14 May 2025

The PGR Voice survey

For PGR students. The PGR Voice Survey is now open which means it’s your chance to tell us about your experience as a postgraduate researcher. Launched in 2023, the PGR Voice Survey has been developed and delivered in collaboration with the University of Sheffield to give you the opportunity to provide feedback on your experiences as a postgraduate researcher. We hope that you will take the time to complete the survey with your honest feedback so that we can continue to make the University of Manchester a great place to be a postgraduate researcher. The survey is open until Friday 20 June. It will only take around 15 minutes to complete. Your responses are confidential, and the reporting of results will be completely anonymous. For every survey completed, the University will donate £1 to charities, and you'll be entered into a prize draw. Further information.

12 May 2025

Liberal Arts Student Conference

Student activities. The third annual Lib Arts Northern Network student conference took place in Leeds, 21st March. 14 of our students attended. An output of the day was this creative padlet page asking "Why do Liberal Arts Matter?"

08 May 2025

Framing Religious Art Online Workshop

Religion and Arts. Siobhán Jolley is speaking at an online event "Framing Religious Art in UK Collections" on 17 June 2025, 13:30-15:30. In this workshop, artists, curators, and academics will present brief position papers that reflect on the museum as a space for faith and belief, making religious art today, and some possibilities for presenting historical and contemporary religious artworks to audiences who come from diverse faith backgrounds or none at all. The second half of the session will be a facilitated discussion focused on how museums and collections shape and share in cultural narratives about faith and religion. Participants are welcome to bring their experiences of the collections they work for or research into the discussion. Further information and registration here.

07 May 2025

New Publication

Religion & Politics. Michael Hoelzl has published "Die imaginierte Gemeinschaft von Nachfolge und followers. Ein politisch-theologischer Vergleich" in: Lukas Bormann, Ansgar Kreutzer (eds). Politische Theologien. Aufbrüche und Neukonzipierungen (Herder, 2025) pp. 469-486. The aim of this essay is to confront the theological and sociological concept of fellowship in Johann Baptist Metz Neue Politische Theologie with the social media phenomenon of followers. It is argued that both the traditional understandings of discipleship as well as the virtual communities of followers can be conceived as imagined communities, despite some fundamental differences between them. In the conclusion it will be argued that both conceptions of fellowship need to be taken into account for pastoral reasons but also for the sake of a further development of political theology today. Further information.

06 May 2025

Edinburgh Passion Play Panel

Biblical studies. Sarah Parkhouse is speaking on a panel about the Edinburgh 2025 Passion Play, "Behold the Man"; University of Edinburgh, 9 May, 2pm. Further information.

05 May 2025

Historical Association Conference Presentation

Jewish studies. On 9 May, PhD student Rob Kanter will present an interactive session at the annual Historical Association conference in Liverpool. The session: 'Exploring multiple Arab and Jewish voices to understand the background to the Arab-Israeli conflict, c1917-38'. This session will explore the background to and the main developments and events during the Mandate period. Rob has develop a conference style activity to explore with educators which investigates multiple Arab and Jewish perspectives on the Peel Partition Plan and aims to draw lessons for interacting with contemporary debates surrounding the current phase of the conflict. Further information.

02 May 2025

International Conference Paper

Asian Religions. Erica Baffelli will be presenting at the XXIII IAHR Congress in Kraków in August 2025 as speaker on a roundtable on “Recentring Fear in the Study of Religion: Theorising from Asia” and as discussant for the panel “The Religious Aesthetics of Intense Devotion in the Ancient World”. Further information.

01 May 2025

East Asian Religion Seminar

Buddhist Studies. The East Asia Research Seminar invites you to "Extraordinary Lives: Illustrated Hagiographies in Ming Book Culture" by Dr Noga Ganany (University of Cambridge), May 14th, 16.00-18.00pm, Sam Alex A112. For more information on the research seminar, please feel free to send your queries to Zhaokun Xin.

30 April 2025

National Gallery Video

Bible and Arts. The National Gallery’s Picture of the Month for April is Savoldo’s Mary Magdalene, and they’ve released a short film where Siobhán Jolley explains how we can identify her in the work. Watch it here.

29 April 2025

Buddhist Studies Keynote

Buddhist studies. Erica Baffelli will deliver a keynote for the annual conference of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies (UKABS) on June 28, 2025 (SOAS, University of London). Her keynote address will be titled: “Buddhism at the Margins: Crisis, Community, and Vulnerabilities”.

28 April 2025

BBC Breakfast

Christian studies. Siobhán Jolley appeared on BBC Breakfast on 27 April to talk about Pope Francis' legacy and funeral.

25 April 2025

Yom Hashoah Commemoration, Manchester

Jewish studies. PhD student Rob Kanter used aspects of his PhD research on Jewish-Muslim relations in Britain to write and present some of the programme at Manchester's Yom Hashoah commemoration which was attended by 900 people in Central Manchester on Wednesday 23 April. The theme of this year's event was 'Untold Stories'. Rob explored the under told experiences of Jewish communities in Iraq and Tunisia during the period of the Holocaust to broaden the audience's understanding on the 'long reach' of the Holocaust into the Middle East and North Africa. Further information.


24 April 2025

New Publication

Biblical studies. Todd Klutz has published "Justinus’s Book of Baruch" in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, vol. 2, edited by James R. Davila and Richard Bauckham (Eerdmans). The work includes an article-length introduction, a new translation, bibliography, and scholarly annotations. Further information.