News

Last Thursday (June 15, 2023), CIP was pleased to host a one-day student symposium on the theme Religion Conflict Dialogue. Devised by three first-year PhD students with the Cambridge Interfaith Programme's support, the schedule was bursting at the seams with fresh research and creativity.Media and dialogueThe opening session took media as its comm…

Responding to questions at her inaugural lecture, Professor Esra Özyürek referred briefly to the work of Dr Irit Dekel (Assistant Professor of Germanic Studies and Jewish Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington). The two academics are well-acquainted with each other’s work. In recent times, they have begun to document their scholarly dialogue in…

We are delighted that Hina Khalid, a third-year PhD student and highly-committed researcher in the domain of inter-religious researchers has been recognised by the Faculty of Divinity. Hina is one of three students to be awarded the 2023 Don Stebbings Prize, as recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Faculty community.A vital mediatorHin…

On 3 May 2023, the Faculty of Divinity hosted the inaugural lecture of Professor Esra Özyürek, Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths and Shared Values and the Academic Director of Cambridge Interfaith Programme.Introducing the lecture, Professor Richard Rex (a historian of the English Reformation) characterised Özyürek's work as 'table-turnin…

Awarded by the University of Tübingen’s Faculty of Protestant Theology, the Leopold Lucas Prize honours the memory of the Jewish rabbi and scholar Dr Leopold Lucas, who died at Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943. Professor Peter Ochs has been recognised for his role in the development and dissemination of Scriptural Reasoning [SR]. Preparing…

In April 2023, Dr Ankur Barua and Hina Khalid convened an online series on the topic of Inter-religious relations in South Asia, together with Dr Pranav Prakash (Christ Church, Oxford). Zoom recordings from four sessions are now available to watch again on the Faculty of Divinity YouTube channel.Learn more about each paper, and watch them below, or…

Spring 2023 takes musicologist Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz on tour with visits to Centre College (a small Protestant-foundation liberal arts college in Danville, KY) and a two-day residency at Carleton College, Minnesota. Accompanying her are musicians Mostafa Benhmad and Abdallah Hachami, travelling from France and Morocco for this purpose. Each has a…

Is commitment to God compatible with modern citizenship? Daniel Weiss provides new readings of four modern Jewish philosophers – Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, and Walter Benjamin – in light of classical rabbinic accounts of God's sovereignty, divine and human violence, and the embodied human being as the image of God. In Moder…

Published on 4 April 2023, Subcontractors of Guilt: Holocaust Memory and Muslim Belonging in Postwar Germany is an ethnographic study comparing the intents and consequences of education programmes among Turkish- and Arab-background Muslims living in Germany. The book is Professor Esra Özyürek's third monograph, and the first published since she joi…

In June 2023, students affiliated with the Cambridge Interfaith Programme are co-organising a symposium on the theme Religion – Conflict – Dialogue. Here is the call, addressed to students and recent graduates at the University of Cambridge:We are delighted to announce that the call for papers for the Cambridge Interfaith Forum’s 2023 Symposium is …

On March 27, 2023, we hosted the concluding workshop in our three-part Language Learning in/as Religious Education miniseries. Co-organiser Dr Anastasia Badder reports:This workshop was the largest event yet, featuring ten speakers from universities and educational institutions across the UK, Europe, and the US:Jo-Ann Myers (Leo Baeck College)Anast…

On March 25, 2023, the Cambridge Interfaith Programme hosted ‘Objects across religious boundaries: An interactive storytelling workshop’ at Downing Place United Reformed Church. The event was part of the third Cambridge Festival. Organisers Dr Anastasia Badder and Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović report:Our aim was to think about the ways all kinds of mat…

Astronomy may not be an obvious topic for inter-faith or intra-faith dialogue. Yet it transpires to be fertile territory for an outsider to understand something of what Ramadan means among UK Muslims. Our Communications and Programme Manager, Dr Iona Hine, reflects:“Yesterday, I attempted something I’ve never tried before: I looked for the new moon…

The rhythms of the calendar year vary across religions, as also between nations, continents, and hemispheres. Since its establishment through UN resolution in 2010, World Interfaith Harmony Week (WIHW) has provided a moment for connection between those calendars. At the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, we welcome this annual opportunity to look outw…

Dr Vanessa Paloma Elbaz is a researcher based in the Faculty of Music at the University of Cambridge. A member of the Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum from its inception, she reports on the outcomes of a recent workshop funded by the Forum's small grant scheme:On January 24, 2023, we hosted a closed workshop entitled Trance, Ritual Sound and Mig…