Category: news

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 5^th 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.

BASR Annual Conference 2023

In collaboration with CenSAMM

Clare College, Cambridge

11 – 13 September 2023

“Environmental Endings and Religious Futures”

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Catherine Wessinger, Professor of the History of Religions, Loyola University New Orleans.

Dr. Katherine Swancutt, Reader in Social Anthropology, King’s College London.

Conference Timetable:

Call for Papers:

Religions have long offered frameworks of meaning for concepts of world ending. Amid the contemporary social and political importance of climate change and fears about environmental degradation, ideas of world ending and widespread cataclysm have become pressing in both religious and secular contexts. Equally, as apocalyptic discourses proliferate, so too do human imaginations of the future, with optimistic and pessimistic narratives of the post-apocalyptic world jostling for attention. Reflecting on these overlapping strands, the theme of this year’s annual conference is “Environmental Endings and Religious Futures.”  

Held in collaboration with the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM), BASR 2023 invites submissions reflecting on how religion interacts with narratives of environmental decline, catastrophe, hope, and renewal. We also invite submissions reflecting on the connections and tensions between religious practice, environmental activism, and climate justice (as well as passivity and injustice). We also welcome critical and methodological studies of the ways Religious Studies scholars might seek to understand and evaluate the complex ways that religious beliefs and practices interact with contemporary concerns about imminent environmental cataclysm.

This year, we are offering up to four full bursaries (excluding travel) for students and early career researchers. In addition, as part of our increased commitment to diversity in all its forms, we will be awarding an additional two full bursaries for those who self-identify as belonging to an under-represented Protected Characteristic. As well as these, we are offering up to five partial bursaries of £150 each for those facing financial challenges, irrespective of their status, though priority will be given to those attending the full conference and who will be travelling by public transport.

Please find the application form attached below and return the form to S.Owen@leedstrinity.ac.uk by the deadline of 14 July 2023. 

While some practical details for the conference are still being arranged, we have included below a breakdown of the various cost options for the event. As always, we have worked hard to secure the best possible deal for delegates, and are thankful for the financial support we have received from CenSAMM and from the University of Cambridge to help make the event as affordable as possible. Costs are as follows:

All Inclusive Conference Package: £360 (full conference registration, all meals including gala dinner, and two nights single ensuite B&B at Clare).

Full Conference Package (no accommodation): £180 (as above, minus B&B).

Whole Conference Day Rate: £100 (registration for whole conference, including lunches and coffee breaks)

Single Day Rate: £50 (one day conference registration, including lunch and coffee breaks)

Single Ensuite B&B at Clare: £90 per night

Cafeteria Dinner: £20 each

Gala Dinner: £40

Whole Conference Online Registration for BASR Members: free

Whole Conference Online Registration for waged non-members: £40

Whole Conference Online Registration for unwaged non-members: £25

General questions concerning the conference should be directed to the Conference Committee at BASRconference2023@gmail.com. Please keep an eye on your junk folders for potential correspondence!

BASR 2022 Conference

Booking is now open for the first in-person BASR conference since the beginning of the pandemic (with hybrid options)! The conference is taking place from 30 August to 1 September at The Open University, Milton Keynes. See here for booking and more information: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/british-association-for-the-study-of-religions-annual-conference-2022-tickets-380260729077

The conference schedule, including individual papers, is also available here:

We are also offering four full bursaries for students and early career researchers – which cover the full conference package accommodation, but not travel – and an additional eight bursaries of £100 to assist colleagues who are facing financial hardship. An application form, which must be returned to the BASR Secretary by 3 August, can be found here:

This year the theme of the British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR) conference focuses on Religion and Public Engagement. We want to explore the many ways in which religion engages with various specific publics, and various publics engage with religion (however construed).

Religion can be used to motivate and inflame ‘the public’ – from encouraging support or opposition to war in the Ukraine, storming the US Capitol building in support of freedom, or to accept or refuse a vaccine. Although relevant aspects of current events may seem obvious to scholars of religion, we must proactively work to justify our subject of study as important and relevant to others. We are also increasingly expected to engage specific publics and demonstrate impact from our research. Reflections on how, why, where, when, and with whom we engage are very welcome.

Fittingly, this year’s conference is co-sponsored by Inform (www.inform.ac) which exists to prevent harm based on misinformation by bringing the insights and methods of academic research into the public domain.

We look forward to welcoming you all at this year’s conference!

BASR Annual Conference 6-7 September 2021, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh

BASR Annual Conference 6-7 September 2021, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh

“From Religious Studies to the Study of Religion/s: Disciplinary Futures for the 21st century”

Registration for the conference is now open. Please fill in this form to register: https://forms.gle/8Wkw66Yb5SCEnBHq7. 

Please note that registration is provisional until confirmation of membership status or payment of the registration fee. The Treasurer will make contact once your form is received. Registration for speakers closes on 12 July 2021, but late registration for attendees will remain open until 1 September. If you have any queries, please contact the BASR Treasurer, Dr Chris Cotter, on basr.treasurer@gmail.com. 

