Dean for the Faculty of Humanities and Performing Arts
Dr Jeremy Smith
Jeremy has taught on various aspects of British and European History since the late Eighteenth Century, specialising in the history of Anglo-Irish-Northern Irish relations, terrorism and counter-terrorism, peacebuilding, peace-making and reconciliation. Amongst his publications are Making the Peace in Ireland, 1886-1998 (Pearson, 2002); Britain and Ireland: From Home Rule to Independence for Longman in their Seminar Studies series; The Tories and Ireland: Conservative Party Politics and Home Rule, 1910-1914 (Irish Academic Press, 2000).
Thomas is a Lecturer in Chinese Studies and the Director of the Confucius Institute.
Associate Professor Thomas Jansen
Thomas is the Director of the Confucius Institute at UWTSD and a Lecturer in Chinese Studies. He is also the Programme Director of the BA in Chinese Studies. His teaching interests are in the field of pre-modern Chinese history and culture, in particular the Six Dynasties period and Chinese religions. Among his publications are Globalization and the Making of Religious Modernity in China: Transnational Religions, Local Agents, and the Study of Religion, 1800-Present (Brill, 2014); “Sectarian Responses to Foreign Presence in China in the Nineteenth Century: The Wanbao baojuan 萬寳寶卷 (1858) and other examples.” In: Globalization and the Making of Religious Modernity in China: Transnational Religions, Local Agents, and the Study of Religion, 1800-Present (Brill, 2014); “Sacred Text.” In: The Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions (Oxford University Press, 2012).
Bettina is a Professor in Study of Religions and Anthropology of Religion.
Professor Bettina Schmidt
Bettina teaches the study of religions and anthropology of religion on undergraduate and postgraduate level including on the MRes Religious Experience. She also supervises research students and welcomes inquiries in areas such as anthropology of religion, non-ordinary (religious/spiritual) experience, vernacular religions, and critical study of religions. Her background is in Cultural Anthropology with a special focus on the anthropology of religion. Her teaching focus is on theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of religions as well as various aspects of contemporary religions. Among her most recent publications is ‘The Entanglement of Spirituality, Wellbeing and ‘Spiritual Economy’ in Brazil: The Shift from ‘Living well together’ to ‘Leading a good life’’. In: New Spiritualities and the Culture of Well-being (Springer, 2022).
Dr O’Byrne is a sociocultural anthropologist and Lecturer in Peace Studies
Dr Ryan O’Byrne
Dr Ryan Joseph O’Byrne holds a MA in Cultural Anthropology from Victoria University Wellington (New Zealand), a PhD in Social Anthropology from University College London (United Kingdom), and has held academic positions in the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA) at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
His most recent fieldwork investigated the connections between mobility, resilience, and public authority among South Sudanese refugees in northern Uganda. He has published in Australasian Review of African Studies, Civil Wars, Human Welfare, The Journal of Refugee and Immigrant Studies, The Journal of Refugee Studies, The Journal of Religion in Africa, Sites, and Third World Thematics. He has chapters forthcoming in Informal Settlement in the Global South, (Gihan Karunaratne, ed.) and Migration, Borders, and Refugees in Africa (Joseph K. Assan, ed.), and is editor of a special issue on vernacular understandings of resilience in Uganda for the journal Civil Wars (co-edited with Julian Hopwood).
Nick is a Principal Lecturer and Associate Professor in Cosmology and Culture; Harmony and culture.
Associate Professor Nicholas Campion
Director of the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, the only academic Centre in the world to deal with cultural relationships with the sky and the cosmos. Nick is responsible for taking forward the Centre’s research and teaching activities, through supervising PhD students, sponsoring research projects, organising conferences and other events, and publishing research via the peer-reviewed journal Culture and Cosmos, and the Sophia Centre Press. Nick’s research interests include: exploring how worldviews and cosmologies are constructed, the history of astrology, cultural astronomy, space exploration, ethics and myth utopianism, contemporary politics and international relations. Among Nick’s publications is The New Age in the Modern West: Counter-Culture, Utopia and Prophecy from the late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day (Bloomsbury, 2015).
Professor Kenneth Gergen
Prof Kenneth Gergen is internationally known for his contributions to social construction theory, technology and cultural change, the self, and relational practices. His major writings include Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction (Harvard University Press), The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life (Basic Books), and Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community (Oxford University Press). Gergen is a major figure in the development of social constructionist theory and its applications to practices of social change. He also lectures widely on contemporary issues in cultural life, including the self, technology, postmodernism, the civil society, organizational change, developments in psychotherapy, educational practices, aging, and political conflict. Gergen has published over 300 articles in journals, magazines and books. Gergen lectures throughout the world and has received numerous awards for his work, including honorary degrees in both the U.S. and Europe.
Professor David Cadman
Professor Cadman’s work is centred upon teachings of love and compassion, wholeness and connectivity, including exploring principles of harmony in education, food & farming, well-being, business and economy. Formerly Chairman of The Prince’s Foundation and a Trustee of the Prince’s School of traditional Arts, David is Harmony Adviser to The Prince’s Foundation based at Dumfries House in Scotland. Amongst David’s books are Love & The Divine Feminine (Panacea Books, 2020) and three edited volumes on The Speeches & Articles of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales (University of Wales Press, 2014, 2018)