SOAS University of London

Department of Religions and Philosophies

Staff Research Areas

This is a list of the main research areas of full-time staff members in the Department of Religions and Philosophies. 

  • Lucia Dolce: Japanese religious history. Hermeneutical and ritual practices of Japanese Buddhism, in particular, the Lotus Sutra; Tendai and Nichiren traditions; Tantric Buddhism. Shinto combinatory cults. Ritual performance. Ritual iconography.  Millenarian writings and prophecy
  • Peter Flügel: Jainism, Religion and Society, Comparative Philosophy
  • Jan-Peter Hartung: Tradition-building processes in the early modern Muslim Persianate world
  • Jörg Haustein: Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianities in Africa, esp. Ethiopia; Colonial history of Islam in German-East Africa (mainland Tanzania); religions and development
  • Sian Hawthorne: Intersections between postcolonial studies, religion and gender, and secularism/postsecularism; feminist ethics in the study of religions.
  • Catherine Hezser: Jewish history, literature, and culture in Hellenistic and Roman times; Rabbinic Literature (Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds); sociological and gender studies approaches to Judaism; Jews and Judaism within the Graeco-Roman and Byzantine Christian context.
  • Almut Hintze: a major research survey Avestan; facsimile editions of Avestan manuscripts
  • Erica Hunter: Christian Library at Turfan; The Transmission of Christian Texts at Turfan; Dialogue and Interface in Syriac Christianity (OUP); Non-Muslim Communities of the Modern Middle East (I.B. Tauris); Incantation bowls in Sassanid-Early Islamic Mesopotamia
  • Ulrich Pagel: Dynamics between Buddhist monks and merchants in Ancient India; Buddhist monastic communities; economic history of India
  • Antonello Palumbo: Ideological history of pre-modern China; Taoism, Buddhism and religious identities in early and medieval China; Manichaeism; Chinese cultural relations with Central Asia
  • Theodore Proferes: Vedic language and religion; Indian philosophy
  • Gurharpal Singh: Politics and religion in South Asia and South Asian diaspora; Sikhism; religious violence; religions and development in Africa and Asia; the management of religious diversity; the partition of India
  • Sarah Stewart: Oral traditions (text and testimony) among Zoroastrians in India and Iran
  • Vincent Tournier: Mahāsāṃghika schools and their Scriptures; Hierarchs in South Asian Buddhism
  • Cosimo Zene: Anthropology of religion; theory in the study of religions; continental philosophy, world philosophies; Gramsci and religion; intercultural and inter-religious dialogue; minorities/Dalits; mysticism and heresy; non-Western Christianities; Gift-giving