World Backup Day

Religion and technology. To celebrate World Backup Day (31 March),  Scott Midson reminds us that human consciousness might one day be backed up. "Hans Moravec, in his book Mind Children (1988) originally proposed the notion of the 'upload', which has been picked up in lots of sci-fi since (e.g. Transcendence, The Matrix). The key question that I and others explore here is whether we’ll stay human if we upload ourselves to machines. Antonio Spadaro, in his book Cybertheology (2014) thinks that part of being human, as well having a physical body, is our ability to forget things, which the upload (and the related notion of the ‘cloud’) would challenge. An episode of the first series of Black Mirror, ‘The Entire History of You’, plays on this idea – as well as others about the ethics of uploading parts of ourselves to machines (see ‘San Junipero’, ‘White Christmas’)." Scott was a contributor to Irwin and Johnson, eds, Black Mirror and Philosophy: Dark Reflections (2019), which picks up on these themes further, and is the author of Cyborg Theology: Humans, Technology and God (2017). 

Conference paper, Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià, Barcelona

Biblical studies. Sarah Parkhouse will be presenting a paper on women in passion and resurrection narratives at a conference called "Narratives of Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection between the second and the seventh Century", at Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià, Barcelona, 28-30 April 2022. Further information.

New publication

Dead Sea Scrolls. Hon research fellow Helen R. Jacobus, "Science Fiction in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Case of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Nephilim," in Fountains of Wisdom. In Conversation with James H. Charlesworth, eds. Gerbern S. Oegema, Henry W. Morisada, and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (London: T & T Clark, 2022), 455-466. She will be presenting a paper of the same title at the Festschrift Conference for James Charlesworth, the McGill-Munich-Grinnell Conference on 40 Years of Pseudepigrapha Research, in Montreal, on April 3-5, 2022. Further information.

Conference paper, SST

Religion and science. Scott Midson will give a paper at the Society for the Study of Theology (SST) entitled ‘Paradise Lost, Paradise Found? Love and Liberation from Genesis to the Singularity’. 28-31 March. Further information.

Conference, Pacifism and Nonviolence in Islam

Islamic Studies. Tom Woerner-Powell (AMES) has organised a conference entitled 'Fī Subul al-Salām: Pacifism and Nonviolence in Contemporary Islam'. This conference brings together academics, civil society members, and activists from around the world. It explores Muslim experiences of pacifism and nonviolence while exploring prospects for their theorization. Venue: Dalton Room, Core Technology Facility, 46 Grafton St, University of Manchester. 17 May 2022. Further information.

Research paper, Hebrew University

Dead Sea Scrolls. PhD student John Darby will give a paper entitled 'Singing, performing and Textuality in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice', chaired by George Brooke. Zoom, 4pm, 6 April 2022. Further information.

Religions & Theology Research Seminar

Autism and selfhood. Professor Grant Macaskill (University of Aberdeen) “Autism, Selfhood and Language: Social, Biblical and Theological Intersections”. [Zoom Only] 16:00 - 17:30 28 April 2022. The Religions & Theology research seminar takes place on alternate Thursdays. This is a hybrid session and can be attended in person or online. Please register to receive the Zoom link by emailing andrew.boakye@manchester.ac.uk. Seminars last 90 minutes including a 30 minute Q&A session.

Ehrhardt Seminar, Centre for Biblical Studies

Human-animal boundary. Peter Atkins, University of Chester, ‘Reading Across the Human-Animal Boundary: The Animalising Affliction of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4.’ 14:00 - 15:30 28 April 2022. The Centre for Biblical Studies weekly seminar series. Sessions will take place in a hybrid format - attendance is possible in person or online via Zoom. To register to attend online, please email siobhan.jolley@manchester.ac.uk.

Guest lecture, Lund University

Religion and technology. Scott Midson will give a lecture entitled 'Existential Sustainability: Theological Foundations of Lovotics: Notions of Perfection in Human-Robot Relationships' for the research project 'At the Margins of Life: Existential Dimension to Technology, Health, and Death.'  25 March 2022. Further information.

