Religion, Literature and Culture 700x300

Religion, Literature and Culture

The connexions between the arts and religion are a major strength for the School, expressed most notably through our Literature, Theology and the Arts network.  The School regularly hosts international scholars and major conferences in this area; recent visitors, speakers and invitees include Marij Althorf (Amsterdam), Chris Hannan (playwright and novelist), Yang Huilin (Renmin, PRC), Sara Maitland (novelist and spiritual writer), Elena Volkova (Moscow), and Jean-Luc Marion (Chicago; Gifford Lecturer, May 2014).  Recent doctoral researchers include artist Jim Harrold, poet Sam Tongue and graphic artist Ben Morse; recent conferences include Re-writing the Bible (2010), Sacred Topographies: Pilgrimage and Place (2011), and a joint seminar with scholars from Gotenberg’s Swedish Network in Religion and Literature (2013).

Outreach is a key aspect of this cluster’s work.  The School hosted sculptor Sari Lievenon as an artist-in-residence, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (2010-11).  Sari’s work with the cluster culminated in a public exhibition in the University Chapel, and an AHRC-sponsored conference on Art, Religion, Identity (2008), featuring the work of artist Hannah Frank.  The cluster also works closely with the St Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art, Glasgow, through the co-curation of exhibitions, most recently Liz Hingley’s Under Gods: Stories from the Soho Road (2013), which acted as a stimulus to postgraduate research on issues concerning interfaith relationships, and religion and material culture.

Associated staff

Professor Gerard Carruthers

Summary of research interests

Scottish literature; robert burns

Publications

Ms Julie Clague

Summary of research interests

Ethics; Bioethics; Catholicism

Publications

Dr Ophira Gamliel

Summary of research interests

Language, Culture, Literature, Ritual

Publications

Professor Vassiliki Kolocotroni

Summary of research interests

Modernism and the Avant-Garde, Twentieth Century Literature and Culture, Theory, Film

Publications

Professor Charlotte Methuen

Summary of research interests

Reformation History, Church History, History Of Ecumenism, History Of Women'S Ministry, Ministry In The Church

Publications

Dr Gavin Miller

Summary of research interests

Cultural History of UFOs; Critical Management Studies; Contemporary Book History; Medical Humanities; Science Fiction; Contemporary Fiction; Literature And Medicine; History Of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapy and Psychology; Contemporary Religious Studies

Publications

Dr Sarah Nicholson

Publications

Professor Bryony Randall

Summary of research interests

Modernist literature (particularly women's writing); editing modernism; literature and the everyday; literary theory (particularly feminist and materialist approaches); literature and time; literature and work.

Publications

Dr Mia Spiro

  • Senior Lecturer in Modern Jewish Culture and Holocaust Studies [Theology & Religious Studies]
  • Mia.Spiro@glasgow.ac.uk

Summary of research interests

Jewish studies, Jewish authors, Holocaust studies, fascism and anti-fascism, literature and political resistance, British modernism, minority literature, British Jewish history, Scottish Jewish history, Israeli literature and culture, Yiddish literature, Yiddish theatre

Publications

Professor Adrian Streete

Summary of research interests

Protestantism; anti-Catholicism; early modern epistemology, scepticism, and speculative philosophy; polemical rhetoric; apocalypticism; early modern literature and politics; Leverhulme-funded project ‘Polemical Laughter in English Literary Culture, 1500-1700'.

Publications

Dr Saeko Yazaki

  • Lecturer in Religious Studies (Islam, Muslim-Jewish relations and Japanese traditions) [Theology & Religious Studies]
  • Saeko.Yazaki@glasgow.ac.uk

Summary of research interests

• Mystical and epistemological dimensions of religion • Muslim-Jewish relations • Sufism and Zen • Jews and Muslims in Japan • Clothing of Shinto deities (Kami) • Sustainability and religion • Methodological issues in religious studies • Glasgow/Scotland-Japan links

Publications