a Professor at Stockholm University and University of Stavanger. His research has focused primarily on religion in education with both empirical and theoretical contributions and including action research. He has had a leading role in several national and international research projects investigating religion and education. Presently he is involved in researching interreligious dialogue in Scandinavia, work migration and also memory-texts related to the mourning of victims immediately after the terror attack in Norway 22. July 2011.

Key Publications:

• Skeie, Geir. 2006. “Plurality and Pluralism in Religious Education.” In International Handbook of the Religious, Moral and Spiritual Dimensions in Education. Part One, edited by Marian Souza, Gloria Durka, Kathleen Engebretson, Robert Jackson, and Andrew McGrady. Dordrecht: Springer.
• Skeie, Geir, and Marie von der Lippe. 2009. “Does Religion Matter to Young People in Norwegian Schools?” In Teenagers' Perspectives on the Role of Religion in their Lives, School and Societies. A European Quantitative Study, edited by Pille Valk, Gerdien Bertram-Troost, Markus Friederici, and Céline Béraud, 269-301. Münster: Waxmann.
• Skeie, Geir. 2012. “Education between formation and knowledge – a discussion based on recent English and Nordic research in religious education.” Utbildning och lärande 6(2): 80-95.
• Skeie, Geir. 2011. “Teachers and researchers cooperating to develop new knowledge for RE.” Panorama: International Journal of Comparative Religious Education and Values 23: 92-105.  
• Skeie, Geir. 2013. “A Contextual Turn in Research on Religion and Education.” In Exploring Context in Religious Education research. Empirical, Methopdological and Theoretical Perspectives, edited by Geir Skeie, Judith Everington, Ina ter Avest, and Siebren Miedema, 249-272. Münster: Waxmann.
• Skeie, Geir. 2014. “Young People and the European Dimension in a Norwegian Context. Migration and National Critical Events as Challenges to Citizenship Education.” Journal of Social Science Education 13(3): 36-44. 
• Skeie, Geir. 2015. “Memory and Heritage in History Education and in Religious Education: A Cross-disciplinary Investigation into Social Sciences and Humanities Education.” In History, Remembrance and Religious Education, edited by Stephen G. Parker, Rob Freathy, and Leslie C. Francis, 305-320. Oxford: Peter Lang Publishing Group.
• Skeie, Geir. 2015. “What does Conceptualisation of Religion have to do with Religion in Education?” In Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, edited by  Lori G. Beaman and Leo Van Arragon, Leiden: Brill: 126-155.
  
• Skeie, Geir. 2017. "Impartial teachers in religious education – a perspective from a Norwegian context." British Journal of Religious Education 39(1): 25-39.
  

Website

Stackhouse, John G. Jr.

Title or Position: Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology and Culture

Affiliation: Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Research Area and Research Interests:

Christianity and culture in North America; evangelical Protestantism in North America; secularization in North America; church/state and religion/society issues in North America, especially education, free speech, public privileges for Christianity & other religions, and politics; multiculturalism theory & practice.

Research program has included publications on some of the above plus lectures at UBC Law School, Stanford Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, New College—Edinburgh, Queen’s Theological College, and elsewhere.

Website

Stahl, William A.

Title or Position: Professor Emeritus

Affiliation: Luther College, University of Regina (retired), Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Department: Sociology

Research Area and Research Interests:

• Sociology of Religion, especially civil and implicit religions
• Science and Technology Studies, especially technology, ideology and the environment
• Science and Religion Dialogue
• Currently writing a book on myth and modernity

Key Publications:

• God and the Chip: Religion and the Culture of Technology (Wilfrid Laurier Univerity Press, 1999)
  
• Webs of Reality: Social Perspective on Science and Religion (with Robert Campbell, Yvonne Petry and Gary Diver, Rutgers University Press, 2002).

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Taira, Teemu

Title or Position: Senior Lecturer

Affiliation: University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

Department: Comparative Religion

Research Area and Research Interests:

Teemu Taira’s recent research has focused on three key areas: 1) religion in the media, 2) the new visibility of atheism and 3) discursive study of the category of 'religion'.

