- About Us
SSS is a centre for multi- and interdisciplinary research into secularity. Its work encompasses philosophical and political secularisms, as well as an array of so-called secular phenomena, be it atheist, non-theist and nonreligious populations, the de-sacralisation of literature and the arts, or any number of modern institutions that are designated as secular, including the university itself. SSS supports and showcases research from colleagues around UCL on these themes, and encourages research collaboration with national and international partners as well as across UCL. It provides a home for research projects approaching these topics from any disciplinary or cross-disciplinary perspective, including the John Templeton Foundation-funded project, The Scientific Study of Nonreligious Belief (SSNB). The SSS also runs seminars, lectures and other events and hosts visiting fellows working in these areas.
- People
Dr Lois Lee (lois.lee@ucl.ac.uk) is co-director of SSS, and a Research Associate at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, where she is principle investigator on the SSS research project, The Scientific Study of Nonreligious Belief (SSNB).
Dr Titus Hjelm (t.hjelm@ucl.ac.uk) is co-director of SSS and a Reader in Sociology at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES).
Dr Stephen Bullivant (stephen.bullivant@stmarys.ac.uk) is a Visiting Fellow in SSS at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, and Senior Lecturer in Theology and Ethics and Director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society at St Mary's University, Twickenham.听
- Research
The Scientific Study of Non-religious Belief听
October 2015 - December 2016
This project is creating authoritative foundational materials to facilitate large-scale research mapping non-religious beliefs - that is, the religious, religious-like, and religious-related ideas and convictions of non-affiliates and atheists, relating to God(s) and other supernatural agents and to existential questions about the nature and meaning of life and death.听
Little is known about how such beliefs are psychologically structured, how they manifest in the lives of non-religious people, and how pervasive and diverse they are across social and cultural environments. Yet religious 'nones' now count as the world's third largest 'religious' group - about 1.1 billion people worldwide (Pew Forum 2015a), and the flourishing of non-religious cultures such as 'New Atheism', of secularist activism, and of policy debates around non-religious inclusion have further fuelled interest in 'non-religion'.听
This project addresses questions about how we should characterise non-religious beliefs as psychological and sociological phenomena; how diverse such beliefs are; how they vary across demographic dimensions and cultures; how they arise; and how they affect the lives of those who hold them. It facilitates new work into the factors predicting or giving rise to non-theism, 'apostasy', and anti-religious sentiment, and about the effects of non-religious belief for well-being, social cohesion and other personal and social outcomes.
The project is led by Dr Lois Lee 澳门历史开奖记录. Dr Stephen Bullivant (St Mary's University Twickenham) and Dr Jonathan Lanman (Queens University Belfast) are co-leaders on the project, and Dr Miguel Farias (Coventry University) is project consultant.听This research is funded by the in collaboration with UCL, St Mary's University Twickenham, and Coventry University.
- Events
Dr Stacey Gutkowski (Kings College London)
Time: 6.00 pm, Wednesday 7 December 2016
Location: Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre, Main Building, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Information: .
SSNB Symposium, 1-2 Dec 2016
The SSNB symposium presented a series of events exploring current and future knowledge of so-called 'unbelief' from the perspectives of anthropology, psychology, sociology, media, policy and law.
Rosie Dawson (BBC Religion and Ethics),听Professor Peter Edge (School of Law, Oxford Brookes) and Dr Richard Flory (Center for Religion and Civic Culture, University of Southern California)
Time: 4.00 pm, Friday 2 December 2016
Location:听Archaeology G6 Lecture Theatre,听UCL Institute of Archaeology,听31-34 Gordon Square,听London听WC1H 0PY
Information: .
Dr Miguel Farias (Coventry University),听Professor Christopher French (Goldsmiths College, University of London),听Dr Jonathan Lanman (Queen's University Belfast) and chaired by Dr Lois Lee (UCL)
Time: 6.00 pm, Friday 2 December 2016
Location:听Archaeology G6 Lecture Theatre,听UCL Institute of Archaeology,听31-34 Gordon Square,听London听WC1H 0PY
Information: .
Dr Mathijs Pelkmans (LSE)
Time: 6.00 pm, Thursday 1 December 2016
Location:听IAS Common Ground, Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building,听UCL,听Gower Street,听London听WC1E 6BT
Information: .
Professor John H. Evans (University of California)
Time: 6.00 pm, Wednesday 9 November, 2016
Location:听Garwood Lecture Theatre, South Wing (1st Floor), Wilkins Building, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Information: .
SSNB Lecture Series: Mass Exodus: Catholic Disaffiliation and the Rise of the 'Nones'
Stephen Bullivant, Senior Lecturer, St Mary's University Twickenham, and UCL IAS Visiting Fellow
Time: 6.00 pm, Wednesday 28 September 2016
*CANCELLED*, Pew Research Center
Time: 5.00 pm, Monday 12 September 2016
Location: Haldane Room, Wilkins Building, UCL, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Information and registration: For more information and to register, please click听.Courtney Bender, Professor of Religion at Columbia University
Time: 4.30 pm, Tuesday 26 July 2016
Location: Council Room, School of Public Policy,听Rubin Building,听29-30 Tavistock Square,听London听WC1H 9QU
Information and registration: This event is co-sponsored by听RAPT (Religion and Political Theory Centre, UCL).
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,听Professor of Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara
Time: 3.30 pm, Monday 6 June 2016 (coffee will be served from 3pm)
Location: IAS Common Ground, Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building, UCL Gower Street, London WC1E 6BTInformation and registration: For more information and to register, please click听.
Religion and Public Justification Workshop
Time: 9.00 am - 4.30 pm, 28 January 2016 and 9.45 am - 4.30 pm, 29 January 2016
Location: IAS Common Ground, Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building, UCL Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Information and registration: This event is collaboration with听RAPT (Religion and Political Theory Centre, UCL).
听- Publications
Lois Lee (2016). Nonreligion. In , edited by Michael Strausberg and Steven Engler. Oxford: OUP
Lois Lee (2016). Polar Opposites? Diversity and Dialogue among the Religious and Nonreligious. In , edited by Tony Carroll and Richard Norman. London: Routledge.
Lois Lee and Stephen Bullivant (2016). . Oxford: Oxford University Press.听
Fran莽ois Guesnet, C茅cile Laborde and Lois Lee, ed.s (2016) . London: Routledge.听
Titus Hjelm, ed. (2015)听London: Bloomsbury
- Media
SSS research and researchers in the media:
, New York Times, 20 May 2016
The Guardian, 23 May 2016
The Daily Telegraph, 23 May 2016
Time Magazine, 24 May 2016 听
, The Evening Standard, 25 May 2016
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