sustain:if:able kiwi

IAPR 2025 abstract acceptance

Well this was not in the 2025 bingo sheet but delighted to have a conference paper accepted for the biennial International Association for the Psychology of Religion in Birmingham 2025.

Titled: Listen up: The Social Impact of selected religious practices, my paper will present initial findings from my social impact of religious practices research with Psychology and Theology Cross training fellowship, funded by John Templeton. Over 12 months, I am undertaking action research by gathering people to explore spiritual practices over 8 sessions and inviting their feedback through pre- and post-survey, keeping a research journal and sharing their experience in focus groups.

For years I have offered teaching in mission and discernment. This research project allows me to explore in greater depth what is happening for people and how the Spirit might be present through spiritual practices.

While I’m naturally curious, I find working across disciplines quite intimidating. The Psychology and Theology Cross training team have been so helpful. They provided encouragement to submit. They provided several abstracts from previous conferences to help demonstrate what it means to write up research in the domain of psychology (which is so different from theology). Further, they also offered feedback on abstract drafts, not only suggesting additions but also offering edits to help keep the abstract within the required word limits. So constructive!

Finally, I’m also grateful for grant funding from John Templeton which makes this possible. Being an independent scholar, there are significant costs in attending conferences and funding makes presenting research possible.

Best of all, my partner-in-life and research, Dr Lynne Taylor, has also had her research accepted. So we will get to experience Birmingham together.

It means a 3rd consecutive experience of a UK summer, following on from my Glasgow University funded research in 2023 and my IASH/Edinburgh University funded research in 2024.