Centre for Religion and Public Life - Seminar Series

Dr Megan Robertson is a scholar specializing in queer and gender studies in religion. She is currently a UKRI (formerly Marie Skłodowska-Curie) Postdoctoral Fellow, based at the Centre for Religion and Public Life and serves as a lecturer in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. She earned her PhD from the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, in 2020. She participates in international networks in the field through her role as managing editor of The African Journal of Gender and Religion, and as co-chair of the Religion and Sexuality Unit in the American Academy of Religion.

Dr Megan Robertson is presenting on Thursday 3 October.

Title: Ghosts of the Rainbow Nation: Mourning and haunting in queer South African film

Abstract: In this paper, I draw on my interviews with filmmaker and actor, Enrico Hartzenberg, and analyse his film and theatre work through the concepts of mourning and haunting as developed in queer, feminist and performance studies. I explore how haunting and mourning – states which indicate ‘sitting with’ rather than moving on – allow for queer potentialities of being in the face of homophobic violence and black death. I focus specifically on the short film Sister Dinges, produced and co-written by Hartzenberg who also plays the titular character, and his horror theatre play Die Lig is Blou (‘The sky is blue’) – both of which depict grief, violence, abuse, revenge, and death as central themes. Sister Dinges portrays Marshall who, following a homophobic assault that labels him 'Sister Dinges' (literally translated to ‘Sister Thing’), embarks on a vengeful journey which plays out alongside his grief at the loss of his mother. Die Lig is Blou focuses on Michael, who is haunted throughout the play by his sister's ghost, as well as the trauma of past homophobic abuse. Evident in both the film and play is the presence of the transcendental in impacting the lives of the gay protagonists. This is portrayed through rituals of mourning, divination games, and the ghost who is rarely absent from the stage in Die Lig is Blou. The performances of lingering revenge and grief in Hartzenberg’s work, which never result in ‘completion’ through forgiveness and peace, invite collective mourning and a collective acknowledgement of the ghosts which continue to haunt queer and black lives in South Africa. I argue that Hartzenberg’s invitation to ‘sit with’ queer grief and abuse opens up critique of a post-apartheid nation-state constructed around ideas of reconciliation and forgiveness and enables us to imagine queer black futurity uncoupled from ideas of progress embedded in colonial modernity.

Dr Seán Henry is Senior Lecturer in Education at Edge Hill University, where he co-leads the BA Education joint honours programme. He teaches modules across religious studies and education studies. His research interests span questions of religion, gender, sexuality, and education from queer and critical philosophical perspectives. 

 

Dr Seán Henry is presenting on Thursday 17 October.

Title: Queer Thriving in Religious Schools: Encountering Religious Texts, Values, and Rituals

Abstract: This seminar presentation offers an overview of Seán Henry's recently published monograph Queer Thriving in Religious Schools. Engaging with queer theologies and life narratives across the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, the book situates queer thriving as a viable part of the work of the religious school, and not just as something reserved for progressive education more broadly. Taking three areas that are typically used to justify religious heteronormativity (religious texts, religious values, religious rituals), Queer Thriving in Religious Schools engages queer theologies to showcase how an educational approach committed to queer thriving can be enacted in religious schools in ways that are also theologically sensitive. The book then explores how religious school communities can navigate differences around queerness and religion in ways that are supportive of queer staff and students. It takes desire as an everyday reality in classrooms and applies a queer lens to this to challenge heteronormativity and to imagine alternative modes of relationship between staff, students, and communities that enable queer staff and students to thrive.

Showcasing possibilities for resisting the opposition between religious and queer concerns, Queer Thriving in Religious Schools will appeal to researchers, postgraduates and academics in the fields of religion and education, whilst also benefitting those working across philosophy of education and educational theory, sex education, sociology of education, queer theologies, religious studies, and sociology of religion.

Female Gurus in Vaishnavism

A​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ special seminar with visiting Professor Ruby Sain (Professor of Sociology, Adamas University, Barasat, Kolkata, India). 

Professor Sain is a sociologist of religion and the founder of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society at her former place of employment (Jadavpur University, India). She continues to be the Centre’s academic advisor. She was part of a collaboration that resulted in the book The Future of Religious Studies in India (Routledge). Her book Contemporary Social Problems in India is in press.

Time: 15:00-16:30
Format: In-person seminar
Venue: Botany House seminar room (1.03)

Dr Rebekah Welton is Lecturer of Hebrew Bible at the University of Exeter. Her early research interests focus on food and alcohol in the Hebrew Bible and on the archaeology and history of food and alcohol in Iron Age Israel and Judah. Since then she has turned to biblical allusions and receptions in popular culture, such as video games, TV and film. 