More information about the conference, including the conference booklet and information on how to attend, will appear on the conference webpage over the course of the summer. Please bookmark this webpage: https://basr.ac.uk/basr-conference-2021/. 

We look forward very much to (virtually) welcoming you to Edinburgh in September. 

Conference Programme below

About the Conference

The BASR 2021 conference falls in the 175^th anniversary year of the foundation of New College, home of the School of Divinity, and marks the 50^th anniversary of the teaching of Religious Studies at Edinburgh. The conference is also designated an IAHR Special Conference and we look forward to welcoming our international colleagues.

The aim of the conference is to discuss disciplinary and interdisciplinary pasts and futures in Religious Studies or the Study of Religion/s, with a particular focus on the future shape of the field in the 21^st Century. After a period of sharp critique of many of the field’s basic categories and axioms, it feels timely now to reflect upon what the field has positively achieved, the challenges it has faced (and overcome), and the direction(s) it should now pursue.

The scope of the conference is the post-1960s period up to and including the present moment, during which Religious Studies emerged, consolidated and diversified as a recognised disciplinary field or ‘brand’. Local and regional histories of the field during this period are welcome, particularly where they identify problems or strengths for the future, or can illuminate regional or international developments.

We are particularly interested in exploring the grounds for positive and constructive disciplinary futures based on concrete methods and models for research and teaching. Questions to consider here might include: What intellectual benefits does the Study of Religion/s bring to academic research in colleges and universities? What are its particular strengths in teaching, what pedagogical contributions does it make to secondary school and adult education, and how might its curriculae be improved in practical ways? What kinds of impact does the field have in wider society, and in what directions might its impact be developed? Who are the different audiences for the Study of Religion/s, and how can we engage new audiences whilst fostering existing strengths? Which academic disciplines offer strongest synergies for our field, whether established partners or new approaches, and how can we make the most of these while retaining a sense of our own identity? And what’s in a name – what is the best disciplinary title for what we’ve been doing since the 1960s (and earlier)?

We are delighted to confirm the titles of our two keynote papers:

‘The Collective Ownership of Knowledge: Implications for the Study of Religion/s in Local Contexts’
James Cox, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies,
University of Edinburgh

‘Studying Religions critically in Universities and Schools: bridging the gap?’

Wanda Alberts, Professor in the Study of Religion,
Leibniz University Hannover.

The programme will also feature an international panel on the conference theme and a parallel online video and art installation, “RUINS”.

Conference exhibitors:

Bloomsbury Academic (see conference page)
Equinox (see conference flyer)

The cost of registration, for both presenters and non-presenters, is as follows:

• Members of the BASR: Free
• Non-members (waged): £30
• Non-members (unwaged): £15

Note that for non-members, registration for the conference will also include entitlement for one year of membership of the BASR.

Each year, the BASR Exec awards a single Teaching and Learning Fellowship to a colleague in recognition of their contribution to the student learning experience in the study of religions. This Fellowship includes an award of £300 plus a funded place at the BASR Annual Conference. The expectation of the person receiving this Fellowship is to write a short piece reflecting on current issues/ experiences of teaching Religious Studies in HE for the BASR Bulletin and help the Teaching and Learning Rep on the BASR Exec, Steffi Sinclair, organise the teaching and learning panel for the 2022 BASR conference. However, there is a lot of flexibility in how this could be approached.

If you would like to be considered for the 2021 BASR Teaching and Learning Fellowship or would like to nominate a colleague (or have any questions about this Fellowship), please get in touch with Steffi at stefanie.sinclair@open.ac.uk  . Your application will need to be supported by a statement that outlines the contribution the applicant/ nominee has made to the student learning experience in the study of religions in HE with reference to any of the following four themes: 

• Influencing and inspiring students’ learning; 
• Influencing and inspiring colleagues’ teaching; 
• Innovation and development of practice; 
• Personal reflection on practice.

This statement can be provided either by the applicant themselves or by a colleague supporting the application. The deadline for nominations/ applications is the 1^st of June 2021. We welcome applications from/ nominations for colleagues at all stages of their careers. 

This panel, curated by Wendy Dossett (University of Chester), discusses the Commission for Religious Education’s proposal for a shift towards studying “Religion and Worldviews” in Secondary Religious Education. Contributions from Wendy Dossett, Rudi Eliott Lockhart (former CEO of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales), Suzanne Owen (Leeds Trinity University), Paul-Francois Tremlett (Open University) and Malory Nye (Independent Academic affiliated to University of Glasgow)

The opening panel from BASR 2020 focused on Teaching and Learning. First is a presentation from 2020 Teaching Award recipient Melanie Prideaux, together with her student Natasha Jones (both University of Leeds). This is followed by an open discussion on the COVID-19 pivot to online delivery, with contributions from Dawn Llewellyn (2019 Teaching Award recipient, University of Chester), Stefanie Sinclair (BASR T&L rep, Open University), Paul-Francois Tremlett (Open University), BASR President Bettina Schmidt, Melanie Prideaux and Natasha Jones.