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The esteemed journal Gender and Education has just released the call for papers for a new guest edited special issue, edited by CES Assistant Professor , and Dr James Burford from Thammasat University in Thailand. The special issue is entitled "Thoughtful gatherings: gendering conferences as spaces of learning, knowledge production and community", and the call for papers can be accessed . Emily and James are also co-editors of the academic blog 'Conference Inference: Blogging the World of Conferences' .

Applications are now invited for a fully-funded doctoral studentship to commence in October 2018. The studentship is embedded in a research project on gender and educational success in Haryana, India, which is funded by the Fair Chance Foundation. It is co-funded by Fair Chance Foundation and the ¹û¶³´«Ã½â€™s Collaborative Postgraduate Research Scholarships (WCPRS) scheme. The studentship reflects the university’s commitment to producing the next generation of international leaders in social science research. Fair Chance Foundation, which was founded by a ¹û¶³´«Ã½ alumnus, is committed to improving the future livelihoods of disadvantaged children and young adults through education. The principal goals of Fair Chance Foundation are to: research attitudes towards education as a means to end poverty and gender bias; develop interventions which create desire for education as a means to end poverty and gender bias; formally research and publish interventions and outcomes; develop guides and promote the research to help policy makers make informed choices about which interventions are likely to have most impact; provide direct support to children and young adults.

WRERU Presentations at the Religious Research Association Conference, Washington DC, Sunday15th October 2017

Tania ap Sion, David W Lankshear and Leslie J Francis presented three stands of their WRERU research to an audience concerned with applying research findings for the ongoing professional education of church leaders

• Tania is drawing out the educational implications of research into the prayer spaces developed in churches
• David is drawing out the educational implications of research into the faith trajectory of churchgoers in their seventies and eighties
• Leslie is drawing out the educational implications of research into work-related psychological wellbeing for church leaders themselves.

The audience included national officers from mainline American denominations concerned with the applying research to church practice. They are members of the Religious Research Association.
You can read Professor Francis' Abstracts here:

'I hate them with perfect hatred'

'Assessing clergy work-related psychological health'

The Boar,'s award-winning students’ newspaper, has published an article about the Islamic Education Research Network in CES. Headed up by and funded by the DCD Family Trust charity, the network has evolved from the University’s popular Islamic education Summer Schools. Now in their second year, the Summer Schools, run by the ¹û¶³´«Ã½ Islamic Education Project, bring Muslim teachers, faith leaders, and community and youth workers together with academics to discuss current research and share ideas on teaching and learning Islam within the context of an increasingly plural and diverse contemporary world. 

Insights from the prayer board within a Christian Ethos school: A qualitative perspective  

This study emerges from the qualitative strand of the Ten Leading Christian Ethos Schools project at Canterbury Christ Church University and the ¹û¶³´«Ã½. Following the identification of the school prayer board and intercessory prayers within school Eucharists as offering a significant contribution to the Christian ethos of one of the schools, this study set out to offer a critical evaluation of these prayers composed by students. Taking a sample of almost 300 prayers, the study employs an established analytic framework for the analysis and classification of intercessory prayer (distinguishing between prayer intention, prayer reference, and prayer objective) that has been employed previously by ap Siôn in a series of studies concerning prayers posted in churches, in cathedrals, in hospitals, and online. The findings draw attention to the distinctive profile of the prayers offered within the particular school in terms of the issues for which prayers are offered, and the religious language and themes that shape these prayers. Suggestions are made regarding how these themes and linguistic forms may be shaping the spiritual and religious lives of the students. On the basis of these analyses suggestions are offered for the development of the ministry of intercessory prayer within Christian ethos schools and for further research within other Christian ethos schools.