 

Dr Rebekah Welton is presenting on Thursday 31 October.

Title: Crucifixion and capitalism in the video games Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us

Abstract: This paper focuses on two cinematic video games, Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) and The Last of Us (2013). These games appear to subvert popular notions of sacrifice that have largely been inherited from Christian conceptions of Jesus’ sacrificial work. The paper will argue that these videogames offer provocative and immersive instantiations of biblical sacrifice in the modern, capitalist world.

Dr Seb Rumsby is an interdisciplinary scholar with a wide range of interests including everyday politics, labour exploitation, undocumented migration, ethno-religious politics, grassroots development and non-national histories. Seb unites these diverse themes with an empirical focus on Southeast Asian worlds and people. He is currently based at the University of Birmingham's Institute for Research into International Migration and Superdiversity.

 

Dr Seb Rumsby is presenting on Thursday 14 November.

Title: Alternative Routes to Development? Religious Transformation and Everyday Politics in Vietnam’s Highlands

Abstract: How do marginalized communities engage with markets and the state through everyday economic and religious practices? As state economic policies promote integration under a single logic of modernist development, many impoverished groups remain on the margins. This presentation explores the practices employed by recently converted Christian communities on the fringes of such nation-building projects in Vietnam's borderlands. Using an everyday political economy lens, I demonstrate how seemingly powerless actors actively engage with larger socio-economic transformations, shaping their experience of development in ways that are underexamined but have far-reaching consequences.

Dr Emmanuel Chiwetalu Ossai is a lecturer in religion and politics at Lancaster University. His doctoral research at Edinburgh University examined the contribution of religion to peacebuilding in Nigeria. He is interested in the relationship between religion and conflict, peace, politics, migration, health and digital technology, especially in Africa. His research has been published in African Security, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Religion Compass, and Studies in World Christianity.  

Dr Emmanuel Chiwetalu Ossai is presenting on Tuesday 26 November in Baines Wing 1.13. The seminar will take place from 11.30-13.00.

Title: Religious Identity, Intergroup Threats, and Biafra Separatism in Post-War Nigeria 

Abstract: The Republic of Biafra was created out of Nigeria on 30 May 1967. Consisting mainly of Igbo Christians, Biafra officially ceased to exist on 15 January 1970, after Biafran forces surrendered to the Nigerian military government following a 30-month war. There has been a demand among some Igbo people for Biafra’s restoration. Most studies that examine the religious dimension of this renewed call focus on a pro-Biafra organisation known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), or on its leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Kanu identifies as Jewish and has associated IPOB, the Igbo and Biafra with Jewish history and identity.

However, Judaism is a minority religion in Igboland and the broader Eastern region of Nigeria. Studies which examine IPOB and Nnamdi Kanu have not given Christian identity in Igboland the attention it deserves. The major religion in the region, Christianity has been an essential component of Igbo identity for decades. When the Biafra War broke out in 1967, Christianity was already the major religion in Eastern Nigeria. This research considers the influence of Igbo Christian identity on public Igbo support for the restoration of Biafra, that is, the partition of Nigeria.

This study finds that a population of the Igbo who demand Biafra’s restoration do so because they believe a mainly Igbo and majorly Christian Biafran state will protect the Igbo people from “perceived realistic and symbolic threats” emerging from Islam and the Muslim population in (northern) Nigeria. For Nigerian authorities to address Biafra separatism, they should not ignore the religious concerns making some citizens desire the division of Nigeria into religiously homogeneous states.

Professor Emma Wild-Wood is Professor of African Religions and World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh. Previously she has taught in DR Congo, Uganda and Cambridge, UK. She is author of The Mission of Apolo Kivebulaya: Religious Encounter and Social Change in the Great Lakes, 1860s-1930s (2020). Her new, collaborative project brings history and religious studies into dialogue with public health in East Central Africa.

Professor Emma Wild-Wood is presenting on Thursday 12 December.

Title: Intersections of Faiths and Health in East-Central Africa

Abstract: In East-Central Africa religious affiliation is widespread, religious discourse is public and populations are familiar with outbreaks of disease. Biomedical, herbal, spiritual healing are intertwined with religious traditions. Religious leaders have been central in responses to recent health challenges. The chances of achieving ‘good health and well-being of all (United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal) are improved by decolonising knowledge about faith and health and contextualising health choices. Yet the operation of religious belief and practice on health is often ignored or instrumentalised in developmental interventions. 

