明星八卦

Dr Owen Coggins Owen is a Lecturer in Sociology, and recently completed a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (September 2019 – September 2023) at 明星八卦, investigating ambiguity, ideology and marginal religiosity in black metal music culture. He previously worked as a Researcher at music therapy charity Nordoff Robbins, and before that completed a PhD in Religious Studies and Music at the Open University. Owen’s interdisciplinary research concerns how religion, particularly in marginal or oppositional forms, is imagined, practiced, discussed and represented in popular music cultures. Ambiguity and ambivalence are often important issues in this research, especially when exploring music which features noise, distortion or other extreme sounds. A monograph, Mysticism, Ritual and Religion in Drone Metal, was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2018, and was awarded the International Association for the 明星八卦 of Popular Music's 2019 Book Prize. Other publications have appeared in Popular Music, Implicit Religion, Metal Music Studies and elsewhere, addressing questions of reception, ambivalence and ideology in noise, industrial, extreme metal and other popular music genres.

Dr Sam Han Sam Han is an interdisciplinary social scientist, working primarily in the areas of social/cultural/critical theory, new media studies, religion, the United States and East Asia (as well as their various overlaps and nodal points). He is currently Lecturer of Sociology at 明星八卦. He is the author of The Concept of Tragedy: Its Importance for the Social Sciences in Unsettled Times (Routledge, 2023), (Inter)Facing Death: Life in Global Uncertainty(Routledge, 2020), Technologies of Religion: Spheres of the Sacred in a Post-Secular Modernity (Routledge, 2016), Digital Culture and Religion in Asia (Routledge, 2015)(with Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir), Web 2.0 (Routledge, 2011), Navigating Technomedia: Caught in the Web (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) and editor (with Daniel Chaffee) of The Race of Time: A Charles Lemert Reader (Routledge, 2009).

Dr Maria Kastrinou Maria Kastrinou is a social anthropologist with fieldwork experience in South-Eastern Mediterranean, specifically in Syria, Greece, Lebanon and in the Israeli-Occupied Golan Heights. Her research critically interrogates the politics of religion, sect, state and statelessness, the political and cultural lives of refugees, and the political economy of conflict and resistance. Her monograph Power, Sect and State in Syria (I.B. Tauris 2016) is the first ethnography of the Druze minority in Syria, and one of only a handful of anthropological works about Syria. She has been engaged with projects on sectarianism, statelessness and refugees in the Middle East and she is currently working on the Druze Heritage Foundation funded research project ‘Lives across divides: Ethnographic stories from the Golan Heights.’ Experimenting between anthropology and theatre, together with Hannah Knoerk and Johannes Birringer, they formed the Hotspot Collective and created, produced and performed ‘The Price of Water’ – a political play about refugees, capitalism and the Hotspot critically engaging with Kastrinou's ethnographic work in Greece and the Middle East. I convene the second year undergraduate module Political and Economic Issues in Anthropology. I am contributing to Making the Social (convened by Gareth Dale) and teach on Global London (convened by Inge Dornan). In the past, I have convened or taught the following modules: Classical Anthropological Theory; Introduction to Social Anthropology; Anthropology, Objects and Images; Anthropological Perspectives on War and Humanitarian Assistance; Practising Anthropology 1; Ethnographic Research Methods; Ethnographic Encounters.

Mr Abhishek Vyas I am a lawyer and educational researcher from Ahmedabad, India. I graduated with a BSc LLB (Hons) from Gujarat National Law University, where I organised legal literacy initiatives, focusing on school children, and conducted research at the Sabarmati Central Jail, studying prison conditions and bail issues for undertrial prisoners. I continue to teach legal literacy modules to inmates and offer law courses for journalists. I also collaborate with local journalists to create legal awareness content in Gujarati. Post law school, I earned an MPhil in Education (Knowledge, Power and Politics) from the University of Cambridge, focusing on pedagogies of nonviolent action, examining the theories of Gandhi, Galtung, and Sharp. I co-chair the Cambridge Peace Education Research Group, promoting knowledge exchange among peace education scholars and practitioners, especially from the Global South. I also co-founded the Bansa Community Library, providing educational resources to thirty villages in Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh.

