Dr Rosemary Hancock

Biography

Rosie works across the fields of religious studies and the sociology of religion. Her research examines how ordinary people make meaning from their lives and form ethico-political subjectivities and communities in grassroots spaces. She has been particularly interested in nature initiatives and environmental politics as sites of research. From April 2026 – March 2027, Rosie will be a Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Leipzig, where she will be writing her second book based on an ethnography of community gardens and bush regeneration groups in urban Sydney conducted 2024-25. She is the author of Islamic Environmentalism: Activism in the United States and Great Britain (2018) which examined the synthesis of Islamic and environmental practice and knowledge in six Muslim environmental groups across the US and UK, and she has published widely on Islamic environmentalism.

Her work has also examined the construction of political culture across religious and nonreligious difference through an ethnography with a large social justice-oriented community organising coalition in Sydney. During this project, she was a visiting scholar at Northwestern University’s Buffet Institute for Global Studies (2019), supported by the Buffet Institute and an Australian Academy of the Humanities Early Career Researcher Travelling Fellowship.

In 2025, she is beginning a collaborative project comparing modern postural yoga in Australia with North America, working with Canadian religious studies scholar Paul Bramadat.

Rosie is the convener of the Religion, Culture and Society research focus area at the Institute for Ethics and Society and is also the University’s Academic Lead for Graduate Research. She is the Co-Editor of the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, the journal of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion and is Co-Area Editor for Oceania for Religious Studies Review. She has co-hosted the popular sociology podcast Uncommon Sense since 2022, which is supported by the Sociological Review Foundation.

She received her PhD (2016) and MA (2010) from the University of Sydney, and her BA from the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Teaching areas

Rosie does not currently teach undergraduate courses. From 2017-2022 she taught in the Social Justice Program in the School of Arts and Sciences including the upper-level courses ‘Activating Social Change’, ‘Social Justice and the Natural World’, "The Global Politics of Development", and ‘Peace and Conflict Studies’, and the first year course ‘Introduction to Social Justice’.

Research expertise and supervision

Rosie is available to supervise research students in the sociology of religion and/or religious studies, especially students using ethnographic research methods. She is also able to supervise students examining grassroots politics and activism, environmentalism, or using social movement theory in their research projects.

She has supervised one PhD student and one MA (research) student to completion, and currently supervises one doctoral student and one masters student.

Books

Islamic environmentalism: Activism in the United States and Great Britain (London: Routledge, 2018).

Book chapters

Buiten, Denise, Ellen Finlay and Rosemary Hancock, “Towards an Intersectional Feminist Pedagogy of Gender-based Violence” in Abby Day, Lois Lee and James Spickard (eds.) Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization: Practical Tools for Improving Teaching, Research and Scholarship. (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2022).
Hancock, Rosemary, “Social Media and Online Environments: Muslim and Mormon Women Bloggers in the United States” in Caroline Starkey and Emma Tomalin (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Gender and Society. (London: Routledge, 2021).
“Islamic Environmentalists, Activism, and Religious Duty” in Mario Peucker and Merve Keyiki (eds.) Muslim Volunteering in the West: Between Islamic Ethos and Citizenship. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 141-160.
“Environment and Religion”, “Activism”, and “Refugees and Religion” in Adam Possamai and Tony Blasi (eds.) SAGE Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion (SAGE Publications, 2020).
“Ecology in Islam.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford University Press. Article published May 2019. Available at: https://oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-510
“Islamic Environmental Organizations in Great Britain” in Timothy Peace (ed.) Muslim Political Participation in Great Britain. (London: Routledge, 2015), 103-123.

Journal articles and proceedings

Hancock, Rosemary, 2025. “Sacralising the Secular: Constructing ‘Religion’ in Social Movement Scholarship.” Social Movement Studies 24 (4): 417-435.
Hancock, Rosemary, 2024. “Lived Environmentalism: Lifestyle Politics or Nonreligious Worldview?” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 37 (3): 274-296.
Halafoff, Anna, Yunkaporta, Tyson, Harris, Rachael, and Hancock, Rosemary, 2024. “Riotous Methodological and Methodointuitive Reflections on (Non)Religion, Spirituality and the Multispecies Turn.” Social Compass 71 (3): 482-501.
Hancock, Rosemary, 2024. “VOIP Technology in Grassroots Politics: Transforming Political Culture and Practice?” Journal of Sociology 60 (1): 3-20.
Hancock, Rosemary, 2023. “Faithful Democracy: Synthesising Religious and Political Practice in the Sydney Alliance.” CITY: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action [Online First].
Hancock, Rosemary, 2022. “VOIP Technology in Grassroots Politics: Transforming Political Culture and Practice?” Journal of Sociology (Online First)
2020. “Environmental Conversions and Muslim Activists: Producing Knowledge at the Intersection of Religion and Politics.” Social Movement Studies 19 (3): 287-302.
2019. “Religion in Coalition: A Case Study of the Sydney Alliance.” Religions 10 (11): 610.
2017. “Islamophobia, National Security, and Religious Freedom in the U.S.” Journal of Religious and Political Practice 4 (1): 61-77.
2015. “Is there a paradox between religion and liberation? Islamic Environmental Activism in the United States and Great Britain.” Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 28 (1): 42-60.