In my presentation I’ll be discussing this faith-health landscape and outlining the work of some collaborative projects with which I’m involved. I’ll be asking what role scholars of religion may have in public health. 

Abiodun Alao is Professor of African Studies at King’s College London. He has published extensively on African Studies. His two most recently published books are Religion, Public Health and Human Security in Nigeria (Routledge, 2023) and Rage and Carnage in the Name of God: Religious Violence in Nigeria (Duke University Press, 2022). He has previously held teaching and research appointments at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and at the University of Zimbabwe.

 

Professor Abiodun Alao is presenting on Thursday 6 February in Botany House seminar room 1.03. The seminar will take place from 11.30-13.00.

Title: “Fighting Pandemic in the Spirit: Religion and Covid-19 in Nigeria” 

Abstract: More than any other health crisis in recent times, the COVID-19 pandemic created global panic that necessitated universal responses. While the World Health Organisation introduced “social distancing” to avoid its spread, different societies came up with local initiatives that explain perceptions and reactions to the pandemic. For developing societies, especially in Africa, religion became a factor that underlined attitudes to the crisis - both in explaining the circumstances of its occurrence and the efforts to contain its consequences. This presentation looks at how religion comes into the variety of reactions to COVID-19 in Nigeria, including how religious groups address the social disruption COVID created and the attitudes towards vaccines meant to contain its spread. In its conclusion, the presentation argues that there were areas of convergence and divergence in the responses of Nigeria’s three main religions: the basis for agreement is rooted to the religions overarching beliefs in God’s overall control over all health matters, while the grounds for disagreement are explained by the religious leaders’ alleged desire to manipulate their followers.

Risaw Walis belongs to the Sediq people, one of the Indigenous communities in Taiwan. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds. His main research interests include indigenous land movements, indigenous land theologies, mother tongue biblical reading, and indigenous ecological biblical reading.

 

Risaw Walis is presenting on Thursday 13 February in Chemistry SR 1.53. Please note the different venue. The seminar will take place from 11.30-13.00.

Title: "Way su rmngaw manu? Ini ku kla mbahang (What are you saying? Why Can't I Understand?): When Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Began Wrestling with the Mother Tongue Bibles"

Abstract: Taiwan's Indigenous Peoples (TIP) have confronted and engaged with Christianity for at least 400 years, beginning with Dutch and Spanish colonization in the 17th century.  The relationship between the TIP and Christianity is one of rivalry and friendship, and it is also inextricably linked to the colonial experiences they faced.  Standing in such a triangular relationship, in this presentation, I will explain how the publication of mother tongue bibles has helped the TIP to wrestle with the biblical texts (I call this wrestling process 'decolonial'). I will also share how the process of reading the mother-tongue bibles helps the TIP sustain their continued decolonial movements in Taiwan's particular postcolonial context.

Edward Graham-Hyde is a Senior Researcher with Church Army, an Anglican charity focusing on church growth and evangelism. He is also the treasurer of the Information Network Focus on Religious Movements, an organisation which seeks to provide evidence-based information about religiosity in the UK. His doctoral research focused on religious recruitment and conversion. His research highlights the role of empowerment in recruitment and conversion into marginalised groups, often labelled as deviant. Currently, Edward is working on additional case studies and testing his conversion theory. Equally, he is also heavily involved with mapping ‘cult’ discourse and the impact this has on minority religious identity. 

 

Dr Graham-Hyde is presenting on Thursday 6 March in the Botany House seminar room (1.03). The seminar will take place from 11.30-13.00.

Title: “‘How to make followers and empower people’: A sociological theory of conversion into contemporary minority religions”

Abstract: In contemporary society, popular discourse surrounding minority religions is negatively impacted by usage of the word “cult” or “brainwashing,” words which carry pejorative connotations. Many minority religions, and adherents thereof, are “othered”; these include Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Baha’i, Paganisms and Scientologies. In this seminar I will reflect on my doctoral research which sought to ascertain the hidden social mechanisms which lead to a participant’s conversion. The research has begun to uncover an emergent sociological theory of conversion into seemingly deviant or marginalised groups, with empowerment as the underlying social mechanism. While reflecting on my methodological approach, I will contextualise much of the discussion within the context of “cult” rhetoric, exploring the impact this has on society and the implications this might have for the study of religion in public life. In essence, this lecture will be a summary of my research into marginalised minority religions thus far and will invite comment on the conclusions I have drawn as well as what other factors might be interesting to explore.