Key publications:

• Taira, Teemu. 2017 "Finland: The Recognition and Rearticulation of Atheism in Public Discourse," In The Atheist Bus Campaign: Global Manifestations and Responses, edited by Steven Tomlins and Spencer Culham Bullivant, Leiden: Brill, 139–156. 
• Taira, Teemu. 2016. "Discourse on ‘Religion’ in Organizing Social Practices: Theoretical and Practical Considerations," In Making Religion: Theory and Practice in the Discursive Study of Religion, edited by Frans Wijsen and Kocku von Stuckrad, Leiden: Brill, 125–146.
• Taira, Teemu. 2016. "Doing Things with ‘Religion’: Discursive Approach in Rethinking the World Religions Paradigm," In After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies, edited by Christopher Cotter and David Robertson, London: Routledge, 75–91.
• Taira, Teemu. 2015. "Media and the Nonreligious." In Religion, Media, and Social Change, edited by Kennet Granholm, Marcus Moberg, and Sofia Sjö, 110–125. New York and London: Routledge.  
  
• Taira, Teemu, Kim Knott, and Elizabeth Poole. 2013. Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred. Farnham: Ashgate. 
• Taira, Teemu. 2013. "Making Space for Discursive Study in Religious Studies" Religion 1: 26-45.
• Taira, Teemu. 2013. "The Category of Invented Religion: A New Opportunity for Studying Discourses on Religion." Culture and Religion 4: 47-493.
• Taira, Teemu. 2013. “New Atheism as Identity Politics." In  Religion and Knowledge: Sociological Perspectives, edited by Mathew Guest, and Elisabeth Arweck, 97-113. Farnham: Ashgate. 

Website
 

Thiessen, Joel

Title or Position: Associate Professor of Sociology & Director of Flourishing Congregations Institute

Affiliation: Ambrose University, Calgary, Alberta

Department: Sociology

Research Area and Research Interests: 

Joel Thiessen is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Ambrose University (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) and Director of Flourishing Congregations Institute. His central research interests relate to religion and culture in Canada, with specific attention to rational choice as well as secularization theory, religious nones, nominal and regular church attenders, religious and secular socialization, and congregations. He has authored two books: The Sociology of Religion: A Canadian Perspective (with Lorne L. Dawson, Oxford University Press, 2014) and The Meaning of Sunday: The Practice of Belief in a Secular Age (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015), along with a range of articles. He regularly speaks and consults with various denominations across Canada about the state of religion and culture in Canada, and he has contributed to media outlets such as The Globe and Mail, National Post, CBC News, and the Calgary Herald.

Website
  

Toldy, Teresa Martinho

Title or Position: Associate Professor with Aggregation

Affiliation: University Fernando Pessoa (Porto, Portugal), Center for Social Sciences (Coimbra University, Portugal)

Department: Faculty of Human and Social Sciences

Research Area and Research Interests:

Teresa Maria Leal de Assunção Martinho Toldy has a PhD in Theology (feminist theology) from the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen (Frankfurt, Germany), a Master in Theology (Catholic University, Lisbon) and 1st grade in Theology at the same University. She is a postdoctorate from the Center for Social Sciences  (CES) at Coimbra University. She is Professor at the Fernando Pessoa University (Porto, Portugal) where she teaches Ethics. Teresa Toldy is Chair of the Ethics Commission of the same University and researcher at CES where she coordinates POLICREDOS (Observatory on Religion in Public Space): http://www.ces.uc.pt/policredos/pages/en/about-policredos.php. She is also chair of the Portuguese Association of Feminist Theologies and former Vice-Chair of the Portuguese Association on Women's Studies (2009-2014).

Keywords: Religion and women’s Rights; secularism/post-secularism and their impacts upon women’s rights; post-colonial theologies and post-colonial feminist theologies.