Advisory, Catholic Social Academy, Vienna

Catholic Studies. Michael Hoelzl was invited as an external academic advisor to the annual board of the Catholic Social Academy (ksoe) in Vienna. The topic of this one day meeting was: "Catholic Social Teaching today: the meaning and significance of solidarity and subsidiarity after the pandemic". 28 Feb 2022.

Teaching Excellence

SALC Workshop on the University Teaching Excellence Award. Holly Morse (2019) and Daniel Langton (2006) were among previous prize winners who contributed to the training session. 24 March 2022.

Atheist Day

Jewish Studies. To mark Atheist Day (23 March), we highlight Daniel Langton's edited collection, Melilah: Atheism, Scepticism and Challenges to Monotheism (2015); the article 'Discourses of Doubt: The Place of Atheism, Scepticism and Infidelity in Nineteenth-Century North American Reform Jewish Thought' in Hebrew Union College Annual 88 (2018); the entry on 'Atheism' for the Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations (De Gruyter, 2021); and the chapter 'What Is the Relationship Between Judaism and Atheism?' in Atheism in Five Minutes ed by T. Taira (Equinox, 2022).

National Student Survey (NSS)

Help your department! The National Student Survey is completed by final-year undergraduates at universities across the UK. It will run at the University of Manchester from 6 January until 30 April 2022. This year, the University is offering a charity donation incentive to encourage students to complete the NSS; for each response submitted the University will also make a £2 donation to charity. This will be done automatically and the amount will be split between four charities chosen by students. Universities and students' unions use student feedback to see how we can keep delivering high quality teaching, and future students can see the results to help them make degree choices. For further information, see the Q&As for students and the poster. Please take the survey!

World Story Telling Day

South Asian Studies. To celebrate World Story-Telling Day (20 March), we highlight some works by  Jackie Suthren Hirst, including 'Spreading Hindu Texts: Tellings and Translations' in Discovering Sacred Texts (London: British Library, 2019) and 'Telling Sita's Story' in Torosa: Teaching Across Religions of South Asia (2020).

Guest lectures, Sarum College

Religion and technology. Scott Midson gave two sessions at Sarum College on ‘Theology, Anthropology & Technology: An Introduction to Posthumanism’. 19 March 2022.

Old publication

Jewish Studies. Bill Williams, "Displaced Scholars: Refugees at the University of Manchester" in Melilah vol.2 (2005), 1-29. "The paper explores the responses of one institution of higher learning in Britain, the University of Manchester, to those academics and students displaced by the rise of European Fascism and particularly by the discriminatory polices of the Nazi regime. Drawing on material in the Vice Chancellor’s Archive at the University it assesses the degree to which the undoubtedly liberal intentions of the University hierarchy, which found expression in the formation of a Joint Committee of Council and Senate on Assistance to Foreign Scholars (JCAFS), were complicated by its willingness to work within the restrictions on alien immigrants imposed by the British state, by considerations of self-interest and by the innate elitism of the Manchester academy..." Further information.

Social responsibility, OxNet

Widening participation. David Law presents on 'Free Will' seminar 6, 22nd March (6-7pm) as part of the OxNet evening seminar series. For 2022, this Oxford-Manchester series for A-level students of religious studies and theology was co-ordinated by Michael Hoelzl and entitled ‘Beyond Belief'. Contact sonja.bernhard@manchester.ac.uk for details of this zoom series held at the University of Manchester.

Careers service news

For Religions & Theology students. Do you have any careers questions or are just not sure where to start? Come and meet the Humanities Careers Advice Team for our drop-in in the North Foyer of the Samuel Alexander Building on Tuesday 26 April, 12-2pm. Looking for work experience? Our Work Experience Bursary scheme is now open for applications. The scheme offers financial support for full time undergraduates of all years to undertake career enhancing work experience opportunities that might be low paid or unpaid.

New publication

Christian Studies. Honorary Research Fellow Geordan Hammond reports: Holiness and Pentecostal Movements: Intertwined Pasts, Presents, and Futures, edited by David Bundy, Geordan Hammond, and David Sang-Ehil Han (Penn State University Press, 2022). Register for a book launch celebration for it via Zoom on Sat 30 April, 17:00-18:00. Further information.

