Centre for Religion and Public Life

• Mikel Burley, Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy
• Caroline Fielder, Associate Professor in Chinese Studies
• Alistair McFadyen, Retired Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology
• Seán McLoughlin, Professor of the Anthropology of Islam (Muslim Diasporas)
• Tasia Scrutton, Associate Professor in Philosophy and Religion
• Mustapha Sheikh, Professor in Islamic Studies; Co-Director of the Iqbal Centre for the Study of Contemporary Islam
• Jasjit Singh,  ​​​​​Professor of Religion and Global Engagement
• Stefan Skrimshire, Associate Professor in Theology and Religious Studies
• Caroline Starkey,  Associate Professor of Religion and Society
• Johanna Stiebert, Professor of Hebrew Bible
• Aled Thomas, Lecturer in Religious Studies
• Emma Tomalin, Professor of Religion and Public Life
• Adriaan van Klinken, Professor of Religion and African Studies
• Robert Vanderbeck, Professor of Human Geography and Head of School

Please note: this seminar will take place in ​​​Baines Wing SR (2.15), 14:00-15:30.​​​​​​

This talk will explore how the Muslims of Kodungallur, a historically significant town in Kerala, South India, engage in a renewed articulation of religious coexistence, primarily through the language of communal harmony (mathasouhardam, a term broadly referring to inter-religious coexistence and peaceful social relations). They do so faced with the rise of Hindu nationalist politics that increasingly problematize Muslim belonging in shared sacred and public spaces. The articulation of communal harmony by the Muslims of Kodungallur is centered around the physical and discursive space of the Cheraman Juma Masjid, believed to be the first mosque in India, named after the legendary king Cheraman Perumal, and associated with the accounts of the origin of Islam in India. Based on ongoing ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Kodungallur since 2021, the paper closely follows the process of the Cheraman mosque’s reconstruction and situates it within both the local political dynamics of Kodungallur and the broader context of national politics in India. 

Moving away from scholarship that has largely highlighted the instrumentalist nature of communal harmony as a discourse produced by dominant or state actors, the paper shifts the focus to minority articulations. It asks two interrelated questions: Can communal harmony be conceptualized as an active political process that involves actors, agential networks, and conscious articulations of a political community? And what political work does such a discourse perform when articulated by Muslim actors in the context of Hindu nationalism? 

The talk will argue that communal harmony is mobilized in Kodungallur as a strategic response to the contemporary challenge of Hindu nationalism and is used to affirm Muslim belonging across three interconnected sites: everyday life, historical memory, and the legal–constitutional realm. These are not peripheral but constitutive dimensions of national membership. The talk conceptualizes this articulation as a politics of belonging that combines aspects of different trajectories of Muslim politics in postcolonial India-minority rights, claims of social backwardness, civic participation, and a redefined language of self-protection-without reifying or effacing Muslim religious identity. The talk suggests that such articulations of communal harmony offer an incipient possibility for reimagining Muslim citizenship in India today, especially in the face of an increasingly constricted experience of citizenship under Hindutva politics.

This talk presents findings from my doctoral research on evangelical Christian purity culture and its impact on young women in Great Britain. While purity culture has been studied in the United States, much less attention has been paid to its presence and influence in British contexts. Drawing on survey data and qualitative interviews, I argue that purity culture has been present in Britain in a less overt form, characterised by a strong emphasis on sexual abstinence until marriage as a marker of Christian identity and faithful Christian living.

Using Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, in this talk I introduce the concept of the habitus of purity culture to explain why a more implicit, British iteration of purity culture is still impactful: because the values and expectations of purity culture are gradually incorporated into the body as long-lasting dispositions, known as habitus. Community and relationships are centrally important in this habitus, but ‘sexual sin’ risks damaging them. The impacts of purity culture can thus be profound - even outside of America - as living with this habitus means living with the tension of both valorised and jeopardised relationships.

Research into the development of modern yoga has involved a number of speculative typologies and genealogies for the practice. Nonetheless, the institutional evolution of modern yoga has rarely been the subject of research, and the relationship between the content of yoga practice and the container of yoga institutions continues to be a subject more of speculation than research.

To begin that task, this talk will describe research into the pedagogy of modern yoga so far, together with insights from my own ongoing research and professional practice. From local networks of religious initiation, to systems of therapeutic intervention; and from folk remedies to gymnastics training, the pedagogical roots of modern yoga are revealed as a vital missing piece in understanding the future, as well as the history of yoga.

But the working patterns of modern yoga teachers are far from unique, and closely resemble those of many other communities of practice. What this research describes is a case study into the ways that human beings evolve cultures of practice outside of formal hierarchies and state provision.

Along the way, we will define three terms that often lack precision when used in both the academic and popular discourses of modern yoga: lineage, heritage and brand. What do we mean when we accuse modern yoga as being either ‘traditional’ or ‘commercial’? Who is it that actually profits in the ‘billion-dollar’ industry of modern yoga? And to compliment the excellent work done so far to understand the roots of modern yoga practice, what might be gained by submitting the roots of modern yoga pedagogy to similar scrutiny?

The Satanic cult conspiracy theory (otherwise known as ‘the Satanic myth’ or ‘the Satanic legend’) alleges that secret, evil, Satanic cults exist who seek to morally subvert and control society – often through targeting and harming children. The origins of the legend are traceable to the early Middle Ages, where it has since periodically resurfaced in the form of ‘Satanism Scares’: moral panics concerned with the alleged threat of Satan-worship. The concerns of these moral panics are disproportionate to any reality, and instead they act a mirror to the wider fears and prejudices of their societies. Through these events, false allegations of ‘Satanic’ crimes lead to the unjust demonisation and persecution of innocent individuals and communities. Today, there has been increasing speculation that we may now already be experiencing the next wave of Satanic moral panic. This seminar will address this question – first exploring the history of these scares, before discussing the contemporary revival of this rhetoric from over the last decade. It will draw on a variety of case studies, alongside a detailed analysis of contemporary social media conspiracy theory rhetoric, demonstrating its ongoing, and potentially very harmful, impact in recent years.

More details to follow.