Key publications:

• Henriques, Fernanda ; Toldy, Teresa (2016), “The Contribution of Ricoeur's Hermeneutics to a Feminist Perspective on Postcolonial Theology”, in Annemie Halsema and Fernanda Henriques (org.), Feminist Explorations of Paul Ricoeur's Philosophy. Lanham: Lexington Books, 239-257.
• Dievenkorn, Sabine; Toldy, Teresa (2016) (eds.), "Sharing the Word of Hope with the World". Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, 24.
• Dievenkorn, Sabine ; Koukoura, Dimitra; Toldy, Teresa (2016), "Das Wort der Hoffnung mit der Welt teilen - Sharing the Word of Hope with the World - Voces de mujeres en tiempo de crisis", Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, 24, 1-11.
• Toldy, Teresa; Santos, Ana Cristina (2016) (eds), "Dossier "Religião, género e cidadania sexual"" número temático em "Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais", 110.
• Toldy, Teresa; Ana Cristina, Santos (2016), "Religião, género e cidadania sexual: Uma introdução", Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 110, 43-50.
• Toldy, Teresa (2015), "Da ética do cuidar ao universalismo interativo", Fragmentos de Cultura, 25, 4, 585-595.
• Toldy, Teresa, Giorgi, Alberta, and Nella van den Brandt. 2015. "Gendering the Secular: Interventions in Politics, Philosophy and Movements" Specil Issue "Religion & Gender" 5(2): 129-134.
• Toldy, Teresa. 2015. "'Religiões em movimento'. Reflexões em torno de uma oficina sobre religião." In Uma pesquisa biográfica colaborativa com imigrantes em Portugal, edited by E. Lechner, 187-209. Coimbra: Ed. Almedina.
• Toldy, Teresa M. 2015. "'Der Glaube kommt vom Hören' - Was hören christliche Frauen?" In Glaubensverantwortung in Theologie, Pastoral und Ethik. Für Peter Knauer SJ, edited by Stephan Ernst, and Gerhard Gäde, 378-401. Freiburg-Basel-Viena: Herder.
• Toldy, Teresa M. 2014. "Iglesia, qué dices de ti misma?" In Mujeres desde el Vaticano II: memoria y esperanza, edited by Silvia Martínez Cano, 65-87. Navarra: Editorial Verbo Divino.
• Toldy, Teresa M., and Rui Estrada 2014. "Pope Francis' Emphasis on Charity." Concilium. International Journal of Theology 50(4): 101-113.
• Toldy, Teresa M. 2012. "Sisterhood in different voices? Religion, secularism and women rights." Journal of the European Society of Women in Theological Research 20: 59-86.
• Toldy, Teresa M. 2011, "'Secularist Dreams' and 'Women's Rights': Notes on an 'Ambiguous Relationship.'" RCCS - Annual Review. An online journal for the social sciences and humanities, 3: http://rccsar.revues.org/302?lang=pt
  

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Vickers, Lucy 

Title or Position: Professor of Law

Affiliation: Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom

Department: School of Law

Research Area and Research Interests:

Lucy Vickers is Professor of Law at Oxford Brookes University. Her main research area is the protection of human rights within the workplace and aspects of equality law. She has written extensively on issues relating to religious discrimination and age discrimination at work. She is the author of Freedom of Speech and Employment (2002, OUP), Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination and the Workplace (2008, Hart Publishing), a report for the European Commission on Religion and Belief Discrimination in Employment – The EU Law (2007), as well as numerous academic articles.

Key publications:

