Over the last two years the Protestant-Catholic Conflict research programme has been engaged in research on the history of religious tensions in England and, through an extensive series of interviews, on present-day attitudes in Northern Ireland. A central aim of the project is to seek to explore parallels between long-standing Protestant-Catholic tensions in the United Kingdom, and the more recent prominence of Christian-Muslim-secular tensions, and thereby to derive constructive insights for forward-looking thinking and policy.
We are running seminars in Liverpool on 12 June, and Birmingham on 4 July. The Liverpool seminar will be held at The Western Rooms, Liverpool Cathedral, 12 June 2012, 2-5 pm. There will be four speakers:
Prof John Wolffe (Global Uncertainties, Ideas and Beliefs Fellow, Professor of Religious History, The Open University) will outline the project and share interim insights and conclusions.
John Bell (Research Officer, Institute for Conflict Research, Belfast) will present evidence drawn from the 50 interviews he has conducted in Northern Ireland.
Dr Stefanie Sinclair (Lecturer in Religious Studies, The Open University) and Mrs Anjum Anwar MBE (Dialogue Development Officer, Blackburn Cathedral) will give responses, focusing particularly on the implications for understanding and addressing religious prejudice and building relationships between religious groups both nationally and locally.
There will then be an extended period for questions and discussion, which we hope will assist both in drawing out policy implications, and in highlighting the most productive directions for further academic research and reflection.
Please email us if you would like an invitation to either of the seminars.
Congratulations to Phil Sutherland and Mika Lassander, who were recently awarded their PhDs. The photograph shows them after the conferring ceremony held on April 1 2011 at the Barbican Centre, London.
The Religious Studies department is very sad to announce the death on 28 January of Dr Melanie Wright.
Melanie joined us as a Lecturer in Religious Studies in June 2007, with expertise in inter-religious relations and religion and media that added exciting dimensions to the department’s research culture. Melanie was an active and greatly valued member of the department, but retired in February 2010 on grounds of ill-health.
The Faculty has decided to withdraw the MA in Religious Studies. Whilst the MA has achieved high numbers in terms of the rest of the sector and has been enjoyed by those students currently studying it, numbers are not high enough to be sustainable. A880 will be presented for the last time in October 2012 and the final presentation of A881 will be in May 2014. Find out more about the MA.
You may like to note the following changes:
The final presentation of AD317 will start in February 2012. Registration for this final presentation closes on 14th December 2011.
After the current presentation, AA307 will start its final presentation in October 2012.
AD317 and AA307 are planned to be replaced by a single 60 credit level 3 module which is due to start in October 2013.
The Cross-Cultural Identities Research Group regularly holds seminars and other events. See our website for details of forthcoming and past events. Please get in touch if you would like to attend or if you would like to suggest an event, give a paper, etc.
On 5 March 2010, Religious Studies hosted an interdisciplinary seminar on ‘Climate Change: Science, Values, Creativity’. The following papers were presented:
It is hoped that this event will foster further interdisciplinary collaboration and dialogue.
John Wolffe and Helen Waterhouse have been awarded a Collaborative Studentship under the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme. The non-academic partner is Christian Education and the project title is From Sunday Schools to Christian Education: the Christian Formation of Contemporary Youth in Historical Perspective. Naomi Stanton, who has a background in Youth Work, has taken up the studentship.
Marion Bowman has been awarded £4,866 by the Higher Education Academy for a project titled “Helping to Bridge the Gap?". The project investigates ways in which RE teachers in UK schools can use open access Open University religious studies materials.
The AHRC-funded project Building on History: the Church in London has just launched its website. This knowledge exchange partnership, co-directed by Professor John Wolffe and involving The Open University, Kings College London and the Church of England, aims to transfer historical research regarding the Diocese of London in the long nineteenth century to the Church of England in the contemporary setting. The focus is on historical themes that resonate with the present situation in the diocese, such as secularisation, migration and Church extension/building/planting. Over the next two years the project will run seminars for leading diocesan figures and a series of training events for local clergy discussing these recurrent themes.
The current edition of Religion, 40 (2010) highlights the importance of the peer-review process as a means of assessing academic excellence. Because reviewers are seldom given credit for this important role, Religion has devoted its editorial to thanking those who have donated their time and expertise over 2008-9. Among the 154 academics from 24 countries acknowledged for this essential contribution to academic life are three members of the Open University Religious Studies Department, Gwilym Beckerlegge, Marion Bowman and Graham Harvey.