Christopher R. Cotter: Founding director, editor and co-host
Chris recently completed his MSc by Research in Religious Studies at the University of Edinburgh, on the topic ‘Toward a Typology of Nonreligion: A Qualitative Analysis of Everyday Narratives of Scottish University Students’. He is currently taking a year out from study to pursue PhD applications, present at conferences, and work on projects such as this. His future research will continue to expand the theme of ‘non-religion’ to apply to ‘everyone’ in religiously diverse, socio-economically deprived urban environments, simultaneously deconstructing the religion-nonreligion dichotomy in the process. He is Deputy Editor and Bibliography Manager at the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network, and currently editing the volume ‘Social Identities between the Sacred and the Secular’ with Abby Day and Giselle Vincett (Ashgate, 2013). See his personal blog, or academia.edu page for a full CV.
David G. Robertson: Founding director, editor and co-host
David G. Robertson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Religious Studies department of the University of Edinburgh. His research examines how UFO narratives became the bridge by which ideas crossed between the conspiracist and New Age milieus in the post-Cold War period. More broadly, his work concerns contemporary alternative spiritualities, and their relationship with popular culture. Forthcoming publications: “Making the Donkey Visible: Discordianism in the Works of Robert Anton Wilson” in C. Cusack & A. Norman (Eds.), Brill Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production. Leiden: Brill (2012) “(Always) Living in the End Times: The “rolling prophecy” of the conspracist milieu” in When Prophecy Persists. London: INFORM/Ashgate (2012). For a full CV and my MSc thesis on contemporary gnosticism, see my Academia page or my personal blog.
Louise Connelly: Marketing & Web Manager
Louise Connelly, Ph.D., currently works as a Project Administrator and a tutor of Buddhism at the University of Edinburgh as well as studying for an MSc in E-Learning (University of Edinburgh). Her Ph.D. thesis focused on an analysis of self reflection, self presentation and the experiential self within selected Buddhist blogs. Her research interests include early Buddhism, visual culture, the use of social media, and Buddhist ritual and identity in the online world of Second Life. Her recent publications include ‘Virtual Buddhism: An analysis of aesthetics in relation to religious practice within Second Life’, Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet (2010); ‘Virtual Buddhism: Buddhist ritual in Second Life’ in Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds, Campbell (ed.) (2012); and Campbell and Connelly, ‘Religion and the Internet’ in the Encylopedia of Cyber Behavior, Zang (ed.) (2012). See her personal blog or website for a full CV.
Jonathan Tuckett: Interviewer and Roundtable Convener
Jonathan is currently a PhD student at the University of Stirling. He has an MA in Philosophy and Religious Studies and an MSc in Religious Studies from the University of Edinburgh. His research is on the phenomenological method in the study of religion. Areas of interest include the phenomenology of religion, theory and method in the study of religion, and philosophy of religion. Jonathan has also written the essay What is Phenomenology? for the Religious Studies Project.
Ethan Gjerset Quillen: Roundtable Convener
Ethan Gjerset Quillen is a doctoral candidate in religious studies at the University of Edinburgh. His dissertation is on the evaluation of the categorically social, historical, and cultural attributes of Atheist identities in the United Kingdom from 1979 to 2012 using the novels of Ian McEwan as representative data. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Riverside in religious studies and a Master of Arts from California State University, Long Beach with an emphasis on 19th century American religious communities and New Religious Movements. He also holds two Master of Arts degrees from Baylor University – the first in American Studies, and the second from the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church State Studies. He has also written the essay Circular Academia: Navigating the Dangerous Waters of Term Re-Assignment for the Religious Studies Project.
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And of course, everyone who has contributed, as an interviewee or a respondent.
The team would like to express their gratitude to Graham Harvey and the committee at the BASR, and to Dr Steven Sutcliffe, Dr Hannah Holtschneider, Dr Jessie Paterson and Nicola Osbourne at the University of Edinburgh for their continued help and support with this project.
Thanks also to David Jack for recording our theme tune, and to Martin Elden of livingapart.co.uk for graphic design.
You can contact the editors via email, at editors<at>religiousstudiesproject.com or via Twitter, @ProjectRS.
Page last updated: 15 March 2012