• Vickers, Lucy. 2016. Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination and the Workplace, Hart Publishing, Oxford Second edition 
• Vickers, Lucy. 2015. "Review of equality and human rights law relating to religion or belief," Research Report 97, EHRC, London (with Edge).
• Vickers, Lucy. 2015. "Law, Religion and the Workplace." InRoutledge Handbook of Law and Religion, edited by Silvio Ferrari. Abingdon: Routledge. 
• Vickers, Lucy. 2015. "Religion and the Workplace."Equal Rights Review 14: 106-118. 
• Vivkers, Lucy. 2014. "Religious Freedom: Expressing Religion, Attire and Public Spaces." Journal of Law and Policy 22(2): 591-611. 
• Vickers, Lucy. 2012. "Twin Approaches to Secularism: Organised Religion and Society." Oxford Journal Of Legal Studies 32(1): 197-210. 
• Vickers, Lucy. 2011. "Promoting Equality Or Fostering Resentment? The Public Sector Equality Duty And Religion And Belief." Legal Studies 31(1): 135–158. 
• Vickers, Lucy. 2010. "Religious Discrimination in the Workplace: An Emerging Hierarchy?" Ecclesiastical Law Journal 12(3): 280-303.
• Vickers, Lucy. 2009. "Freedom of Religion and Belief and Employment in Faith Schools." Religion and Human Rights 1-20. 

Website
  

Virdi, Preet Kaur

Title or Position: Associate Professor

Affiliation: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (CUNY)

Department: Political Science

Research Area and Research Interests:

Keywords: Law & Society; Legal pluralism; Access to Justice; Gender; Transnationalism and Diaspora studies; South Asian diaspora; Punjab customary law.

Key Publications:

• Virdi, Preet Kaur. 2013. "Barriers to Canadian Justice: Immigrant Sikh women and izzat." Journal of South Asian Diaspora 5(1): 107-122. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19438192.2013.722383
  

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Wagenvoorde, Renée

Title or Position: Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Funding Officer

Affiliation: University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Department: Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain

Research Area and Research Interests:

My research area is in the intersection between philosophy, religious studies and social sciences. My PhD research focused on the strained relation between religion and good citizenship. In this interdisciplinary research, I brought together insights from political philosophy, political practice and policy, and experiences of citizens.

By combining philosophical and empirical research on socially relevant issues – such as migration, the role of religion in the public domain, and postsecular citizenship – I aim to close the gap between social sciences and philosophy, and between academia and civil society.

My research interests include belonging, tolerance vs deep pluralism, policy-making on the national and supranational level, and the role of culture and religion in pluralist societies; all of which concentrate around questions of diversity and cohesion in contemporary Western societies.

Website

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Yip, Andrew Kam-Tuck

Title or Position: Professor in Sociology

Affiliation: University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Department: School of Sociology and Social Policy

Research Area and Research Interests:

Andrew Yip’s research interests include: contemporary religious/spiritual identities; contemporary sexual (particularly lesbian, gay, and bisexual) identities; contemporary youth identity and sexuality; Islam and Muslim communities in the West; Human rights and citizenship; intimate relationships; and ageing, bereavement, and end-of-life care. His recent research projects includes: The Last Outing: Exploring End of Life Experiences and Care Needs in the Lives of Older LGBT People (Funded by the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research; 2012-2014); Citizens in Diversity: A Four-nation Study on Homophobia and Fundamental Rights (EU-funded; 2010-2012); and Religion, Youth, and Sexuality: A Multi-faith Exploration (AHRC/ESRC-funded;2009-2011).

Andrew Yip is the author of Gay Male Christian Couples: Life Stories (Praeger, 1997), and co-author of Lesbian and Gay Lives Over 50 (York House Publishing, 2003), Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places (Ashgate, 2010), Religion, Youth and Sexuality: Selected Key Findings from a Multi-faith Exploration (University of Nottingham Press, 2011), Religious and Sexual Identities: An Exploration of Young Adults (Ashgate, 2013), Cosmopolitan Dharma: Race, Sexuality, and Gender in British Buddhism (Brill, 2016), and Understanding Young Buddhists: Living out Ethical Journeys (Brill, 2017). He is also co-editor of the Ashgate Research Companion to Contemporary Sexuality and Religion; and Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life (both by Ashgate, 2012). His writings have also appeared in journals such as British Journal of Sociology, Sociology of Religion, Sociological Review, Sociology, Sociological Research Online, Theology & Sexuality, European Journal of Women’s Studies, Sexualities, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Contemporary Islam, Social Policy & Society, Ageing and Society and Feminism and Psychology.

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