Conference papers

2025 Keynote Lecture “Environmentalism Across Cultural and Social Contexts” Environmentalism in the MENA Region, Charles University, Prague
2025 “The Abject and Ecological Enchantment: Death and Destruction in Urban Environmental Initiatives” International Society for the Sociology of Religion, Kaunas
2024 “Lived Environmentalism: Nonreligion, Nature, and Politics in Urban Sydney” and “Climate Fundamentalisms?” American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, San Diego.
2024 Invited Seminar: “Lived Environmentalism: Nonreligion, Nature, and Politics in Urban Sydney” Religion and Society Seminar. Western Sydney University. (Online).
2024 Invited Seminar: “Climate Fundamentalisms?” Religious Studies Seminar. Victoria University of Wellington. (Online).
2023: Invited Speaker, “Islamic Environmentalism: Democratic Participation and the Problem of Religious Inclusion” Humboldt-Kolleg Symposium on Religious Constitutionalism, University of Divinity and Deakin University.
2023: “Missing in Action: Spirituality and Explaining Movements for Social Change.” Spirituality, Wellbeing and Risks Symposium, SWELL Network, Deakin University.
2022: “Sacralising the Secular: Constructing Religion in Social Movement Theory.” Australian Association for the Study of Religion Annual Conference, University of Melbourne.
2022: Invited Guest Lecture: “Islamic Environmentalism” Climate Change, End Times, and Sustainable Futures. Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen
2020: Invited Speaker, “From Theology to Action: Islamic Environmental Activism” Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilization Research Colloquium, Charles Sturt University, Sydney.
2019. 'Urban Politics and Religious Communities' AASR Conference, Newcastle, Australia.
2019. 'Religion and race in urban grassroots politics: Comparing Australia and the United States'. ISA Conference, Barcelona, Spain.
2018. 'Faithful democracy: combining religious and political practice in the Sydney Alliance.' TASA conference, Melbourne, Australia.
2018. 'Religion and Non-Violent Social Movements' Session Organizer. ISA World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada.
2018. 'The Dynamics of Religious Faith and Community Organizing: A Case Study of the Sydney Alliance.' AASR conference, Auckland, New Zealand.
2017. 'Environmental conversions and Muslim activists: Producing knowledge at the intersection of politics and faith.' TASA conference, Perth, Australia

In the media

Rosie is co-host of the sociology podcast Uncommon Sense, a podcast of the Sociological Review Foundation. The first season was released in 2022. She has been interviewed on ABC Radio Programs about religion and spirituality in contemporary Australian life, including Triple J Hack’s, Life Matters, and Religion and Ethics Report, and was a guest of New Humanist magazine’s podcast, With Reason.

She has written for ABC Religion and Ethics, Berkeley Forum, and Religion in Public.

Professional affiliations

Co-Editor – Journal for the Academic Study of Religion (2023 – current)
Co-Area Editor for Oceania – Religious Studies Review (2024-2026)
Editorial Board Member - Sociological Review (2016 – 2022)
Book Reviews Editor - Journal for the Academic Study of Religion (2019-2021)
Co-convenor, Sociology of Religion Thematic Group, The Australian Sociology Association (2015 - 2019)
Member – Australian Association for the Study of Religion
Member – International Society for the Sociology of Religion
Member – International Sociological Association
Member – American Academy of Religion

Awards

2026 – 2027 Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers
2018 Australian Academy of the Humanities ECR Travelling Fellowship
2013 Equinox Press Postgraduate Essay Prize
2012 Endeavour Award: Postgraduate Research Fellowship

Other

2019 – Visiting Scholar, Buffet Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University
2018 Mentee - ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship Mentoring Scheme

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