Conference – The Shiloh Project

Announcing a day of events on Religion and Violence – 8 October 2025

by Johanna Stiebert on April 9, 2025

On Wednesday 8 October 2025, on the Leeds University campus (West Yorkshire, UK), we are organising a series of events centred on themes of Religion and Violence.

This day of activities will include presentations, panels, displays, mentoring sessions, and a campus walk, and the participation of activists, practitioners, academics, artists and students.

We have sought participation from the Emmanuel Chaplaincy Centre, Leeds Church Institute, Iqbal Centre, Centre for Religion and Public Life, and Centre for Jewish Studies.

The events will lead up to the imminent publication (scheduled for Spring 2026) of our massive Bible and Violence Project (with Bloomsbury).

(Above – the editors of the Bible and Violence project: Johnathan Jodamus, Chris Greenough, Johanna Stiebert and Mmapula Kebaneilwe)

We have some fantastic participants who have confirmed attendance and many more are hoping and planning to attend. These include numerous participants well familiar to the Shiloh Project.

We also hope to organise other, community-centred, events in proximity to the day, to make the most of such a fabulous group being here.

On Thursday 9 October there will be a Centre for Religion and Public Life seminar at the University of Leeds, with Rabbi Dr. Barbara Thiede: 11.30-13.00, Botany House 1.03.

Rabbi Dr Barbara Thiede

The events are organised by Gregorio Alonso (History, University of Leeds) and Shiloh’s Johanna Stiebert (Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds), and precipitated by the coincident proposed visits to Leeds of Dr. Chauncey Diego Francisco Handy (Reed College, OR, USA) and Rabbi Dr. Barbara Thiede (University of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC, USA). Since then, the following fabulous people have also confirmed attendance: Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris (Leo Baeck College, London), Saima Afzal (MBE, founder of Community Interest Company S.A.S. Rights), Professor David Tombs (Otago University, Aotearoa New Zealand), Dr. Sherry Ashworth (novelist), Ms Victoria Mildenhall, Rosie Dawson (broadcaster), Dr Sam Lewis (Criminology, University of Leeds, founder of FRIVA the Feminist Research Into Violence and Abuse Network), Dr. Katie Edwards (journalist, broadcaster and writer), Dr. Meredith Warren (University of Sheffield), Dr. Sandie Gravett (App State, NC, USA), Professor Joachim Kuegler (Bamberg University, Germany), Professor Sarojini Nadar (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), Dr. Johnathan Jodamus (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), Dr. Mmapula Kebaneilwe (University of Botswana), Emeritus Professor Hugh Pyper, Dr. Eric Vanden Eykel (Ferrum College, VA, USA). Dr. Sarah Nicholson (University of Glasgow), and Katheryne Howe (artist and PhD candidate).

(Above: Dr. Chauncey Diego Francisco Handy)

There will be:

– displays of images and artworks…

– a mentoring session (with Barbara Thiede and Johanna Stiebert) for scholars working in an area of rape culture, religion and/or the Bible who might be interested in publishing in our Routledge Focus series …

– opportunity to see a new book on Judeophobia and the New Testament and to talk to two of the book’s editors (with Meredith Warren and Eric Vanden Eykel)…

– panel discussions…

– presentations…

– a campus walk taking in points of interest with regard to religion and violence…

– opportunity for informal networking and idea-spinning…

– engagement on how to join our energies and sense of purpose to support one another and work towards more peace, more community, and healing from religious violence and trauma.

In the evening there will be a dinner in honour and memory of Professor J. Cheryl Exum whose scholarly integrity and groundbreaking feminist scholarship, including on violence against women, has been significant for many of us. The dinner is by invitation only. (Please contact Johanna.) We are planning an edited volume with Sheffield Phoenix Press centred on Cheryl Exum’s legacy. Cheryl was director of Sheffield Phoenix from its foundation until 2016. If you would like to contribute to the volume, please contact Johanna.

For more information on the events, and planned volume, please contact Johanna: [email protected]

The Bible and Violence: Online Conference

by Chris Greenough on February 1, 2024

An painting of a violence scene from the Bible

It’s just over a year since we launched our Bible and Violence project. With a list of over 120 stellar chapters, The Bible and Violence will be an inclusive reference work that explores the complex dynamics between the Bible, its interpretation, reception, and outworkings, with particular emphasis on violence in its multifarious forms.

We’re so excited to share the good news with you. The Bible and Violence project will be holding an online conference from Monday 25^th – Wednesday 27^th March 2024. The aim of this short conference is to share some of the work already submitted by contributors – to give you a sneak preview of the varieties of violence in biblical books and their uses.

Our fabulous line up of speakers and topics is below. Please note all times are GMT (UK), so please check for your local time equivalent.

The event is free, but please follow this link to sign up. Places are limited, so don’t miss out.

