“My research explores senior Christian leaders’ attitudes toward science and science engaged theology. Building on work that has already been undertaken in this area within previous iterations of the ECLAS project, I will be conducting interviews with senior church leaders in the UK, which will be complemented by a large scale survey study. I am also currently conducting responsive research to begin to gain an understanding of how COVID-19 and the pandemic has impacted church leaders’ engagement with science more broadly.”
Church of England
“Our research is multi-pronged. Our work with the AI hub in the Faith and Public Life team is fundamental. There, we reflect and work together with church advisors, facilitating training and knowledge exchange and the advising of bishops. We are also following and analyzing the unfolding Church of England response to COVID-19, via its public statements, as members of the Church of England’s Bronze COVID-19 Public Policy Group, and through interviews with advisors and church leaders to understand how their work impacts the Church of England’s public policy response. Additionally we are reviewing literature on the Church of England’s engagement with Parliament in recent years.
Another prong is active expansion of professional networks of scientists, ethicists and science-theologians by involving them as consultants, in events or to engage with the Faith and Public Life AI hub. We are arranging a number of cutting-edge science and technology themed events for Church advisors and bishops. These include an AI Symposium for advisors and leading bishops, and a day conference for approximately 50 bishops and senior church leaders with internationally leading researchers in AI technology, and social and ethical thought.”
Sarah works with Dr. Amanda Rees on the Narratives of Science and Theology project. She is a historian of science and religion working on transnational and local perspectives of various scientific disciplines during the long nineteenth century. Her research specialties and teaching interests include the history of science and religion, British Imperialism in the long nineteenth century, science and colonialism, South Asian studies, the relationship of science and Islam, and the history of evolutionary biology.
She completed her MA and PhD at the University of Toronto’s Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IHPST). She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Germany at the University of Regensburg (Wissenschaftsgeschichte).
Amanda Rees is a historian of science based at York University’s Department of Sociology. She specialises in the history of field sciences, especially ethology and ecology, in the history of human-animal relationships, and in the history of future. She has spent the past five years researching the way that different narratives of science have been used to create different versions of the human future, and on the crucial role that religion has played in both the history of science and science fiction.
Currently, she edits the British Journal for the History of Science, and is one of the co-editors of History of the Human Sciences. Her latest book is 'Human', co-written with Charlotte Sleigh and published by Reaktion Books in 2020.
Sam works with Dr Amanda Rees on the Narratives of Science and Theology project. He is a historian of Cold War science and technology with a particular focus on oceans history, as well as broader interests in the history of science diplomacy and past futures.
Following a MA degree in History from the University of Aberdeen, he completed a PhD in History of Science and Technology at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Manchester. Along with Post-Doctoral Fellowships at the Universities of York (Sociology), Aberystwyth (History), Manchester (CHSTM), and Southampton (SMMI) he has held teaching lectureships at the University of Kent (History) and the University of Cambridge (History and Philosophy of Science).
Revd Professor Charlotte Sleigh is a scholar and practitioner in the science humanities, focusing on the connections that science makes with history, literature, art and theology. She has taught at the universities of Cambridge, UCLA, Kent and UCL, where she is presently a professor in the Department of Science and Technology Studies. She is a former president of the British Society for the History of Science, and is currently a self-supporting curate in the parish of St Martin and St Paul, Canterbury. She is the author of eight books including Human (Reaktion, 2020, with Amanda Rees) and God's Green Book (SPCK, 2010, with Bryony Webb).
David Wilkinson Durham University
David is a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University and has PhDs in astrophysics and systematic theology.
He is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’ and has lectured and written widely on the relationship between science and religion.
His most recent book, 'God, Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse: What Hawking Said and Why it Matters' (SPCK, 2020) is widely available.