New on the Religion in Public blog
Our Centre's weblog Religion in Public has recently featured several items worth reading:
- In a Comment piece, Dr Caroline Blyth explores their current research on transphobic violence that is embedded in conservative Christian interpretations of the Bible.
- In a Comment piece, Professor Rachel Muers discusses a recent biblical reference made by Boris Johnson in relation to the ongoing Brexit debate.
- Aura Di Febo provides a review of a recent research day titled: ‘Religion and Social Welfare in East Asian Contexts’ that was jointly organised by the Centre for Religion and Public Life with the East Asian Studies department at the University of Leeds.
- As Researcher of the Month: March, the blog featured PhD student Tamanda Walker, who shares with us her journey into researching the negotiation of issues of religion and belief in UK workplaces.
- As Researcher of the Month: April the blog featured visiting researcher Dr Caroline Blythe, who tells us about her research into the use of the Bible in contemporary discourses around gender, sexuality and gendered violence.
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CRPL builds collaboration with Desmond Tutu Centre in Cape Town
Earlier this year, the Centre for Religion and Public Life (CRPL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, in Cape Town, South Africa. As part of the emerging collaboration, CRPL representatives Dr Adriaan van Klinken and Dr Caroline Starkey, and CRPL intern Hollie Gowan, brought a week-long visit to Cape Town just before Easter. During this visit, they participated in a three-day postgraduate student training workshop and had meetings to plan further collaboration. Dr Starkey gave a presentation in the research seminar hosted by the Centre and the Department for Theology and Religion at the University of the Western Cape, and Dr van Klinken delivered a public lecture hosted by the Centre and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town. Read here the reflections by Hollie Gowan on the research visit.
A return visit by representatives of the Desmond Tutu Centre to Leeds will take place in June. On the research day of 18 June, you will have a chance to meet them and learn about their research (see below).
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CRPL Research Day about Religion and Social Change
On 18th June, the Centre for Religion and Public Life at the University of Leeds will host a research day about "Religion and Social Change: Sexuality, Climate Change and Religious Pluralism". The event is co-hosted by the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, in Cape Town,  South Africa, as part of our evolving collaboration.
The morning programme (10:00-13:00) is specifically aimed at postgraduate students and will feature a Master Class with Professor Sarojini Nadar, who holds the Desmond Tutu Research Chair at the University of the Western Cape and is the Director of the Desmond Tutu Centre. It further features a presentation by Megan Robertson, PhD student at the Desmond Tutu Centre, about her research into queer clergy in the Methodist Church in South Africa.
The afternoon programme (14:00-18:00) is open for postgraduate students, academic members of staff, and anyone with an interest in the subject. It will feature the following speakers:
- 2-3pm: Presentation by Dr Lee Scharnick-Udemans (senior researcher, Desmond Tutu Centre, University of the Western Cape): "Politics, Privilege and Pluralism: Exploring the Contestation of Religious Diversity in Contemporary South Africa".
- 3-4pm: Presentation by Dr Elaine Nogueira-Godsey (Assistant Professor of Theology, Ecology and Race, Methodist Theological School in Ohio): “Religion and Social Activism in Times of Climate Change: Privilege or Necessity?”
- 4:30-6pm: Public lecture by Professor Sarojini Nadar, Desmond Tutu Research Chair of Religion and Social Justice, University of the Western Cape, South Africa: “Sacred Sex, Sacred Text: Queering Religious Sexual Scripts in Transforming African Societies”.
If you wish to attend, please confirm to CRPL intern, Hollie Gowan.
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New Book Co-authored by Dr Adriaan van Klinken, "Religions in Modern Africa"
 Dr Adriaan van Klinken has recently published a book he co-authored with two colleagues, Dr Laura Grillo (Georgetown University, US) and Dr Hassan Ndzovu (Moi University, Kenya). The book is entitled, Religions in Modern Africa: An Introduction, and was published by Routledge. The book is intended as an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the three main religious traditions on the African continent, African indigenous religions, Christianity and Islam. It provides a historical overview of these important traditions and focuses on the roles they play in African societies today. In a post on our blog Religion in Public, Van Klinken answers some questions explaining how the book has come about, what its key arguments and insights are, and what insight it provides into the relationship between religion and public life.