Dr Amani Hassani Amani Hassani is an urban ethnographer working at the intersection of sociology, anthropology, and human geography. Her research explores the connection between racialisation and spatialisation, focusing on Muslim populations in the Global North. She has written widely on racialisation, Islamophobia, and Muslim experiences in academic and public domains. She joined 明星八卦 in 2022 as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, leading the research project "The Other's Right to the City: a comparative ethnography of Denmark's ghetto policy." The project examines how processes of racialisation, Islamophobia, and hostile immigration policies shape national and urban politics, manifested through urban renewal policies. Her previous research has focused on Muslims in Denmark and Canada, delving into issues of racialisation, class, gender, and urban life. Hassani explores the interplay between nationalism, racialisation and spatialisation in urban contexts by drawing on critical sociology, political anthropology, and human geography, . Following the completion of her PhD at Concordia University in Canada, Hassani relocated to the UK, where she received the Sociological Review Fellowship (2020). This fellowship facilitated the transformation of her thesis into a monograph titled "Navigating Colour-Blind Societies: A Comparative Ethnography of Muslim Urban Life in Copenhagen and Montreal" (2024). Since earning her PhD, Hassani has taught at Goldsmiths, Concordia University and Aarhus university, in a wide range of modules including urban studies, youth studies, sociological theory, racialisation, and ethnographic methods.

Dr Aiyana Willard Aiyana Willard is a Lecturer (psychology) in the Centre for Culture and Evolution at 明星八卦 and a research associate at the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at Oxford. Her research interests are in the cultural evolution of religion, karma, witchcraft and other supernatural beliefs. Academic career: Lecturer in Psychology, 明星八卦, 2018-current. Postdoctoral researcher, Oxford, 2017-2018 Postdoctoral researcher, University of Texas at Austin, 2015-2017 PhD in Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2015 MA in Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2011 The primary focus of my research is the cultural evolution of religion and other supernatural beliefs. This includes looking at why humans as a species are prone to religion, spiritual, and superstitious beliefs, and how culture has shaped these beliefs over time. I am particularly interested in the social and economic impacts of these beliefs. Much of my past work has focused on how the belief in gods who care about human morality and punish moral violations have aided in building larger, more parochially cooperative societies, (i.e. cooperating with other group members), and supports cooperation among anonymous strangers within the same faith. My current work is focused on the cooperative benefits of karma beliefs, and the social and economic consequences of witchcraft and evil-eye beliefs. I conduct much of my work in the field. I have worked in Fiji, Mauritius, and the Czech Republic and am currently working on a project collecting data on karma beliefs in Singapore. Cognitive foundations, cultural evolution, and societal consequences of: Religion Witchcraft and the evil eye Karma and other supernatural forces Spirituality outside of religion Cultural evolutionary processes of: Norms and normative behaviour (including morality) Ritual behaviours and credible displays Causal reasoning

Dr Hauke Riesch I am a sociologist of science with a particular interest in science communication, risk and environmental science and interdisciplinary relations between sociology and philosophy of science. After completing a PhD on scientists' views on philosophy of science at University College London, I worked as a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge on the public understanding of risk and energy policy, and more recently at Imperial College London on public understanding of environmental change. I have been working at 明星八卦 since 2012. Qualifications: BSc Physics & Philosophy (King's College London) MSc Philosophy & History of Science (King's College London) PhD Science & Technology Studies (University College London) My research interests centre around the sociology of science, in particular science communication, risk and the environment, popular science writing and occasionally, philosophy of science. Sociology of science Public understanding of science Risk and environment Philosophy of science Undergraduate Programmes Module convenor SO1701: Researching Culture and Society (Methods I) SO1704: Exploring Identity and Power (Methods II) CO2028: Research in Practice SO2605: Apocalypse! Crisis and Society