Dr Keith Kahn-Harris is a Senior Lecturer at Leo Baeck College and a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. His latest book is Everyday Jews: Why the Jewish People Are Not Who You Think They Are.

 

Dr. Keith Kahn-Harris (Leo Baeck College, London) will speak on Tuesday 18 March 2025 at 12 noon to 13.30. The venue is 11-14 Blenheim Tce SR G.06. 

Title: Re-imagining Judaism as purposeless insignificance

Abstract: There is an unacknowledged consensus that pervades across Jewish denominational boundaries that Judaism either is, or ideally should be, of world-historical significance as a means of changing the world for the better. Such visions of Judaism coincide with both philosemitic and antisemitic perceptions of the significance of Jews in the world. This consensus may not always be "good for the Jews". What would it be like then, to experiment with a vision of Judaism as a site of deliberate, purposeless insignificance?

Join Professor Nir Arielli in conversation with Dr John Gallagher to launch his new book, The Dead Sea: A 10,000 Year History (Yale University Press, 2025).

The Dead Sea is in trouble. Currently dropping at a rate of approximately a metre per year, the lake's water level is about 40 metres lower than it was in the mid-1970s. I hope to show readers that it is a unique place which should be saved.

Professor Nir Arielli

Find out more about the book in an interview with Professor Arielli.

Please purchase your ticket on the Waterstones website.

This event will be held at Waterstones, 93-97 Albion Street, Leeds. LS1 5AP.

The Centre for Religion and Public Life is pleased to announce a special seminar by Professor Kristin Aune of Coventry University. 

The seminar is part of a special series on singles studies organised by British Academy Global Professor Tendai Mangena. It will take place on 11 March 2025, 16.00-17.30 (UK time). The format is hybrid (in person and online). Venue: 17 Blenheim Terrace Boardroom

Title: "Singleness as standpoint epistemology, methodology and method: Unmarried positionality and the politics of research" 

Abstract: This paper makes the case for regarding singleness as a new lens for research epistemology, methodology and method. Being single, I will argue, makes a difference to what a researcher can know, especially in contexts where there are clear divisions between marriage and singleness – for example, societies where marriage is the social or religious norm. Singleness enables a particular perspective on a subject of study, a particular standpoint. Scholars have made a convincing case for feminist standpoint epistemology, and for other forms of standpoint epistemology including Black, queer, working-class and others. Yet that work has, curiously, ignored being single as a resource for understanding the social world. Perhaps this is because much scholarship, and much theorising about research methodology, has been undertaken by secular scholars, in contexts where marriage is decreasing in social importance. This paper contends that singleness is both a form of positionality and a new methodological tool for revealing and challenging power relations. Singleness also shapes methodology (theory on how research should proceed), and method (how data is gathered). 

What does this look like in practice? The paper will outline how my ethnographic study on gender in a British evangelical Christian church movement was carried out using a single, Christian, feminist epistemology, methodology and method, and discuss how participants’ constructions of my marital status shaped the knowledge I produced about them. This paper reclaims being unmarried or unpartnered as a form of positionality that can be transformative for knowledge production, alongside gender, ‘race’ or ethnicity, religion, sexuality and other intersections.  

Kristin Aune is Professor of Sociology of Religion at the Centre for Peace and Security, Coventry University. Her research is on religion and higher education, and religion and gender, and she has published widely on these topics, most recently in the Journal of College and Character, the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and Sociology of Religion. Her research has been funded by, among others, the Arts & Humanities Research Council, the Economic & Social Research Council and the Office for Students. She has just completed the study "Building positive relationships among university students across religion and worldview difference" (collaborating with Durham, North Carolina State and The Ohio State universities), funded by Porticus and the Spalding Trust. She is editor of the journal Religion and Gender. 

Helen Paynter is Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence, as well as an academic and educator in the areas of biblical and theological education at Bristol Baptist College. She has researched and published extensively on topics of religion and violence, as well as on spiritual abuse. Together with Maria Power, Helen Paynter edited the book, The Church, the Far Right, and the Claim to Christianity (SCM, 2024). 

The event aims to explore a timely and difficult topic and we very much hope to engage in free, frank and constructive dialogue on the Far Right (what it is and how its influence manifests) and the roles of complicity and resistance of Church and Christianity.

The event will take place at the Emmanuel Centre, University of Leeds from 16.30-18.30 on Friday 14 March.