Podcast, Screen & Talk discussion

Jewish and Drama Studies. Podcast now available for the discussion of the film 'Jacob the Liar', co-hosted by the Centre for Jewish Studies and the Department of Drama at Manchester University on 2 Feb 2022. Watch on YouTube.

British Science Week, Judaism

Judaism and science. To celebrate British Science Week (11-20 March) we highlight the work of Daniel Langton, who was co-editor of the Judaism section of Springer’s Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions (2013), and author of its entry on 'Progressive Judaism'. He was senior fellow at the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at Pennsylvania University 2017-18 where he co-designed their year-long research programme 'Nature between Science and Religion'. He has written extensively on Jews and Darwinism and gave the keynote lecture 'Divine Action for Jewish Evolutionists' for the Science and Religion Forum conference 2013, which had as its theme 'Chance or Providence? Religious Perspectives on Divine Action'. Watch his podcast interview on 'How Darwin Influenced Early Reform Judaism' for the US Judaism-and-science think tank Sinai and Synapses (2018).

British Science Week, Theology

Theology and science. To celebrate British Science Week (11-20 March) we highlight the work of Scott Midson. Watch some short films based on his research on love and robots, first presented at Manchester Cathedral (18 Nov 2019), and listen to his panel contributions on the topic of 'Artificial Intelligence' in Radio 4's Beyond Belief (26 Nov 2018). Among his publications are 'Robo-Theisms and Robot Theists: How do Robots Challenge and Reveal Notions of God?' in Implicit Religion 20:3 (2017) and 'Robots and Religion' in Dialogue: A Journal of Religion and Philosophy 55 (Nov 2020). Dr Midson is a university STEM Ambassador and has given many talks at schools to highlight the relationship between the sciences and theology.

British Science Week, Islam

Islam and science. To celebrate British Science Week (11-20 March) we highlight the work of Kamran Karimullah, who recently served as co-editor (with Peter E. Pormann) of a special issue of Oriens journal on medieval Islamic medicine (2017). He has recently completed a four-year post-doctoral post on the AHRC-funded Genealogies of Knowledge project, which uses digital corpora to study how scientific and political concepts evolve across space, time and cultures. One of his project outputs (2020) is a corpus-assisted study of how nineteenth- and early-twentieth century British scholars used various English terms relating to medical semiotics to translate medical writings by Hippocrates of Cos, the founder of Western (and Islamic) medicine. He has also worked on an ERC-funded project on the nature and scople of medical commentaries in Islamic intellectual history and published, among other things, a study (2019) on the cross-fertilisation of philosophical and medical concepts in commentaries on Avicenna's epoch-making medical summa, the Canon of Medicine.

Podcast, Bogdanow Lectures 2022

Holocaust and Gender Studies. The 2022 Bogdanow Lectures by Prof. Marion Kaplan (New York University) on 'Refugees and Gender Studies: New Perspectives in Holocaust Studies' are now available to view online. The lectures are entitled: (1) Hitler's Jewish Refugees: Hope and Anxiety in Portugal, 1940-1945, and (2) Gender and the Holocaust. Originally presented 8-9 Feb 2022. Watch on YouTube.

New publication

Christian theology and social science. LTI research fellow CL Wren Radford, Lived Experiences and Social Transformations: Poetics, Politics and Power Relations in Practical Theology, Theology in Practice Series (Brill, 2022). Further information.

Conference paper, Futures of Care

Religion and technology. Scott Midson will give a paper entitled 'Pastoral Posthumans? On the robotic media(tisa)tion of care and religion' at the 'Futures of Care: Relationality and Responsibility in more than Human Worlds' conference, Thackray Museum of Medicine, Leeds. 8 April 2022. Further information.

Social responsibility, OxNet

Widening participation. Andy Boakye presents on 'Scandal of the Cross' seminar 5, 15th March (6-7pm) as part of the OxNet evening seminar series. For 2022, this Oxford-Manchester series for A-level students of religious studies and theology was co-ordinated by Michael Hoelzl and entitled ‘Beyond Belief'. Contact sonja.bernhard@manchester.ac.uk for details of this zoom series held at the University of Manchester.

