Science, Belief, and Trust: Politics and Publics in Turkey
Summary: This project explores the attitudes of religious people in Turkey toward scientific issues that have generated controversy in recent decades, and assesses the political implications of these attitudes. The contentious topics that the project focuses on are vaccination (mRNA vaccines in particular), climate change, and the question of “normalcy” in gender and sexuality. As […]
Science, Religion, Nationalism and Atheism. A network of “spring schools”. (SCiReNA)
Summary: The main goal of this project is to organise three short “Spring Schools” on Science and Religion in Spain, Greece and Poland with the following aims in mind: (1) to test a short version of a syllabus on science and religion, formerly supported by the INSBS, in different geographical and cultural (and non-English speaking) […]
African publics’ perceptions of science and spirituality post COVID-19 pandemic: a collaboration between UK, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa
Summary: African publics have been described as “notoriously” (Mbiti, 1990) and “incurably” (van den Toren, et al, 2020) religious. However, as religious institutions rank number one of 17 institutions on trust levels, scientific institutions also rank in the top four (Falade, 2018) and many prominent religious leaders are also scientists and have established universities. The […]
Science and belief among Sufis: The Nordic frontier
Summary: This qualitative research project probes the views about science and religion among Muslim mystics in the Nordic countries. The project team will interview 12 Sufis or students in Sufi circles in Finland, Denmark and Sweden about how they negotiate or imagine the boundary between science and belief. It also investigates how these views are […]
Science and Islam in Southeast Queensland, Australia
Summary: Sociological studies of Islam and science are limited in number and scope, with existing studies reinforcing a “deficit model approach” that shows religion as an obstacle to public understanding and acceptance of science (Carlisle et al. 2019 p. 150, Jones et al. 2023). This project locates the study of Islam within the growing field […]