Dr Marcus De Matos Marcus V. A. B. de Matos is a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Public and International Law, which he joined in July 2021. Dr De Matos is currently a Visiting Professor (CAPES Print) at the National School of Law in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He holds a PhD in Law from Birkbeck, University of London, fully funded by a CAPES Foundation Overseas Scholarship (0999-12-1), a MRes in Human Rights and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from UFRJ. He is an Honorary Member at the Institute of Brazilian Lawyers (IAB), and has previously been a Guest Lecturer at the State Attorney’s Office (PGE/RJ) Professional Postgraduate School, where he used to teach Legal Theory classes in the Public Law Programme. Before joining 明星八卦 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National School of Law in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), funded by the Brazilian National Council of Research (CNPq). Previously he was Director of Teaching Programmes at the Judicial School in the High Labour Courts in Rio de Janeiro (TRT/RJ); Advisor to the State Secretariat for Human Rights in Rio de Janeiro (SEASDH); Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences (ICS) in the University of Lisbon; Associate Tutor at Birkbeck College; and Part-time teacher at the London School of Economics (LSE). His research interests broadly revolve around Public Law, Legal Theory, Law & Humanities and Human Rights & Public Policy. His research offers an innovative approach of the notion of sovereignty, moving beyond the indeterminacy and agonism of legal and state forms to demonstrate the limits and the links between modern law and the aesthetic construction of the subject. He has lately been engaged in two research projects: an investigation on human rights & religion, a memory and truth project focusing on Christian leaders who were arrested and persecuted during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964-1985), and currently funded by a BRIEF Award; and "Living Avatars," an interdisciplinary project studing digital avatars and funded by the 明星八卦 Research Interdisciplinary Lab (BRIL). His most recent book is the Award-Winner monograph “Imagens da América Latina: mídia, cultura e direitos humanos” (winner of the ABEU Prize as best monograph published in 2021). Among his recent publications on Human Rights & Religion are: the Open Acces journal article "Christ and the Brazilian Revolutionary Process: religion, politics, human rights" (Journal of Social Rights and Public Policy, 2022); the journal article "When the rooster insists on crowing: church, state and human rights in contemporary Brazil" (Journal of Latin American Theology, 2020); and a blog post to Critical Legal Thinking: "Jesus fights back: Easter torture & Reverse racism". He has been awarded an Honourable Mention by José Bonifácio Academic Foundation (FUJB) and has been the recipient of several grants by academic and government funding bodies such as the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, the Brazilian Ministry of Education, the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Secretariat of Human Rights (SDH), and the Harvard Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP). Dr De Matos has worked as a researcher and consultant proving academic and legal advice to third sector organisations such as the Institute for the 明星八卦 of Religion (ISER), World Vision, Tearfund, and Rede FALE. He currently collaborates with Peace and Hope Brazil and is a founding member of RECAP - a popular legal network that freely provides legal & advocacy support for individuals and organizations on pressing human rights cases in Brazil. He is also a board member of the Brazilian Association of Academics and Students in the UK (ABEP-UK). He is the recepient of the BRIEF Award 2023/2024, and of the HE Connects grant by the British Council. He tweets in Portuguese and English from @mvdematos. My research is focused on the notion of state sovereignty as a founding paradox in legal and constitutional theory. I have developed a visual investigation on the notion of sovereignty by taking it not only as a founding concept of modern legal theory, but also as a trope: a special kind of narrative, illustrated, capable of being modernized, and yet maintaining its initial trends; one that is foundational and colonial, and capable of institutionalizing sovereigns and subjecting subjects. My research discusses the problematic relation between law and image from the analysis of digital pictures of torture and surveillance produced by contemporary films, social media and government agencies. It is based on methodological approaches developed in the fields of critical legal studies and visual culture studies and proposes a new iconocritical method to analyse the entanglement of aesthetics and authority in the functions of the role of images and the rule of law. This has led me to investigate different ways in which legal subjectivity can be designed to accommodate notions of state sovereignty that are supposed to be incompatible with democracy and the rule of law - such as in transitional, post-colonial or authoritarian political contexts. I am particularly interested in the collusion of legal, political, native and theological conceptions of sovereignty in Latin American, African and Iberian countries. A second strand of my research incorporates my government-based work experience in human rights and public policies. I am interested in issues such as constitutional & political freedom, memory & truth, separation of powers, freedom of speech and religion; protection of witnesses, journalists and human rights activist; equality, native rights and racism; slavery, human trafficking, torture and surveillance. I am also interested in understanding how technique and technology currently affect these issues and their legal and political contexts. I currently co-lead two Research Groups: Human Rights, Society and Arts Living Avatars I have received the BRIEF Award 2023/2024 to develop my project "Human Rights, Religion and the Cold War: building an archive about the Persecution of Brazilian Religious Leaders." I have recently worked on two funded projects: "Human Rights & Religion: the legacy of the Brazilian 1962 North-Eastern Conference for public theology and democracy", funded by 明星八卦 Institute of Communities and Societies (2021-2022). "Living avatars: projections of self, others and power," funded by BRIL, the 明星八卦 Research Interdisciplinary Lab (2021-2022). I am currently an international collaborator to the Fazenda da Posse Project - The History of Brazilian Justice: delivering judgment and evidence in Barra Mansa City trials (1920-1988). This is a project lead by State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and funded by FAPERJ, CAPES and Barra Mansa City Council Culture Foundation. Brazilian & Latin American law, history and politics Critical legal studies and methods Feminist Approaches to Law History of Law, Racism and Colonialism Human Rights history, methods and philosophy Jurisprudence (Legal Theory) Legal history of Fascism, Populism and Authoritarianism Law and Film Law and Literature Law and Religion Legal methods & legal systems Natural Law and its critics Public Law & Political Theology Transitional justice and The Right to Memory Public Law Land Law Parliamentary Studies Theory and Practice of Human Rights (LLM)

