[Updated/edited on 31 July 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. Most events will take place in the Emmanuel Chaplaincy Centre on the campus of the University of Leeds.
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. On the afternoon of the same day there will be a workshop run by Professor David Tombs. This will be held in Otley and numbers are limited.
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), Professor Daniel Smith-Christopher (Loyola Marymount University), Dr. Jessie Fubara-Manuel (University of Edinburgh), Dr. M. I. Rey (Babson College), 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), 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]
