HEA PRS post-graduate training network for advanced methods in the study of religion
'Exploring new challenges and methods in the study of religion', day conference,
16 May 2009, Birkbeck College, University of London.
This event, funded by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, provided an opportunity for post-graduate researchers to discuss the current research agenda for the study of religion as well as different methodological issues in this field. Nearly 40 delegates attended the event from universities around the UK.
Another workshop funded through this network will take place in the spring/early summer of 2010 with the date to be confirmed.
The main plenary addresses made at this event were:
Linda Woodhead, Lancaster University and Director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme:
'Conceptualising religion: key approaches and new directions'
Katherine Moody, Lancaster University: 'Studying religion and the internet'
(The powerpoint slides for this presentation are available here)
Abby Day, Sussex University: 'Believing in Belonging: conceptual and methodological approaches to studying "belief"'
Nine doctoral student presentations were also made ( click here for abstracts):
Jane Cameron, Edinburgh University, PhD Candidate: ‘Visualising Buddhism in India: Contesting Categories in the Field’
Janet Eccles, Lancaster University, , PhD Candidate, University: Strictly within limits: the pitfalls and possibilities of a local interview-based study
Saleem Khan, London Metropolitan University, PhD Candidate: ‘Accommodation, competition, and conflict: sectarian identity in Pakistan, 1977-2002.'
Lois Lee, Cambridge University, PhD Candidate: ‘How religious is non-religion? Non-believing and belonging in Modernity’
Helen Purcell, Open University, PhD Candidate: ‘Balancing the Narratives – a methodological approach to the emic and etic issues of being a Pagan Academic.
Denise Ross, University of Birmingham, PhD Candidate: "A study of the impact of missionaries among the Chin tribe in Myanmar".
Anna Rose Stewart, University of Sussex, PhD Candidate: 'Fieldwork and the network: Contextualising online religion'.
Ingrid Storm, University of Manchester, PhD candidate: ‘Using survey data to identify and construct measures of religiosity.’
Richard McCallum, PhD Candidate, Exeter University: ‘Evangelical Christians, Muslims and the Public Sphere’.
