The Edward Bailey Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion

‍Implicit Religion focuses on commitments, rituals, actions, rites of passage, behaviours and beliefs that appear in things we would not normally think of as ‘religious’, for example the game of football or knitting communities. To this end Edward Bailey suggested three areas for focus: commitment, integrating foci, and intensive concerns with extensive effects. These have been explored in a wide range of topics from art, shopping, Elvis fans, pilgrimage, Occupy protests, video games, Starbucks, punk rock, elective childlessness, animal rights, tattoos and sport.

The Edward Bailey Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion at Bishop Grosseteste University, serves as a hub for a wide range of activities,  including the Implicit Religion conference each May when conditions allow for in person meetings, working in local schools, university modules, research projects, and free public events. We will be running other conferences, symposiums and day events – all of which members of the public are welcome and encouraged to join us at. The centre aims to create new degree modules that are relevant and focused on Implicit Religion within Lincolnshire, to develop new degree courses that will bring international postgraduate students to BGU and be accessible for adults in Lincolnshire.

Francis stewart- Director

Francis Stewart is a lecturer in the Sociology department at the University of Stirling, and Director of the Edward Bailey Research Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion. She currently teaches at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels on social theory, postcolonial sociology, and marginalisation, exclusion and agency within the Sociology department. She also provides training and supervision for doctoral students. She takes applications for doctoral supervision in relation to Implicit Religion; popular culture; music and sound; subcultural studies; religion and punk; punk rock; punk and disability; and Northern Ireland. Her academic background is in the discipline of sociology of religion, with a particular focus on the critical examination of religious and secular categories of definition through an exploration of aspects of punk rock. She received her PhD in 2011 from the University of Stirling. Her thesis was the first sociological overview of Straight Edge punk in the UK and Ireland, and the first examination of the connections between Straight Edge and religion. These were published by Routledge in “Punk Rock is my Religion: Straight Edge Punk and ‘Religious’ Identity”(2017). https://www.routledge.com/Punk-Rock-is-My-Religion-Straight-Edge-Punk-and-Religious-Identity/Stewart/p/book/9781472489661 .
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She is a steering group member of the Punk Scholars Network which holds long-standing commitment towards the nurturing of research; not only in terms of post-doctoral output, but also through pedagogical and academic support for postgraduate and undergraduate research students. It seeks to encourage and support non-academics to pursue and develop their interests in punk scholarship through a range of different events.   Her research on different aspects of punk utilises the analytical tools of Implicit Religion to explore animal activism; sound; protest; musical expression;  salvation; orientalism and enchantment. She makes use of qualitative methods in ethnographies as well as autoethnography. Her current research project is focused on marginalisation within punk curation and exhibits. It deploys Implicit Religion to consider how and why women, Black punks, Indigenous punks, punks of colour, disabled punks and LGBTQAI+ punks are re-presented [sic] within the subculture and broader cultural events such as museum exhibits.

Participation Policy

The Edward Bailey Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion is dedicated to inter-disciplinary research into contemporary spirituality and religious experience. We seek to do so in a way that will bring together people who have an interest in this study and to work with other organisations with overlapping interests. With that in mind, we welcome individuals of all ethnic origins, races, genders, orientations, (dis)abilities, religious backgrounds, financial means, and professional or immigration statuses. Your voices, ideas, papers, and personage matter and we will do what is necessary to create a productive, interdisciplinary, and intersectional atmosphere where all are treated with respect.To ensure this all events are run on the understanding that participation can hold additional burdens for precariously employed individuals, for students and for those with caring responsibilities. For that reason we guarantee that we will never charge registration fees or membership dues to anyone. We will work with people to ensure dietary needs, accessibility needs or caring responsibilities are taken into account and catered for throughout and with any materials we develop thereafter. We embrace technology to enable participation by those who are unable to attend events in person but wish to contribute to them.Please note that we are a small organisation, and as such we do not have the financial capacity to offer funding for travel or conference-related costs at this time. At present we are also not in a position to support visa applications beyond providing a letter confirming participation.