Newsletter – September 2024

Newsletter: September 2024

Please note that announcements regarding CRPL events and news are now posted on the University’s CRPL site, which you can access here.

Updates and announcements on the CRPL seminar series, which will resume on Thursday 3 October at the usual time (11.30-13.00), in the usual place (Botany House Seminar Room 1.03), will also be published on the CRPL site.

Announcements for September:

Johanna Stiebert is one presenter at an online event with the title 'Perspectives on Spiritual Abuse'. This will take place on 16 September 2024, 10:00-13:00. For anyone interested in attending, please contact: https://tinyurl.com/SPIRIT24conf

The first of a special seminar series on singles studies is happening soon! The first speaker is Dr. Karel K. Himawan. The title for the presentation is: ‘Solo Spirituality: Navigating Singleness in Indonesia’. This is an online only event and is taking place at 13:00-14:30 (GMT) on 18 September 2024. For full details, see here.

Announcements for October:

It’s going to be a busy month. Please support CRPL with your attendance when you can.

Our regular seminar series resumes on 3 October 2024. For full details, see the CRPL site here (scroll down to ‘Seminar series’).

Seminars are in-person only and take place at 11:30-13:00 in Botany House 1.03, on alternative Thursdays during teaching weeks.

Speakers and days for Semester 1 will be:

• 3 October 2024 – Dr Megan Robertson (University of Leeds) - (pictured below, right)
• 17 October 2024 – Dr Séan Henry (Edge Hill University) - (pictured below, left)
• 31 October 2024 – Dr Rebekah Welton (University of Exeter)
• 14 November 2024 – Dr Seb Rumsby (University of Birmingham)
• 28 November 2024 – Dr Emmanuel Ossai (University of Lancaster)
• 12 December 2024 – Prof. Emma Wild-Wood (University of Edinburgh)

There are full details about our first two speakers alongside abstracts for their presentations on the CRPL site.

We also have two additional events in October.

On Monday 21 October we are welcoming Professor Ruby Sain (Professor of Sociology, Adamas University, Barasat, Kolkata, India). Professor Sain will present her paper “Female Gurus in Vaishnavism” in the Botany House seminar room (1.03) from 15:00-16:30.

On Wednesday 23 October, we are thrilled to be part of an event to launch and celebrate Dr Megan Robertson’s recently published monograph, Called and Queer.

This hybrid event is taking place from 12:30 to 13:45. In-person attendees will gather in the Social Science Building (12.21/12.25). The author will be in attendance, along with panel discussants, Rev Lauren Matthewsand Prof Zethu Matebeni.

This event is a must-attend for students and scholars in gender and sexuality studies, African religious studies, and the sociology of religion. Please join us in celebration!

For details of both special events, please see here (scroll down to ‘Announcement of two special events’).

Other updates:

We want to congratulate the British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR) organising committee for a fantastic conference, which took place on the Leeds University campus from 2–4 September 2024. The organisational team included our own Mel Prideaux, Aled Thomas, and Erin Clark. Thank you!

We will be welcoming several new postgraduates to our CRPL community this semester. Please make them very welcome. We hope to feature them as Researchers of the Month in the near future – but let’s let them settle in first.

The rescheduled workshop for postgraduates and early career researchers wanting to learn more about publishing in journals will be announced here soon.

Adriaan van Klinken and Johanna Stiebert have a co-authored chapter with the title 'Challenging Contexts from the Lions' Den: Reading Daniel with Ugandan LGBTQ+ Refugees in Nairobi' in a new publication with the title Challenging Contextuality: Bibles and Biblical Scholarship in Context, edited by Louise J. Lawrence, Peter-Ben Smit, Hannah M. Strommen, and Charlene van der Walt (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Johanna Stiebert has an article with the title 'Lesbians, Lesphobia and the Bible: Under the Udala Trees as Data', in Going the Extra Mile: Reflections on Biblical Studies in Africa and the Contributions of Joachim Kuegler, edited by Masiiwa Ragies Gunda, Kathrin Gies, Ezra Chitando et al (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2024).

(Available online and open access, here).

Please send me updates and announcements for the next newsletter by the end of November.

Here’s wishing you a wonderful academic year 2024–2025. More announcements – including about two research days and an event on the Far Right and Christian Texts and Symbols (all in Semester 2) will follow soon. As always, be in contact with me about your ideas and about ways CRPL can support you and your research.

Johanna Stiebert (Director)