Religion, Culture and Society (RCS)

The religion, culture and society research focus area explores the dynamics of religion, spirituality, and non-religion in contemporary society, politics, and culture.

Researchers in Religion, Culture and Society are working on a range of projects linked by their focus on contemporary practices of meaning-making in increasingly secularised, religiously diverse societies. Our work sits within the interdisciplinary field of religious studies, and we primarily draw upon the methods of sociology and psychology. We value and have expertise in participatory and community-engaged research methods.

The research focus area hosts annual research symposia and an associated Religion, Culture and Society Annual Lecture, and runs an interdisciplinary and interinstitutional Religion and Politics writing group.

Researchers

Religion and Politics Writing Group

Since 2019, Dr Rosemary Hancock has convened a monthly writing group for scholars of all career stages, working at any Australian University in the interdisciplinary fields of religious studies. The group reads one draft piece of writing (article, chapter, proposal) each month with two members giving a detailed response followed by open discussion.

The group is by-invitation only and inquiries can be directed to Dr Rosemary Hancock.

International Visiting Scholars

Since 2016, the Religion, Culture and Society Program has hosted regular international visiting scholars to deliver the annual RCS Lecture, participate in research symposia, and deliver workshops for students and researchers working in relevant fields at the University.


Michael Burdett
2024
University of Nottingham

Paul Bramadat
2023
University of Victoria

Emma Tomalin 
2019
University of Leeds

Adrian Pabst
2018
University of Kent

Erin Wilson
2017
University of Groningen

Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
2016
Northwestern University

Current Research

Self-Enhancement, ‘Biohacking’ and Spiritual Yearning (2024-2026)

Dr Victoria Lorrimar and Professor Stephen Bullivan are undertaking a Templeton-funded project on biohacking and spirituality. The project is interested in whether people engage in biohacking practices (which they define broadly to include DIY body augmentation, technofuturism, health and wellness optimisation, and the use of spiritual technologies) for spiritual purposes. This research incorporates sociological methods and will contribute to a fuller understanding of both contemporary biohacking movements and the nature of spirituality beyond traditional religious contexts. This news article introduces some of the project’s questions and objectives.

Awe-some Spirituality: A Theological and Psychological Cross-Disciplinary Exploration of Awe (2024-2026)

Dr Victoria Lorrimar, with external colleagues Valerie Van Mulukom and Mari van Emmerik, are undertaking a cross-disciplinary project investigating the role of awe in nonreligious spiritual yearning and meaning-making. The project conceptualises awe as one possible “bridging concept” between the religious and the nonreligious: awe experiences and awe-seeking might well be indicative not only of spiritual yearning, but also integral to the meaning-making process itself for the nonreligious. Drawing on researchers from religious studies, theology, and psychology, the project thus promises new insights into awe and wonder as potential avenues for meaningful spirituality outside traditional religion.

Religious Super-Diversity and Urban Nature (2024 – 2025)

Dr Rosemary Hancock is currently undertaking a 12-month ethnography funded by a UNDA research development grant investigating the role and significance of more-than-human nature in the religiously ‘super-diverse’ contemporary city. The project examines the engagement with and cultivation of urban nature by religiously diverse citizens in four community gardening groups in inner Sydney. It explores expanding and changing notions of the social – particularly relating to religion, spirituality, and meaning making - in the Anthropocene.

Highlights

2024 A Special Issue of the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

Guest-edited by Dr Rosemary Hancock and Professor Andrew Singleton (Deakin) on the theme ‘(Non)Religion, Spirituality, and Ecological Politics’ was published in late-2024. The issue featured papers first presented at the Symposium hosted by RCS in 2022 and included an article by Dr Rosemary Hancock titled ‘Lived Environmentalism: Nonreligion or Lifestyle Politics?’

2024 Associate Professor Michael Burdett delivered the RCS Annual Lecture on the topic ‘The Religion of Technology: Transhumanism and the Myth of Progress’.

Along with this lecture, Associate Professor Burdett delivered a workshop for University researchers on applying for interdisciplinary research grants, and along with Dr Victoria Lorrimar held a reading group on Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun.

2023 Professor Paul Bramadat delivered the RCS Annual Lecture on the topic ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Yoga’

Presenting the findings of a major project studying modern postural yoga in North America. During his visit to UNDA, Professor Bramadat also gave a Masterclass for graduate students working in the interdisciplinary field of religious studies titled ‘Research on Religious and Spiritual Communities: Insiders, Outsiders, and Other Useful Fictions’.

2022 (Non)Religion, Spirituality and Ecological Politics Workshop.

This hybrid workshop explored the interaction of contemporary religion, spirituality and non-religion with environmental politics and planetary wellbeing. We facilitated reflection upon the relationship of diverse religious, spiritual, and non-religious worldviews to politics of action and non-action addressing ecological crisis.

Postgraduate Research

We welcome inquiries from potential students interested in undertaking postgraduate research supervised by RCS researchers and working in the interdisciplinary fields of religious studies. Please reach out directly to our researchers if their interests align with yours for an initial conversation, or to rosemary.hancock@nd.edu.au for a more general conversation about postgraduate research within the Religion, Culture and Society focus area.