Religious Innovation and Social Reform in Sri Lanka. This project proposes comparative research on socio-religious reform movements in Sri Lanka, exploring four separate yet related research foci in the post-war context involving each of the major world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam). It explores questions of human equality and social cohesion in the setting of post-conflict national reconstruction. The project is significant as an innovative, simultaneous study of Sri La ....Religious Innovation and Social Reform in Sri Lanka. This project proposes comparative research on socio-religious reform movements in Sri Lanka, exploring four separate yet related research foci in the post-war context involving each of the major world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam). It explores questions of human equality and social cohesion in the setting of post-conflict national reconstruction. The project is significant as an innovative, simultaneous study of Sri Lankan religion combined with an examination of the relationship between religion and social difference, inclusion and exclusion. Involving four PhDs from Sri Lanka and Australia working with experienced anthropologists from each country, the project aims to produce a significant ongoing international collaboration.Read moreRead less
Cultures of belief in Renaissance Florence. The project asks new questions and employs new methods for understanding the material and cultural development of Renaissance Florence by focussing on the city's rapidly evolving religious context. It foregrounds the close study of preaching and its generation, and elaborates the oral as a category of historical analysis.
Counter-Radical Revival: Indonesia's New-Style Islamic Prayer Rallies. This project is the first systematic investigation of a new type of counter-radical religious mobilisation in Muslim Southeast Asia: mass prayer rallies attended by tens of thousands of people and led by charismatic preachers of Hadhrami Arab descent. While transnational Islamist movements promoting an Islamic state have identified 'true Islam' with Arab practices, Hadhrami leaders of the new-style prayer rallies publicly res ....Counter-Radical Revival: Indonesia's New-Style Islamic Prayer Rallies. This project is the first systematic investigation of a new type of counter-radical religious mobilisation in Muslim Southeast Asia: mass prayer rallies attended by tens of thousands of people and led by charismatic preachers of Hadhrami Arab descent. While transnational Islamist movements promoting an Islamic state have identified 'true Islam' with Arab practices, Hadhrami leaders of the new-style prayer rallies publicly resist such claims, promoting religious rituals beloved in Indonesian local Islam. This project seeks to document the scope and impact of the new-style prayer rallies and understand them as new religious forms responsive to the late-modern social changes affecting not just the West, but also Islamic Southeast Asia.Read moreRead less
The function of images in magical papyri and artefacts of ritual power from Late Antiquity. A study of images in magical papyri and related artefacts from Late Antiquity, drawn for the purpose of healing and protection or to achieve success in personal relations and business. The research outcome will be a new holistic understanding of the design and use of such objects, and the transmission of traditions of knowledge in ancient society.
Kingship, art and cult practice: decoding symbolism in an ancient Central Asian royal city. Hidden in the elaborate imagery of the richly ornamented 'Ceremonial Complex' recently uncovered at the ancient 'Royal City' of Kazakly-yatkan in Uzbekistan is a wealth of symbolism relating to cult, kingship and the divine. The study of this magnificent corpus has broad relevance for the history of all the lands across the ancient Persian world.