News

Autumn 2023 brought another tranche of applicants from outside the Faculty of Divinity to join the Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum, all of whom we are now pleased to welcome as members. Researchers often connect with us in hope of fostering or enhancing collaborations that advance their research agenda. The Research Forum provides a particular …

The Arabic word Qantara (قنطرة) means bridge. Qantara.de provides journalistic coverage connecting the Islamic world with Germany.Qantara’s Claudia Mende interviewed CIP Academic Director Professor Esra Özyürek about her ethnographic research among Muslims in Germany. The interview is available in English and German.Here is an extract:“Ms. Özyürek,…

Dr Alexandra S Ilieva, Teaching Associate of Buddhist Studies, reports from the launch of Dr Ankur Barua’s debut novel—held at the Faculty of Divinity on 8 November 2023: The intention was to read aloud from various chapters from Ankur’s book in an effort to spark discussion surrounding questions of religious identity, Orientalism, colonialism, and…

Researchers at the University of Cambridge are marking UK Inter Faith Week (12—19 November 2023) with a series of events exploring how religion influences our attitudes to and use of water. The theme was chosen in response to ongoing research funded by the Ofwat Innovation Fund and participating UK water companies. The project stakeholders are hopi…

“Sie haben mehr als zehn Jahre untersucht, wie deutsche Muslime in den Fokus der Holocaust-Aufarbeitung gerückt sind. Warum gerade in Deutschland?”“You’ve spent more than a decade investigating how Germany Muslims became the focus in coming-to-terms-with the Holocaust. Why Germany?”So begins an extended interview between Zeit Online and Professor E…

In 2017, a New York Times opinion piece cited the work of CIP’s Dr Daniel Weiss to make a case that Christians should support gun control. The writer, Richard Parker, drew on an article Daniel had published in the Journal of Religious Ethics.As part of a wider body of work on religious responses to violence, Daniel was weighing up how Thomas Aquina…

Researchers in the field of religious studies are invited to contribute their expertise to help identify authorial editorial bias across in different branches of Wikipedia. Existing research demonstrates that the problem is often one of absence.BackgroundIn 2021, research funded by the Wikimedia Foundation found that Western artists were over-repre…

Dr Ankur Barua (pictured, right) is Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies at the University of Cambridge. Immersed in inter-religious relations all his life, he found new inspiration under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic: The extra alone time prompted him to record and share versions of devotional chants he had been taught as a young child. Th…

On Monday 9 October, two dozen people gathered at the Faculty of Divinity to spend an afternoon thinking about materiality and religious education. Organised and co-convened by Dr Anastasia Badder (Divinity) and Dr Daniel Moulin-Stozek (Education), the event brought together researchers and practitioners, and a healthy quotient of PGCE students—who…

In September 2023, four representatives of the Cambridge Interfaith Programme contributed to a four-day conference at the Von Hügel Institute for Critical Catholic Inquiry. The theme was Conflict resolution and interreligious encounter.Based at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge, the VHI supports advanced study with a particular commitment to dialogue,…

Dr Daniel Weiss is now the longest-standing member of the CIP team, arriving in 2010 as the first Polonsky-Coexist Lecturer in Jewish Studies (now Senior Lecturer). Over the past two years, he has had three terms of research leave, spending time at the University of Tübingen as a visiting scholar, supported by a Humboldt Research Fellowship.As Dani…

Over two days in September 2023, the Faculty of Divinity and Cambridge Interfaith Programme hosted the conference “Materiality and the Future of Inter-Religious Encounters”—convened by Dr Anastasia Badder (Cambridge) and Dr Lea Taragin-Zeller (HUJI). They reflect on the event: Our aim was to examine the vital role of materiality in inter-religious …

Co-organized by Dr Daniel H. Weiss (Divinity Faculty, Cambridge), and Prof Napoleon Katsos (Linguistics Department, Cambridge), this 8 September workshop was “a resounding success”.The workshop stemmed from a Templeton Foundation-funded pilot grant, led by Dr Joanna Leidenhag at the University of Leeds, which brings together pairs of theologians an…

Tilak Parekh is a postgraduate research student in the Faculty of Divinity. His doctoral thesis focuses on the purpose, creation and impact of the Neasden Temple in northwest London—the first traditional Hindu temple built in the western world. Visiting another famous religious site this summer, he was drawn to reflect:“Earlier this month [August],…

What’s the logic behind biblical eating prohibitions? Are commandments intended to promote the consumption of vegetarian animals? How come ducks—devourers of fish, insects, and frogs—can be part of a kosher diet?Dr Daniel Weiss explores these and related questions in a new article for TheTorah.com.The article adapts, summarises, and builds upon fin…