International Women's Day

Jewish Studies. To celebrate International Women’s Day (8 March) we highlight the theological work of Grace Aguilar, discussed in Daniel Langton, 'The Gracious Ambiguity of Grace Aguilar (1816-47): Anglo-Jewish Theologian, Novelist, Poet, and Pioneer of Interfaith Relations' in Melilah: Journal of Jewish Studies 8 (2011). Further information.

International Women's Day

Indian Philosophy. To celebrate International Women’s Day (8 March) we highlight the work of Caroline Rhys Davids née Foley (1857-1942) as editor, translator and commentator of Pāli Buddhist texts. She was Lecturer in Indian Philosophy in what was then our Faculty of Theology in the Department of Comparative Religion from 1910-1913. She was one of the first women in the Faculty; the first female student had only graduated in 1931. During her time at Manchester, Rhys Davids published Compendium of philosophy, being a translation now made for the first time from the original Pāli of the Abhidhammattha-sangaha (1910) together with Shwe Hsan Aung Anuruddha, the article ‘Intellect and the Khandha Doctrine’ (1910) in Buddhist Review, and Buddhism: A Study of the Buddhist Norm (1912). Manchester University awarded her an honorary D.Litt. degree in 1919. She was instrumental in the Pāli Text Society and served as its President for two decades from 1922. A campaigner for women’s suffrage, Caroline Rhys Davids’ first paper on Pāli literature, presented at the Ninth Congress of Orientalists in 1893 under her maiden name Caroline Foley, was entitled ‘Women Leaders of the Buddhist Reformation’. According to Dawn Neale (2014) , Foley was one of only two women participating in the Congress. Foley did not present her paper herself. Instead, a summary of the paper was read by her teacher and later husband, TW Rhys Davids, who was the inaugural Professor of Comparative Religion at Manchester from 1904-1915. (By Katja Stuerzenhofecker, Lecturer in Religion and Gender)

International Women's Day

Biblical Studies. To celebrate International Women’s Day (8 March) we highlight some recent work of our Lecturer in Bible, Gender and Culture, Dr Holly Morse: ‘The First Woman Question: Eve and the Women’s Movement’ in Y. Sherwood with A. Fisk (eds.), Bible, Feminism and Gender: Remapping the Field (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017) and Encountering Eve’s Afterlives: A New Reception Critical Approach to Genesis 2-4 (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020).

Research paper, Oxford University

Biblical Studies. Siobhán Jolley gave a paper entitled 'Artemisia's Bible: Gentileschi's biblical heroines as proto-feminist exegesis' as part of The Bible in Art, Music and Literature Seminars at Oxford University's Centre for Reception History of the Bible. Trinity College, Oxford. 7 March 2022. Further information.

Research seminar, Jewish Studies

German & Jewish Studies. Dr Yael Almog (Assistant Professor in German, Durham University) ‘German/Exile: On the Jewish Longing for Europe’. German & Jewish Studies Research Seminar. Hybrid Event Samuel Alexander Building, Room A116 and on zoom 9 Mar 2022 16.30 - 18.00. Further information.

Social responsibility, OxNet

Widening participation. Alex Samely presents on 'Religion and Change' seminar 4, 8th March (6-7pm) as part of the OxNet evening seminar series. For 2022, this Oxford-Manchester series for A-level students of religious studies and theology was co-ordinated by Michael Hoelzl and entitled ‘Beyond Belief'. Contact sonja.bernhard@manchester.ac.uk for details of this zoom series held at the University of Manchester.

MA fees bursary in Jewish Studies

Masters degree studies at the University of Manchester, 2022-23. This is a home/EU fees bursary for MA students who make Jewish Studies topics their main study focus in their MA in Religions and Theology. One bursary will be awarded on a competitive basis. There are no eligibility criteria based on nationality, but please note that the bursary is restricted to the maximum cost of UK fees. Applications to this fee bursary will be considered from the beginning of March 2022 onwards, with applications encouraged as soon as possible, and no later than 5pm on 2 May 2022. The competition involves an online application to the Religions and Theology MA programme and the MA Funding Application Form. Further information.