Newsletter - September 2025

Dear All!

The new academic year is just about upon us – and that means CRPL activities are about to commence, too!

As you know by now, announcements of upcoming CRPL events (alongside archived records of recent/past CRPL events) are on the University’s CRPL site, which you can access here.

This is our first newsletter of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Our first event of the academic year will take place on Wednesday 8 October. This is a full day of activities centred on the theme of “Religion and Violence.” There will be a considerable number of scholars, artists, and activists in attendance. For full details, see here. All are welcome to attend.

Our CRPL seminar series is kicking off on Thursday 9 October with Rabbi Dr. Barbara Thiede (University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA). The title of her presentation is, “Not Fixing the Bible’s God: Reflections from a Rabbi and Biblical Scholar.” For full information, see the CRPL site. CRPL Seminars will again take place in person, in the Botany House seminar room (1.03) on alternate Thursdays during teaching weeks, from 11:30-13:00. (On the other Thursdays there will be seminars in the same location, at the same time for PoRT, our second research centre, the Centre for Philosophy of Religion and Theology).

We have an additional treat on Thursday 9 October, just before the CRPL seminar (same venue!): Dr. Ralf Thiede (University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA) will present on “Children's Literature as Language Nutrition.” Time: 10am-11.15am. Venue: Botany House seminar room (1.03), University of Leeds.

Looking ahead to CRPL seminars later in the semester…

23 October 2025 Dr. Zaynab Ango (Visiting Research Fellow, University of Leeds)

6 November 2025 ***CRPL Meeting***

20 November 2025 Dr. Halyna Teslyuk (Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, Ukraine)

4 December 2025 Dr. Kate Adams (Leeds Trinity University)

Full details of all seminars will follow and will be posted on the CRPL site closer to the time.

 

NB: the CRPL meeting on 6 November is for all members of the CRPL community. This meeting is intended for discussion, support, and for development of in-progress research and grant applications. It was decided at the last Annual General Meeting in May that it is important for us to balance visiting speakers, seminars and discussions, with opportunities for finding out more about CRPL research-in-progress. Professor Emma Tomalin and Dr. Aled Thomas will be presenting and taking questions on this day. (There will be a second such meeting in Semester 2. In the second semester, while Johanna is on leave, CRPL will be in the capable hands of interim director Aled Thomas.)

Other announcements – mark your calendars!

Save the Date! on Monday 13 October Professor Sarojini Nadar is presenting and speaking about her new book Gender, Genocide, Gaza and the Book of Esther: Engaging Texts of Terror(ism) (Routledge, 2025).

Save the Date! on Tuesday 21 October, starting at 7pm, is the annual Hook Lecture at Leeds Minster. This lecture is co-sponsored by CRPL. This year’s speaker is Jon Kuhrt, Chief Executive of Hope into Action, a national Christian charity partnering with churches to provide homes for the homeless. To sign up for this free event, see here.

Save the Date! on Thursday 13 November CRPL’s Professor Jasjit Singh will give his inaugural professorial lecture. Venue and time: 18:00, Liberty Building Moot Court LT, with a reception to follow in Maurice Keyworth SR G.31. This will be a wonderful occasion to honour and celebrate Jas and his recent promotion.

Congratulations!

We congratulate newly minted Drs. Grace Nwamah and Yan Kalampung who have passed their PhD vivas.

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Yannis Ng has received a LAHRI visiting fellowship.

Calling all graduates!

Take a look at this competition for the Hakluyt Society Essay Prize (deadline 1 March 2026): https://www.hakluyt.com/hakluyt-society-essay-prize/

The Hakluyt Society awards annual essay prizes of £1250 to the winning essay, with a second prize of £250 to the runner-up (on occasions one or both prizes may be shared between entries). The competition is open to any registered graduate student at a higher education institution (a university or equivalent) or to anyone who has been awarded a graduate degree in the past three years. If possible, the prize will be presented at the Hakluyt Society’s Annual General Meeting in London.

Summer Presentations

CRPL PGR Gloria Adichie and CRPL VF Dr Nduka Udeagha presented on their research at IAHR (the International Association for the History of Religions), in Krakow (Poland).

CRPL PGR Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen and CRPL VF Dr. Yannis Ng presented on their research at BIAJS (British and Irish Association for Jewish Studies), in Glasgow (Scotland). Robyn also presented at SOTS (Society for Old Testament Study) in Durham.

CRPL Research Fellow Dr Ann Gillian Chu chaired a panel and co-presented a paper at the Centre for Sino-Christian Studies, 2nd International Conference on Philosophy of Religion cum Inaugural Conference of the Asian Society for Philosophy of Religion, held at Hong Kong Baptist University. Co-authored with Dr Rachel Siow Robertson, Dr Chu co-presented a paper titled “Joys in Online Religious Spaces: A Study of Hong Kong Local and Diasporic Online/Offline Christian Communities” in the panel “Religion, AI & the Internet.”

Dr Ann Gillian Chu also presented a poster and a conference paper at the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, held at the University of Birmingham. The title of her paper was “The Theology and Social Role of Christian Organizations in Supporting Older Adults in Hong Kong Whose Adult Children Migrated Through the BN(O) Visa Scheme.” This project was generously funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Dr Ann Gillian Chu (who has clearly been exceptionally busy!) also presented at the 2025 Baptist Scholars International Roundtable, organized by the Department of Religion at Baylor University. Dr Chu’s presentation had the title, “Left-behind: Elderly Parents and Hong Kong Baptist Churches.” BSIR Scholars were selected through a competitive process.

Prof. Johanna Stiebert presented her recent work on critical empathy and the Minor Prophets at IOSOT (International Organisation for the Study of the Old Testament), in Berlin (Germany).

I’m sure there were even more presentations – but these are the ones we know about!

 

On the Religion in Public blog

Please continue to keep an eye on our blog. Among recent posts you will see information about recent major publications, about a film on Rape Culture and the Bible, Dr. Nduka Udeagha’s reflections from the IAHR congress in Krakow, and more.

In October you can read about our new Researcher of the Month!

 

Here’s hoping for another good CRPL year ahead.

For now, all good things.

Do keep sending me contributions for the next newsletter. Please follow us on Instagram (crpl_leeds)!

 

Until soon,

 

Johanna (Stiebert)

Director of CRPL, the Centre for Religion and Public Life