Professor Linda Woodhead

PhD Supervision Interests

I am happy to consider proposals in the areas of: religion and society in modern societies, contemporary Christianity, religion and gender, everyday religion, religious change.

Current Teaching

Between 2007 and 2012 I have been directing the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme, a £12m research investment which embraces 75 separate projects. This buys me out of undergraduate teaching, but I am still involved in PhD supervision.

Research Interests

I was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and my first job was as lecturer at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford. After that I came to Lancaster, liked it, and have been here ever since.

I am a sociologist of religion. My main interest is in documenting and analysing religious change in modern societies, relating it to wider social changes, and thinking through practical and political implications.

I have carried out empirical research in Britain, the USA, India and parts of Europe, and have written about Christianity, spirituality, neo-Hinduism and Islam in Europe.

I am committed both to academic research and teaching, and to engaging research with wider public debate. I often work collaboratively.

My ongoing work focuses on:

Religion in Public Life: Tracing the new public forms taken by religion worldwide as it has re-configured around expanded markets, media and migratory flows, consumer capitalism, and new kinds of political activism.

Religious Diversity and Boundaries:Researching the conditions under which inter-religious, intra-religious, and religious-secular contact leads to hardening or softening of boundaries and divisions - in a variety of settings, including the workplace, schools and public spaces.

The Re-enchantment of Daily Life:I argue that we have entered a 'post-Reformation' era in the West, and that religion in the 21st century is less doctrinal, centralised and priestly. I research new forms of religiosity, many of which have to do with anchoring a sense of identity, reaching out to higher power(s), and securing meaning and significance in daily life.

Religion, sex and gender:My writing has always focused on religion and power relations, especially religion's relation to gender and inequality. I'm currently interested in religion-related controversies over sex, gender and family.

See CV for more details.

Additional Information

Publications

BOOKS

Religion and Change in Modern Britain (co-edited with Rebecca Catto). London: Routledge (2012)

A Sociology of Religious Emotion (with Ole Riis). Oxford: Oxford University Press (2010).

Religions in the Modern World (co-edited with Koko Kawanami and Chris Partridge). 2nd edition. Fully revised. London: Routledge (2009).

God and Human Dignity (co-edited with Kendall Soulen). Grand Rapids, Michigan, Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans, 2006.

The Spiritual Revolution. Why Religion is Giving Way to Spirituality (with Paul Heelas). Oxford, UK and Malden, USA: Blackwell, 2005.

An Introduction to Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Christianity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Congregational Studies in the UK (co-edited with Mathew Guest and Karin Tusting). Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004.

Predicting Religion: Christian, Secular and Alternative Futures (co-edited with Grace Davie and Paul Heelas). Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.

Peter Berger and the Study of Religion (ed.) London: Routledge, 2002.

Religions in the Modern World. Traditions and Transformations (ed.) London: Routledge, 2002.

Reinventing Christianity: Nineteenth Century Contexts (ed.) Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001.

Religion in Modern Times (co-edited with Paul Heelas). Oxford, UK and Malden, USA: Blackwell, 200o.

Diana. The Making of a Media Icon (co-edited with Jeffrey Richards and Scott Wilson) London: I.B.Tauris, 1999.

Religion and Society Programme

I am Director of the Religion and Society Research Programme, which runs until 2013.This is funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) and the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). It has commissioned 75 separate research projectson various themes related to religion and society.

Recent Appointments

Chair of the Theology and Religious Studies panel for REF 2014 (the national research assessment exercise).

Visiting Professor, University of Aarhus, 2008-

• Religion and Society Programme

  01/01/2007 → 31/12/2012
  This is a £12.3m research programme, which is jointly funded by the AHRC and ESRC. It runs from 2007-2012 and funds around 80 separate research projects across the UK. Its aim is to generate new rese ... Read more»