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Research into Global Hajj Pilgrimage Industry
The glob al Hajj pilgrimage industry has been transformed over the last 30 years. In the UK the sector is striving to professionalise and respond collectively to various challenges. However, better documentation could help stakeholders in their efforts to move towards greater communication and consensus.
During 2018-19 an Economic and Social Research Council funded Leeds Social Sciences Institute Impact Acceleration Account award has allowed CRPL member Professor Seán McLoughlin to formalise a collaboration with the Council of British Hajjis, the pilgrim welfare charity which is also the Secretariat for the newly established All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hajj and Umrah.
In January 2019, Wahida Shaffi was appointed to work as research assistant on a project entitled "Mapping the UK Hajj Sector: Moving Towards Communication and Consensus". On successive weekends during March 2019 the team organised three consultation events with key local/regional/national stakeholders in community spaces: Bradford (17 March), Birmingham (23 March) and London (30 March). The consultations were attended by representatives of Muslim community organisations, licensed Hajj organisers and the UK authorities, as well as parliamentarians. The agenda focused on in-depth discussion of four interrelated questions: i) How professional is the Hajj sector?; ii) Why is the cost of Hajj packages rising?; iii) What factors contribute to fraud during Hajj; and iv) How should the Hajj sector be regulated and governed?
Based on this input and his ongoing research since 2011, the main aim of the project is for Professor McLoughlin to launch the first independent report on the UK Hajj sector at the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hajj and Umrah in June 2019.
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Grant success Dr Adriaan van
klinken and Prof. Johanna Stiebert: "Tales of Sexuality and Faith"
CRPL members Dr Adriaan van Klinken and Professor Johanna Stiebert have secured a research grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, for a project entitled “Tales of Sexuality and Faith: The Ugandan LGBT Refugees Life Story Project”. The project uses community-based participatory research methodology to undertake life story research among Ugandan LGBT refugees in Kenya. Van Klinken and Stiebert are currently planning a research trip to Kenya in September, where they will work with a local community-based organisation, called The Nature Network.
The project engages established methodologies in feminist, queer, and postcolonial studies that emphasise the political and epistemological importance of autobiographical storytelling in research with marginalised groups. Expanding this existing scholarship, the project develops an innovative approach that explores the potential of biblical stories to signify the queer lives of the Ugandan refugees. Foregrounding the popularity of the Bible in contemporary Africa, and conceptualising biblical appropriation as a decolonising and queer process, the project reclaims the Bible as part of African queer archives.
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CRPL Researchers in Public
Members of the Centre for Religion and Public Life frequently participate in public and media events to comment on issues relating to religion in public life.
- Dr Stefan Skrimshire commented on Extinction Rebellion at the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire's current affairs debate programme, on 18 April 2019.
- Dr Jasjit Singh was invited to present on ‘Engaging Research on Religion with Policy Makers’ at the AHRC ‘Engaging with Government’ course in March. He also participated in a panel discussion on ‘Digital Religion’ on Tuesday 30 April as part of the Religion media Centre’s, ‘Religion in the Media’ festival in London, and has been invited to participate in the Vaisakhi celebration at 10 Downing St on Wednesday 8 May.
- Dr Adriaan van Klinken delivered a public lecture, "Re-imagining Christianity, Sexuality and Social Justice in Africa", at the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa, on 16 April 2019.
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CRPL Research Seminars and Events
The CRPL runs fortnightly research seminars on Thursdays, 11:30-13:00, taking place in the Botany House seminar room 1.03.
- 9 May, 11:30-13:00, Botany House 1.03: Research seminar with Dr Al McFadyen (University of Leeds): “Coercive Control, Domestic Violation and the Christian Doctrine of Sin”.
- 18 June: Research Day about "Religion and Social Change", with the Desmond Tutu Centre, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (see above).
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ABOUT THE Centre for Religion and Public Life
The Centre for Religion and Public Life at the University of Leeds is a hub for research into the important, and increasingly contentious, role of religion in public life in the world today, both locally, nationally and internationally. It provide a forum in which contemporary research and scholarship can be debated and disseminated. The Centre works closely with non-academic partners to identify the ways in which religion is relevant to their work and to produce research that is capable of meeting their need to better understand the nature of religion and religious organisations locally, nationally and internationally.
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