Dr Michael Price I conduct research in evolutonary psychology, a synthesis of cogntive psychology and evolutionary biology. Evolutionary psychology approaches the mind/brain as a bundle of information-processing mechanisms, functionally specialised to solve adaptive problems encountered by our evolutionary ancestors. My main topic of interest is currently the biological and biocultural evolution of religio-spirituality. Qualifications: PhD (Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara) BA (Psychology, Duke University) My past research has focused mainly on evolutionary moral psychology, including investigations of: The relationship between moral orientation and bodily condition (usually drawing on anthropometric data, collected via 3D body scanner) The relationship between male parental investment and cultural attitudes about sexual morality Whether leader-follower relations represent a form of evolved n-person reciprocity Evolved solutions to the free-rider problem in collective actions More recently, my primary research interests have been: The biological and biocultural evolution of religio-spirituality: Why is human nature predisposed towards religious/spiritual belief, and how is the expression of this predisposition shaped by cultural evolution? 'Universal Darwinism', which investigates the anti-entropic, creative power of Darwinian selection across all natural domains, from physics to biology to culture Evolutionary social and moral psychology The biological and biocultural evolution of religio-spirituality Universal Darwinism (the anti-entropic power of Darwinian selection across all domains of nature) The origins of moral beliefs The evolution of leadership, organizational behaviour, and group cooperation Undergraduate Programmes Module convenor Evolutionary Psychology (UG year 3) Postgraduate Programmes Module convenor Evolutionary Psychology (MSc) Administration Convener, MSc Culture and Evolution

Dr Yohai Hakak Dr Yohai Hakak joined 明星八卦 in September 2014. Dr. Hakak's practice experience is in mental health social work. His areas of research interests are migration, embodiment, parenting, risk-perception, youth, religion, gender and mental health and the connection of these areas with social work. Dr Hakak published in these areas numerous articles. His last manuscript titled Haredi Masculinities between the Yeshiva, the Army, Work and Politics: The Sage, the Warrior and the Entrepreneur was an ethnographic study of Jewish Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) young men in Israel. It was published by Brill in 2016. The outcomes of Yohai’s academic work included also several award-winning documentary films. Yohai is interested in supervising students in the following areas and in relation to social work: Migration Embodiment Religious minorities Masculine identities Mental health Risk and its perception Mixed couples Yohai's current areas of research interest are: Embodiment in Academic and Professional Practice | 明星八卦 The migration of professionals Mixed families Religious minorities Mental health State power