Religion and Society
Researchers
The group brings together academics from the Social Sciences and Humanities who have a shared interest in the empirical study of contemporary religious and spiritual communities.
Follow the links below for information on individual staff and members.
Members
 | Professor Cristina Rocha FAHA Global Pentecostalism; healing, spirituality and the New Age; Buddhism in the West; globalisation of religion; migration and transnationalism. |
 | Ayah Abubasheer Associate Lecturer in Social Sciences Sociology of Islam; Middle Eastern Politics; Politics of Knowledge and Representation of the Arab and Muslim Worlds; Dynamics of Gender, Culture, and the Question of Human and Women’s Rights; Migration, Identity, and Border Studies; Policy and Advocacy; and Decolonial Thought. |
| Jennifer Cheng Lecturer in Sociology Islamophobia, migration, multiculturalism, racism and anti-racism, and approaches using critical discourse analysis. |
 | Professor Kevin Dunn |
| Dr Rhonda Itaoui Dr Rhonda Itaoui is a human geographer and social research interested in geographies of diversity and multiculturalism in urban spaces. Rhonda is passionate about using research as a tool to advocate for the needs and aspirations of underrepresented and disadvantaged communities through collaboration and meaningful engagement. |
 | Professor Andrew McWilliam His research focuses on the multi-dimensional aspects of rural livelihoods and adaptive traditions in the context of globalization and the pluralist embrace of religious faith practice. |
| Associate Professor Toby Miles-Johnson |
 | Dr Alex Norman Tourism Studies, Sociology of Religion, Contemporary Spirituality, Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Photography Theory, New Religious Movements, Women Studies in Religion, History of Religion and Meditation. |
 | Dr Kathleen Openshaw Kathleen’s main research interests are Pentecostalisms from the Global South, the spiritual lives of migrants and material religion |
| Associate Professor Awais Piracha Geography of Religion, Liveability of Cities, Spatial Analysis of Cities and Regions and Land Use and Transport Planning |
 | Professor Adam Possamai FASSA Professor / Deputy Dean School of Social Sciences Popular Religion, social theory, contemporary religion and Australian Aboriginal Peoples, and Muslim laws and society |
 | Professor Alphia Possamai-Inesedy |
| Dr Sharlotte Tusasiirwe |
Adjunct Members
| Professor James Cox Phenomenology of Religion; Theory and Method in the Study of Indigenous Religions; Area specialisations in Indigenous Cultures in Southern Africa, Alaska and Central Australia. |
| Dr Steven Douglas Environmental sociology, human ecology, environmental psychology, environmental ethics, farming, behavioural change, religious environmentalism, Landcare, stewardship, custodianship, social marketing, restoration ecology, private land conservation. |
 | Dr Yaghoob Foroutan Muslim Demography, Religious Identity, Religion and Gender Affiliation: Associate Professor at University of Mazandaran & Research Associate at University of Waikato |
 | Mark Hutchinson |
| Sherene Idriss Youth subcultures; intersections between religion, gender and identity practices. |
| Dr Pedram Khosronejad (opens in a new window) Research and teaching has been interdisciplinary in scope, crosscutting sociocultural anthropology, visual anthropology and Shiite Islam. Interests include questions of war, martyrdom, and memory; sanctity, sacred topography, and pilgrimage; sacred art, material religion, and visual piety; gender, sexuality, and race. In particular, explore the ways in which religion, rituals and ceremonies, and material culture are bound up in as well as influenced and changed by wider political, social, and cultural trends. |
| Geir Presterudstuen Anthropology of Religious and Ritual Practice; Fiji; Pacific Island Communities; Ethnography; Gender and Sexualities; Post-Colonial Theory; Economic Anthropology; Monster anthropology. (former WSU Lecturer in Anthropology) |
 | Arskal Salim Legal anthropology; Islamic legal theory; law and politics in Indonesian society; comparative constitutional law in Muslim countries; legal practices in Muslim communities. |
| Dr David Tittensor Dr David Tittensor is an Adjunct Fellow in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. His research interests are religion and society, Muslim movements, religion and development, Turkish politics, and the wider Middle East. He is a co-author of Religion and Change in Australia (Routledge, 2022), author of The House of Service: The Gülen Movement and Islam’s Third Way (Oxford University Press, 2014) and is co-editor of the series Muslims in Global Societies (Springer). |
| Dr Firdaus Wajdi Adjunct Researcher Religion and Globalization, Indonesian Muslims in Australia, Transnational Religious Movement, Sufism in Indonesian Context, Islam in Indonesia, and Religion and Local Cultures. |
