Research Degrees: Study of Religions
Overview
Featured events
In addition to providing research supervision, the Department runs a research training programme in the Study of Religions to equip Year 1 MPhil/ PhD students with the necessary research skills. There is a weekly postgraduate seminar at which students meet to discuss work in progress, or present draft chapters of their theses. Students are also strongly encouraged to attend other seminars and conferences relating to their specialist fields. The Department hosts a number off specialist research centres, each of which run regular seminars, workshops, and host visiting speakers, and research students are welcome to be involved in their activities.
The progress of each postgraduate is supported by a Supervisory Committee, made up of their supervisor, and two other members of staff familiar with their area of research.
Some Recent Research Theses
Yulia Egorova – Jews and Judaism in Modern Indian Discourse
Joachim Persoon – Central Ethiopian Monasticism 1974–1991: The Survival of an Ancient Institution in a Changing World
Zhenjing Shi – The Formation and Transformation of the Mahaparinirvanasutra in Theravada, Mahayana and Daoism
Academic Staff and their Research Areas
Professor T H Barrett MA (CANTAB) PHD (YALE)
History of Chinese religion, notably Taoism and Buddhism; pre-modern Chinese history, especially the Tang period.
Dr Kate Crosby BA DPHIL (OXON)
Research Admissions Tutor
Buddhism of South and South East Asia; Buddhist Sanskrit and Pali literature, with particular reference to post-and non-canonical literature, Pali philology
Dr Lucia Dolce LAUREA MA (VENICE) PHD (LEIDEN)
Japanese religious history, especially the medieval period; Japanese Tantric Buddhism; Buddhism and the esotericisation of religious practice; Millenarian writings and prophecy; Kami-Buddhas association
Dr Peter Flügel
Religion and society in South Asia, Jainism, Jains, minority religions, religion and law, South Asian diaspora
Professor Paul Gifford BA (WELLINGTON) MLITT (OXON)
Christianity; recent developments in African Christianity; the socio-political role of religion in Africa
Dr Jan-Peter Hartung MA (LEIPZIG) PHD (ERFURT)
Islamic philosophical and theological thought in Early Modernity, Political Islam, Islam in South Asia (from Early Modernity)
Dr Sian Hawthorne BA (LONDON) PHD (LONDON)
Gender and religion; myth and mythology; continental theory; feminist philosophy; MA Programmes Convenor
Professor Catherine Hezser DR. THEOL (HEIDELBERG) PHD (JTS, NEW YORK) HABILITATION (FREE UNIV. BERLIN)
Judaism in Hellenistic and Roman times; rabbinic literature; social history of Jews in late antiquity; American Jewish history and literature
Dr Almut Hintze BA (HEIDELBERG) MPHIL (OXON) DPHIL (ERLANGEN) DHABIL (BERLIN)
Zoroastrianism
Dr Erica Hunter PHD (MELBOURNE)
Eastern Christianity, i.e. the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian churches of the Middle East, with particular reference to Iraq
Dr. habil. Angelika Malinar HABILITATION (TÜBINGEN)
Hinduism in South Asia; theological and philosophical literature, Sanskrit epics and puraṇas; Hindu traditions in modern contexts
Dr Ulrich Pagel BA PHD (LONDON)n
Tibetan language and literature; Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhism in Central Asia, Mahāyāna Literature, Vinaya
Dr Antonello Palumbo LAUREA PHD (NAPLES)
Ideological history of pre-modern China; Taoism, Buddhism and religious identities in early and medieval China; Manichaeism; Chinese cultural relations with Central Asia
Dr Theodore Proferes BA (NEW YORK) MA PHD (HARVARD)
Vedic language and religion; Indian philosophy
Professor Christopher Shackle BA DIPSOC ANTHROP BLITT (OXON) PHD (LONDON) FBA
Panjabi and Urdu languages and literatures; regional languages of Pakistan and North West India; Sufism and Islam in South Asia; Sikhism and its scriptures; comparative literature of the Islamic world
Dr Tadeusz Skorupski LTH (VATICAN) PHD (LONDON)
Buddhist studies; philosophical and religious doctrines; literature; iconography
Dr Cosimo Zene BA MA PHD (LONDON)
Themes and figures in the study of religion; continental philosophy; missiology; Asian Christianity; Research Tutor
