Religion and its Publics (Part 1)

Suzanne Newcombe is a senior lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University (UK) and honorary director of Inform, an educational charity that provides information on new and minority groups based in Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London (formerly at the London School of Economics). Suzanne researches and publishes on the study of new and minority religions and the social history of yoga, Ayurveda and complementary/alternative medicine.

David G. Robertson is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, co-founder of the Religious Studies Project, and co-editor of the journal Implicit Religion. His work applies critical theory to the study of alternative and emerging religions, and to "conspiracy theory" narratives. He is the author of UFOs, the New Age and Conspiracy Theories: Millennial Conspiracism (Bloomsbury, 2016) and Gnosticism and the History of Religions (Bloomsbury, 2021) and he is co-editor of After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Equinox, 2016) and the Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion (Brill, 2018).

@d_g_robertson | Academia | blog

Alison Robertson is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at the Open University, conducting research into BDSM as lived religious practice.  Prior to beginning her PhD she was a Religious Studies teacher and a Principle Examiner for GCSE and A Level Religious Studies. Her research interests include lived and personal religion, edgework, self-inflicted and/or positive experiences of pain, and blurring the lines people draw between categories such as religious and non-religious or ‘extreme’ religious practice and insanity.

Theo Wildcroft, PhD, is a teacher, trainer, writer and scholar working for a more sustainable relationship between our many selves, the communities that hold us, and the world that nourishes us. Her research considers the democratization of yoga post-lineage, and meaning-making in grassroots communities of practice. She is an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, UK, Coordinator of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies, editor of the BASR Bulletin, and the author of Post-lineage Yoga: From Guru to #MeToo.

Paul-François Tremlett joined the Religious Studies department at the Open University in 2010 and is now a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies. He earned his Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). For his doctorate, Tremlett conducted ethnographic research in the Philippines around the extinct volcano Mount Banahaw, a place popularly associated with healing, magic, and "Rizalism". He is interested in theory and method in Religious Studies, and, as well as ethnographic research in the Philippines, he has conducted research in Hong Kong and London on the Occupy movement. Tremlett is currently using online qualitative methods to explore transnational activism in relation to Filipino human rights organisations. Tremlett's teaching is interdisciplinary, drawing in particular from anthropology, history, and sociology. His research and teaching interests are aligned with the Open University's commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion and to the Religious Studies department's commitment to knowledge exchange with schools and colleges to promote critical religious literacy. Tremlett is on the editorial board of three, international peer-reviewed journals: Culture and Religion, Implicit Religion and Critical Research on Religion and is a member of the British Association of the Study of Religions, SOCREL and the Royal Anthropological Institute. He is also a member of the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP-UK).