BBC Radio 3

Sufism. Alan Williams appeared in 'Between the Ears: Sound in the Blood', on the beatbox artist sound architect Jason Singh, for BBC Radio 3 on 16 Jan 2022, where he talked with Jason Singh about influences on him from Sufi literature, primarily the Conference of the Birds by Fariduddin Attar. Listen again.

PhD completion

History of Jewish-Christian relations. Congratulations to Lawrence Rabone on the successful defence of his doctoral thesis 'Eschatology and the Readmission of the Jews to England, 1655-56'. His supervisors were Profs. Philip Alexander, FBA, and Daniel Langton, and the external examiner was Prof. Crawford Gribben (Queen's University Belfast). See the list of current PhD students in the area of Jewish Studies at Manchester.

Conference, Manchester

Christian theology. 4th and 5th February 2022 ‘Christian Hope, Science and a Warming World' is a two-day online conference organized by Nazarene Theological College, Cliff College, Luther King Centre for Theology and Ministry, and the Department of Religions and Theology. This two-day conference is online, affordable and ideal for those ready to think more about theology and science in the context of global heating. Speakers include Hannah Malcolm, Celia Deane-Drummond, Jeremey Kidwell and Grace Thomas. Workshops too. Booking is required. Further information.

Project Award, SALC Research Development Fund

Jewish Studies. Daniel Langton and Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz have been awarded £6800 to fund an impact-related project entitled "Learning from Limmud’s Relationship with the Third Sector”, which will be conducted by Dr Taylor-Guthartz. It will focus on the relationship between Limmud, a major Jewish educational charity with branches in 47 countries with wider sectarian Jewish society and organisations.

Project Award, SALC Research Development Fund

Islamic Studies and Public Health. Kamran Karimullah has been awarded £4,687 to fund a project entitled “Islam and Public Health in the Early Modern Middle East, 1798-1882”. It will lay the foundations for a digital corpus of early modern medical Arabic to facilitate research on the link between Islam and public health in Egypt in the nineteenth century. This corpus, comprising some 20 titles exceeding 2.5 million words, will be assembled from a collection of medical texts translated from European languages and published in Arabic in Bulaq, Egypt between 1820 and 1880.

Project Award, SALC Research Development Fund

Religious Studies and magic. Holly Morse has been awarded £4,150 to run a symposium entitiled 'Hexing the Patriarchy, Spellcasting for Change, and Demonic Democracies: Explorations of Magical Activism and Enchanted Politics.' that will bring together activists and academics whose practice and research relates to the growth of magical knowledge and magical activism in the UK. The aim of the event is to explore interdisciplinary issues relating to increased acceptance of magical practices and the rising popularity of enchanted politics in contemporary social media and protest cultures. Some of the key research questions the symposium aims to address are: To what extent is magic seen as a legitimate form of knowledge in contemporary culture in the UK?; What modes of magic are most popular and contributing to the growing numbers of individuals identifying as witches, Wiccans, Neo Pagans, occultists or other categories of magical practitioners?; What social, cultural, and political contexts have contributed to the rise in magical activism?; To what extent is magical activism a marker of the re-enchantment of the contemporary political landscape?; How can reflection on magical activism encourage new definitions of magic today and how does this relate to historical discourse about magic and transgressive knowledge?

Project Award, SALC Research Development Fund

Reading Texts for Business and Faith Meetings. Alex Samely has been awarded £5,624 to fund a project entitled "Supporting the efficiency of meetings with preparatory reading”. All over the world organisations devoted to commerce, administration, education or faith routinely use meetings with “pre-reads” to conduct their business. In such meetings people will often understand what they say to each other by recalling meanings from the document, or the document may become quoted and discussed. The project will explore how the results of recent research, which Alex Samely conducted for a forthcoming book on Reading and Experience, may support training to make such meetings more productive and beneficial.

Ehrhardt Seminar, Centre for Biblical Studies

Biblical criticism. Walter Houston, University of Manchester, 'Prophecy and Religion Revisited: John Skinner and Evangelical Biblical Criticism.' 14:00 - 15:30 10 February 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.

Bogdanow Lectures 2022

Holocaust Studies. We are delighted to announce that the Bogdanow Lectures in Holocaust Studies 2022 will be given by Prof Marion Kaplan, Skirball Professor of Modern Jewish History at NYU on the topic 'Refugees and gender studies: new perspectives in Holocaust studies'. These will be free online lectures 6pm (GMT) on Tue 8 and Wed 9 February 2022. Further information.

Public lectures online

Jewish and Muslim Studies. CJS Hon. Research Fellow Michael Hilton announces the coming programme for the course 'Judaism and Islam: A shared history' that he is leading with Dr Harith Ramli. 25 January: 'Is every Torah scroll/Quran mushaf the same?' This will focus on the drive to establish definitive texts in each faith. We'll compare the evolution of the vowel systems in Hebrew and Arabic in the early centuries of Islam, and their implications for meaning and interpretation. 1 March: 'The duties and nourishment of the heart.' We will explore texts from the 10th to 11th centuries which developed notions of spiritual medicine and which influence our thinking about tikkun/islah (repairing the world) today. 10 May: 'Why we love Jerusalem.' Jewish and Muslim traditions and teachings about the holy city. 14 June: 'The Jewish Orientalists.' The little-known story of the leading Western scholars of, and enthusiasts for Islam, who came from Jewish backgrounds. This lecture, the culmination of the course, is the Rabbi Dr David J. Goldberg Memorial Lecture. On Zoom and in-person. Liberal Jewish Synagogue. Booking and further details from Debi Penhey.

New publication

Jewish Studies. CJS Hon. Research Fellow Michael Hilton, "Rabbi Tevye: A Jewish Reflection", Interreligious Insight, 19:2, Dec 2021, 61-63. Further information.

New publication

Jewish Studies. CJS Hon. Research Fellow Michael Hilton, "How We Treat the Homeless and the Sick", in What Makes Me Angry: Howls of Rabbinic Rage... And Solutions, edited by Jonathan Romain, Reform Judaism, London 2021, 81-91.

New publication

Jewish Studies. CJS Hon. Research Fellow Michael Hilton, "4th July 2020: Parashat Chukkat" in Confronting Covid-19: Liberal and Reform Rabbis in the United Kingdom Respond to the Global Pandemic, edited by Charles Middleburgh, 2021, 124-128.