We have a dual emphasis on ‘London and the world’.
Our partnerships and collaborations reflect our rootedness in London: we reach out to London schools, museums, galleries, religious communities, and policymakers, and benefit from the exceptional resources of the University of London's research networks, institutes and libraries. We also have an international reach, with connections to universities and cultural institutions worldwide.
London connections include the Royal Institute of Philosophy, the London Spinoza Circle, the Anglo-Israel Archeological Society, the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the University of London's Institute of Historical Research and the Warburg Institute. Through the Department's partnership with the educational charity INFORM our research in the social sciences is making a real difference in the world.
We have global research partnerships on the Muslim Atlantic, Art and Modernity (with Duke University), and Radicalisation (with the University of Melbourne). Our research networks range from the Transnational Network for Theravadan Studies to the Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods collective. TRS work on artefacts, archives, and manuscript digitization connects to the Louvre in Paris, the National Library of Laos, the Manuscript Cultural Association of Thailand, and the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem.
Service to society
We want to share the research and teaching that happens within the department for the benefit of wider society. Visit the AKC pages for publicly-accessible lectures, podcasts and conversations on mental health, inequality, the East London Mosque, the Barbican, and the history of King's.
TRS staff enhance cultural and religious literary through public engagements in a variety of media. In 2015 Dr Carool Kersten won the King’s Media Personality of the Year award for his international media commentaries on the contemporary Muslim world. TRS researchers have contributed to BBC Radio 4 programmes including In Our Time, Start the Week, The Moral Maze and Today Programme, and given interviews for the BBC World Service, PBS, ABC, CNN, France 2, and Al Jazeera. We have co-organised the Immigrants of Spitalfields Festival, delivered public lectures at the Royal Institute of Philosophy, the British Library, and numerous literary festivals, and written for high-quality print and digital media including the Guardian, The Conversation, and the Tablet.
Professor Joan Taylor’s groundbreaking research in biblical studies and material culture has influenced a series of films about Jesus and his disciples, including ‘Secrets of Christ’s Tomb’ (National Geographic, 2017), ‘Jesus’ Female Disciples: The New Evidence’ (Channel 4/ABC/Sky History Channel, 2018), ‘Mary Magdalene’ (Porchlight Films/See-Saw Films, 2018), ‘Jezus van Nazareth verovert de wereld’ (EO, 2018) and ‘Jesus: His Life’ (Sky History Channel, 2019).