For any queries, please contact: [email protected]

Monday 25th March
9:15-9:30		Welcome
9:30-10:15	Erin Hutton, Australian College of Theology, Australia	Striking like the Morning Star: How can Song of Songs 6:4–10 prevent domestic abuse?
10:15-11:00	Grace Smith, University of Divinity, Australia	Rape Culture and the Bible: the efficiency of rape and rape propaganda
11:00-11:15		Break
11:15-12:00	Robert Kuloba, Kyambogo University, Uganda	The Ideological Dilemma of Suicide in Uganda: African Bible Hermeneutical Perspectives
12:00-12:45	Deborah Kahn-Harris, Leo Baeck College, UK	Violence in the Book of Lamentations
12:45-13:00		Close
Tuesday 26th March
14:00-14:15		Welcome
14:15-15:00	Stephen Moore, The Theological School, Drew University, USA	Violence Visible and Invisible in the Synoptic Gospels
15:00-15:45	Juliana Claassens, Stellenbosch University, South Africa	Exploring Literary Representations of Violence in Bible in/and Literature
15:45-16:00		Break
16:00-16:45	Barbara Thiede, UNC-Charlotte, USA	Violence in the David Narrative: A Divine Order
16:45-17:30	Alex Clare-Young, Westminster College, Cambridge Theological Federation, UK	The Bible and Transphobia: The Violence of Binarism
17:30-17:45		Close
Wednesday 27th March
14:00-14:15		Welcome
14:15-15:00	Alexiana Fry, University of Copenhagen, Denmark	Violence, Trauma, and the Bible
15:00-15:45	Susannah Cornwall, University of Exeter, UK	The Bible, Intersex Being and (Biomedical) Violence
15:45-16:00		Break
16:00-16:45	Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer, ALT School of Theology, Sweden	Violence and Lack of Violence in the Reception of David
16:45-17:30	Luis Quiñones-Román, University of Edinburgh, UK	Divine Violence in The General Letters
17:30-17:45		Close

Intersectional Feminism(s)!

by Johanna Stiebert on January 16, 2024

Announcement!

Please see this announcement we received today from long-term Shiloh Project supporters about the SBL (Society for Biblical Literature) unit for Intersectional Feminism(s).

This unit aims to create inclusive spaces for challenging hegemonic paradigms and structures, including within feminism. It aims to champion interdisciplinarity, positionality, and recognition that the personal is political.

The unit welcomes papers that reflect the breadth of voices and experiences that comprise global feminisms.

The link provides more information:

https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/Congresses_CallForPaperDetails.aspx?MeetingId=44&VolunteerUnitId=186

SBL can be a daunting space. We can promise you will find friendly and supportive scholars here.

Conference: Gender and Religious Exit, Moving Away from Faith

by Chris Greenough on November 16, 2023

Tuesday, 28 November 2023 at 9:00–17:30

Please use this form to register to attend the online symposium: Registration – Gender and Religious Exit (onlinesurveys.ac.uk)

Organisers:
Dr Nella van den Brandt, Coventry University, UK
Dr Teija Rantala, Turku University, Finland
Dr Sarah-Jane Page, University of Nottingham, UK

From the conference organisers:

There have always been reasons for people to move away from a religious tradition, community or movement. Religious traditions are instrumental in providing individual members with a perspective on the world, a community and a relationship with the divine. Religious communities socialize their adherents regarding behaviour, embodiment and emotions. When people move away from their religion, their experiences may pertain to all or some of these aspects and dimensions. Leaving religion is thus a varied and diverse experience.

The one-day online symposium Gender and Religious Exit starts from the premise that motivations for moving away from religion range from experiencing cognitive or emotional dissonance to social marginalisation to a critique of power relations. The notions of ‘moving away’ or ‘religious exit’ should be considered in a layered and nuanced manner: they raise questions about what exactly individuals consider to leave, and what elements of behaviour, embodiment and emotions remain part of their environments, lives and futures.

Moving away from religion can thus involve complex processes and negotiations of all areas of life and understandings of the self. An intersectional perspective and analysis of leaving religious is long overdue, since notions and experiences of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race and dis/ability are central in shaping identity and the self. The multidisciplinary symposium invites scholars to investigate the variety of contemporary dynamics of leaving religion in the lives of individuals and communities.

During the opening plenary session, research findings will be presented that emerged from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded two-year qualitative research by Dr Nella van den Brandt (Coventry University, UK) on women leaving religion in the UK and the Netherlands. Keynote lectures on gender, feminism, apostasy and non-religion / leaving religion in various national and cultural contexts will be provided by Dr Julia Martínez-Ariño (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands) and Prof. Dr Karin van Nieuwkerk (Radboud University, the Netherlands). During parallel sessions, we will further look into current international and intersectional perspectives on moving away from religion.