The November 2025 edition of the BASR Bulletin is available here:
EDITORIAL
NEWS, ETC
BASR AGM
FEATURES
TEACHING UNDER TRUMP
THE DOING OF RELIGION
CONFERENCES
IAHR 2025
GURDJIEFF 2025
BOOK REVIEWS
ON BEING NONRELIGIOUS IN JAPAN
SUPREME WISDOM LESSONS
MODELLING RELIGION
RITUAL AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS
RELIGION, GENDER AND SEXUALITY
CROWN OF THORNS
WEIRD CONFUCIUS
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
The BASR would like to draw attention to the European Association for the Study of Religion’s recent statement on the suffering of Palestinian scholars, teachers, and students as well as the destruction of education in Gaza.
The BASR joins with the EASR in condemning the violence perpetrated by the state of Israel in Gaza and other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory that undermines, among others, the right to freely teach and learn.
The BASR would like to draw attention to the American Academy of Religion’s recent statement on resisting complacency and supporting scholarship under attack. The AAR has also provided useful advocacy actions.
The BASR stands with all colleagues facing challenges in increasingly troubling times.
The BASR Committee notes the on-going situations in Ukraine and Gaza, and the role of religion in peace initiatives and fuelling violence, in both places. The Committee would like to point members, friends and colleagues to the following statements issued by the British Academy and the International Sociological Association regarding Ukraine and Gaza, respectively. As scholars of religion it is our duty to nurture safe spaces so that critical, evidence-based and respectful dialogue can take place.
REGISTRATION CLOSED
Please note we will not be charging for those presenting online, so there is no need to register. However, we would be grateful if you could confirm that you will be presenting. Please also note that the timings for the conference are in British Summer Time (the local time zone for the conference location).
British Association for the Study of Religions Annual Conference
September 2-4, 2024
Reckoning with the Past
University of Leeds
Sponsored by the CenSAMM and the Hibbert Trust
The academic study of religion, with its roots in a variety of scholarly disciplines, is currently in a state of reassessment in terms of its history, relationship with colonialism, and problematic frameworks of ‘religion’. This year’s BASR conference, sponsored by the Hibbert Trust and CenSAMM, brings together scholars to reckon with the past – from a variety of perspectives. As well as current issues in how groups are reckoning with their own problematic histories, we expect to cover themes such as the decolonisation of religious studies, anti-racist education and education about the slave trade; in addition to the history of religious studies and colonial impacts.
Topics will include, but are not limited to:
Accommodation will be superior single en suite rooms in the Storm Jameson building.
The conference will start with lunch on Monday 2nd September and finish with lunch on Wednesday 4th. There will be a walking visit to local places of interest on the Wednesday afternoon for those able to stay later.
The Full Conference Programme is available below, we hope you will find answers to all of your questions in the programme, but do not hesitate to contact the conference team (basrconference2024@gmail.com) with any questions!
Conference Team:
Professor Melanie Prideaux, Pro Dean for Student Education, Faculty of Arts Humanities and Cultures
Dr Aled Thomas, Teaching Fellow in the Study of Religion
Erin Clark, BASR Conference Administrative Assistant
Are you an academic passionate about bringing you research to new audiences? Or are you an artist passionate about using your work for social change?
Supported by the Open Societal Challenges Fund and the British Association for the Study of Religions, the Open University, King’s College London and Pitik Bulag cartoon collective are launching a competition to bring together outreach-focused academics and cartoonists to collaborate on a series of images that make the latest research about pressing social challenges accessible to general audiences.
Please find full details in the documents below. If you have any questions, please contact Dr Paul-François Tremlett (paul-francois-tremlett@open.ac.uk).
Religion, Space and Place
Friday 5th September, 2025. Online, hosted by the Open University.
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: Click Here
The BASR is pleased to be supporting the quinquennial IAHR conference in Krakow this year and we hope to see many of you there. As is our usual custom in an IAHR year, we will be running our annual conference for 2025 over a single day. This year, with thanks to the Open University for hosting, we have also chosen to run the conference online, in the hope that this will be as accessible to as many participants as possible.
We are therefore pleased to announce that the theme for this year’s conference will be, ‘Religion Space and Place’. Our keynote speaker will be Professor Lily Kong, a geographer who has written extensively on religion, with a focus on religion and urban change in Asian cities.
Please find the conference programme below:
The conference will be taking place on Microsoft Teams. Please find a guide below:
Queries should be sent to basrconference2025@gmail.com.
British Association for the Study of Religions 