Funding, Screen & Talk

Holocaust Studies. Congratulations to Cathy Gelbin and Katja Stuerzenhofecker who have been awarded £750 of funding by the Manchester Jean Monet Centre of Excellence towards the Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 event series Jews, Gay People and the Holocaust. This will comprise of a public film series, an expert panel discussion, and a Jewish community workshop. Further details will be published in due course.

Conference paper, KU Leuven

Dead Sea Scrolls. George Brooke will give a paper entitled 'Performing Scripture in the Scrolls from Qumran and in the New Testament' at the Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense LXXI, held at KU Leuven. 3 Aug 2022. Further information.

Blog entry, The Immanent Frame

Christian studies.  Peter Scott has contributed to a book forum hosted by The Immanent Frame website on David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything (2021). 21 July 2022. Further information.

New position, Modern Christian Theology

Christian studies. Applications are invited for the fixed-term, part-time post of Lecturer in Modern Christian Theology (teaching and scholarship), which is tenable from 1 Sept 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter, until 30 Sept 2025. The successful applicant will have a PhD in Modern Christian Theology, broadly defined, and will assist with the delivery of programmes offered by the Department of Religions & Theology. The following would be desirable: research interests in contemporary theology, or theological hermeneutics, or religion-and-science studies. Salary: £37,467 to £40,927 pro rata per annum. Application deadline: 10 Aug 2022. To apply, please see further information.

Postgraduate success

Biblical Studies. Congratulations to Kim Fowler who completed her BA, MA and PhD studies at Manchester under the supervision of Todd Klutz in 2013. She will shortly be taking up the position of Assistant Professor in New Testament at one of Europe’s leading Religion departments at the University of Groningen, Netherlands, moving from her current post as post-doctoral research assistant at University of Glasgow.

Careers Service News

Opportunities and events. Congratulations to our 2022 graduates; remember you can still access all of our Help & Advice for up to two years after graduation! Looking for tips to help you successfully move into the world of work? Check out our Live Graduate Careers Q&A (Tues 16 Aug) and Preparing for Hybrid Working session (Tues 23 Aug).

World Day for International Justice

Jewish, Islamic and Christian Studies. To celebrate World Day for International Justice (17 July) see... Bernard Jackson, 'The Practice of Justice in Jewish Law' in Daimon 4 (2004) and David Law, ‘"To be with God with the People on your Heart." Reflections on Prayer and Social Justice in the Thought of Thomas Merton and Bediuzzaman Said Nursi' in Theodicy and Justice in Modern Islamic Thought: The Case of Said Nursi (2010), 197-218.

Student Prize, BIAJS

Jewish studies. Congratulations to third-year student Andras Schweiczer (BA Theological Studies in Philosophy & Ethics) who has been awarded the  British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies (BIAJS) Student Prize for a dissertation entitled 'Red, White, and Green: Three Aspects of the Debates on Zionism between 1897 and 1917' (supervisor: Alex Samely).

New translation, Korean

Christian studies. The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, co-edited by William Cavanaugh and Peter Scott, has just been published in Korean. The Companion supports the burgeoning sub-discipline of political theology with contributions from expert scholars in the field and provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to this lively and growing area of Christian theology. Peter Scott said: “I’m delighted by this news—it’s a clear and welcome indication of the popularity and reach of The Companion.”

Screen & Talk, Centre for Jewish Studies

Jewish history. Cathy Gelbin and Katja Stuerzenhofecker co-organized the online streaming and panel discussion of The Brasch Family (Germany 2018) on 13 June 2022. A recording of the discussion with the film’s director and international experts is now available. Watch on YouTube.

Blog entry, Ketso

Teaching excellence. In an entry entitled 'Using Ketso Connect to design a new undergraduate course', Katja Stuerzenhofecker writes: 'In my discipline in the humanities, a typical teaching week starts with a two-hour lecture followed by a related one-hour seminar. This would be the pattern for most of the course, but there might also be the odd assignment workshop. I have used this pattern for two decades now and never queried whether this is the most effective and appropriate way to help students to learn. That is until Joanne gave me a Ketso Connect kit as a sample, potentially for future use with students on one of my courses...' 11 July 2022. Further information.

Course unit selection fair, 2022-23

Provisional options available to view. Second-year and third-year students can start to explore their course unit options for the coming academic year by watching short video introductions. Further information.

Student Prizes, 2021-22

Undergraduate excellence in Religions & Theology. Congratulations to Leela Boyton-Salts for the Philip Alexander Prize in Jewish Studies for the highest undergraduate grade in Jewish studies (dissertation title: ‘Purity and Whiteness: How do American Jews Disrupt the Concept of Whiteness in the 21st Century?’); to Rachel Vasilescu for the Bishop Lee Junior Greek Testament Prize for the best examination result in New Testament Greek; to Justin Freeman for The Brandon Memorial Prize (Undergraduate) for the best work in Comparative Religious Studies (dissertation title: ‘The Apocalypse according to QAnon’); to Madeleine Mcleod-Clarke and Rhea Howard, who are jointly awarded this year for the Undergraduate Dissertation Prize for Religious Studies (dissertation titles: ‘Judging in Hannah Arendt’s The Life of the Mind (1970): The Key to “the Banality of Evil”’; and ‘Religious Education: Relevant to Today or Relic of the Past?’); to Ghulam Habiba for the Dastur Kutar Prize for best undergraduate dissertation in Non-Western religious studies (dissertation title: ‘Rumi De-Islamicised & Demystified’); and to Amy Mcgonagle for the Religion and Social Responsibility Dissertation Prize for the best undergraduate dissertation that explores a social or ethical challenge at the intersection of religion and social responsibility (dissertation title: ‘Conflicting Identities: Queering and Reconciling Identity in Northern Ireland’).