Course unit selection fair for 2023-24

Browse now! Students have started exploring their course unit options for the coming academic year by watching short video introductions. Further information.

Teaching and Learning Conference

Religions & Theology. The University of Manchester’s Institute of Teaching and Learning Conference takes place on 6 July 2023. Katja Stuerzenhofecker will deliver a poster presentation entitled ‘Every voice counts because everybody’s got a pen: Supporting inclusivity in summatively assessed groupwork with Ketso‘. This reviews the pilot use of Ketso kits to facilitate in-class seminar activities on RELT31322 Contemporary Religion in the British Isles. 

Conference Papers

Biblical studies. PhD student Rachel Miller and HRF Siobhán Jolley are presenting papers at the Bible, Critical Theory, and Reception Seminar at the University of Exeter, 26–27 June. Rachel is presenting "A Queer Reading of the Characterisation of Jezebel" and Siobhán will present "Our Reality is Different: Feminist Fabulation of Biblical Women in Visual Art".

PhD Success

Religion and Theology. Dom Budhi passed his PhD viva on 30th May. The title was ‘A critical evaluation of the public theology of Manchester Cathedral’. The thesis was supervised by Peter Scott, David Holgate, and Wren Radford. Dom has recently awarded funding to distribute knowledge from his thesis so watch this space!

New Publication

Pratical theology. Wren Radford has published "My Body is Where I Exist: Poverty, Disability, and Embodied Resistance as a Theology of Practice" in the International Journal of Practical Theology, Volume 27 Issue 1. Read it here -- it's open access!

Conference Papers

Biblical studies. Helen R. Jacobus, Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Biblical Studies will be speaking at the 12th Enoch seminar: Enoch Studies in the 2020s (virtual event), June 26-29, 2023, on: "The Books of Enoch as vehicles of the circulation of the zodiac between Hellenistic and Byzantine Egypt and Late Roman and Byzantine Palestine." She is also giving a paper at the annual conference of the European Association of Biblical Studies (EABS), Siracuse, Sicily, July 10-13, entitled: " A Query over the Dating of Some Legal Documents from the Caves of Refuge in the Judean Desert."

Inaugural Lecture

Japanese Religion. Join Professor Erica Baffelli for her inaugural lecture, 'Striving for visibility: religion, media, and society in contemporary Japan.' Wednesday 21 June. 4.15pm for drinks reception, lecture will run 5–6pm. G16, Martin Harris Centre. Sign up here.

Careers Service News

For students. The Careers Service is here to support you throughout the summer, whether you're returning next year or are graduating! We offer a variety of appointments, tailored to suit your needs, throughout the calendar year to both students and recent graduates (for up to two years after leaving). You can book in with our advisors to confidentially discuss a wide variety of careers-related topics, including Interview Simulations, Getting Started Appointments and Career Planning with a Disability appointments. We also have an online webchat via CareerConnect, and appointments for reviewing your CV’s and applications to help you get ready to apply for part-time or graduate employment! To see an overview of our support for you, check out: www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/services.

New Publication

Religion and ecology. Peter Scott has published a new book titled "Religion, Materialism and Ecology", edited alongside Sigurd Bergmann and Kate Rigby. This timely collection of essays by leading international scholars across religious studies and the environmental humanities advances a lively discussion on materialism in its many forms. While there is little agreement on what ‘materialism’ means, it is evident that there is a resurgence in thinking about matter in more animated and active ways. Drawing on literary and critical theory, and queer, philosophical, theological and social theoretical approaches, this ground-breaking book will make an important contribution to the environmental humanities. It will be a key read for postgraduate students, researchers and scholars in religious studies, cultural anthropology, literary studies, philosophy and environmental studies. Further information.

MA Fees Bursaries in Jewish Studies

Masters degree studies at the University of Manchester, 2023-24. This is a home fees bursary for MA students who make Jewish Studies topics their main study focus in their MA in Religions and Theology. This 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 home fees. Deadline: 23 June 2023. Further information.

Book Talk

Jewish studies. SALC’s Europe and the World research cluster is delighted to announce an upcoming book talk by the renowned scholar, Natalie Zemon Davis, who will be joining us (virtually) on June 14 at 4pm to discuss her new book, Listening to the Languages of the People (CEU Press, 2022). Ranging from Romania to France at the turn of the twentieth century, this is story of migration that partakes of biography, linguistics, and Jewish studies.

New publication

Science and Religion. Daniel Langton, "Evolution" in Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations Online, edited by Martin Thurner, Peter Schäfer, Christoph Markschies, Amy-Jill Levine, Rainer Kampling and Walter Homolka. (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2023). Manuscript and online.

Northern Postgraduate Biblical Studies Conference

Biblical studies. On 19th May, Manchester R&T hosted the annual Northern Postgraduate Biblical Studies and Patristics day conference. We hosted friends and colleagues from Durham, Liverpool Hope, Cliff, and Nazerene. Our grad students who presented were Dan Skuce, Anna Budhi-Thornton, Rachel Miller, Tim Gough, and Lev Eakins, and Todd Klutz gave the plenary paper. The day was a great success and we look forward to next year's meeting.

Virtual Art Exhibition for Ukraine

Religion, Art, and Female Corporeality. Centre for Biblical Studies honarary research fellow Dominika Kurek-Chomycz, is running a virtual exhibition on Female Corporeality and Religion in Contemporary Ukrainian Art: https://corporeality.pulse.is/. A number of artworks are available for purchase; the idea is that half of the proceeds from each sold piece will go to the artist, while the other half, to a charity that is launching a new project on demining Ukraine. Do have a look!