Post doctoral Fellowship opportunities

Open to Religious Studies. The University of Manchester offers up to two Simon Postdoctoral Fellowships, 3 years fixed term, £32,816 to £51,034 per annum. These fellowships are for Social Sciences broadly defined, and are open to those working in religious history and culture, especially if the project engages with social or socio-political history. Deadline: 19 April 2021. For details on eligibility and on how to apply, see further information.

International conference, online

Jewish Studies. Katja Stuerzenhofecker and Ion Popa will be contributing to an online international conference on 'Jewish Dissidents in the Eastern Bloc', co-organised by Cathy Gelbin (CJS) and co-hosted with Emory University. 14-15 April 2021. Further information.

Book review

Review of Lawrence Shapiro, Embodied Cognition, 2nd edition (Routledge, 2019). MA student Adam North writes: "Lawrence Shapiro’s second edition of his incredibly successful 2010 book, Embodied Cognition, is both philosophically and scientifically engaging. Shapiro does an excellent job in orientating the field of embodied cognition in relation to standard cognitive science and specifying the research area..." Further information.

Ehrhardt (Biblical Studies) Research Seminar

Hebrew Bible Studies. Professor David Clines (University of Sheffield) ‘Genesis 1: A Critique’. 14:00 - 16:00. 15 April 2021. Further information.

Religions & Theology Research Seminar

Christian Theology. Dr A. Scott McPeak (University of Manchester) “A New Frontier for Liberation Theology? Attention Colonisation in an Advanced Technological Age” 16:00 - 17:30 15 April 2021. Further information.

From the Archive... Podcast, British Library

Digital Humanities and Hebrew manuscripts. Renate Smithuis' presentation on 'The Crawford and Gaster Hebrew Collections at the John Rylands Library: Creation of an Online Catalogue' at the British Library's conference on Digital Humanities (Nov 2016) is now available as a podcast. Further information.

Reading group, Jewish-Muslim

Jewish-Muslim Research Network. CJS hon research fellow and founding member of the JMRN, Adi Bharat, announces the next event to be JMRN Book Launch & Conversation 'The Arab and Jewish Questions: Geographies of Engagement in Palestine and Beyond' with Moshe Behar in conversation with Leila Farsakh, Bashir Bashir and Nadia Fadil. Co-sponsored by CJS and AMES. 5 May 2021 5pm (BST). Further information.

Christian Chaplaincy, University of Manchester

Why not find out more about the university's Christian chaplaincy? “We are the Christian chaplaincy team for the Manchester Universities and RNCM, and we’re based at St Peter’s House. We have a simple but challenging vision: ‘Everything is Connected’, believing that God is at work before us in all things and that our task is to journey with people as they explore what this may mean. We believe that people, place, faith and spirituality, wholeness and the search for understanding interweave. Everything flourishes when one things leads to another The chaplains and St Peter’s House team are explorers, pioneers and do-ers. We are building an inclusive, vibrant and diverse community of fellow wonderers – come and journey with us.” For a programme of events and more, see further information.

Careers stats

Employability for students of religions and theology. The British Association for the Study of Religions has recently published a report that aims to correct certain misconceptions about our subject. Amongst other things, they write: "Religious Studies and/or Theology students are highly employable. More than 82% go on to employment or further study, and 29% go onto professional jobs — more than any other Humanities and Social Science subject except architecture and languages — with an average graduate starting salary of £21,421 at present." Further information.

Workshop report, LTI

Christian Studies. The Lincoln Theological Institute hosted a workshop entitled ‘Reconsidering Methods and Methodologies in Theology’ on 5 Feb 2021, organised and facilitated by Dr Clare Radford, with presentations from Professor Heather Walton, Dr Dawn Llewellyn, and Dr Sanjee Perera. To read a reflection on the event see further information.

Public lecture, Jewish Muslim Forum

Jewish Studies. CJS PhD student Robert Kanter will be giving a presentation for The Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester on 'Anglo-Jewry’s interactions with converts to Islam 1900-1920' on 21 March at 7pm. Free online event. To register, see further information. 

New publication, online

Holocaust Studies. Hon research fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies Ion Popa, 'Critical Edition of Hans Frei Testimony (HVT 0170),' in Yale University's Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies (2021). Hans Frei was born in Germany in 1922 to Jewish parents who converted to Christianity. He emigrated with his family to the US in 1938. After the war he became a respected Professor of Religious Studies and, for a brief period (1983-1986), Chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at Yale University Divinity School. The critical edition consists of an introduction, which examines the testimony, especially the dilemmas posed by conversion and hybrid identities, and an annotated commentary of the interview's transcript. Further information.

New publication

Biblical studies. CBS honorary research fellow Mary Mills and Janet Speake, 'Spaces of Affectivity: Innovating Interdisciplinary Discourse in Open "Free" Space' in Kritika Kultura 36/1 (2021). Further information.