The Open University’s mission is to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. It promotes educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality university education to all who wish to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential. Through academic research, pedagogic innovation and collaborative partnership it seeks to be a world leader in the design, content and delivery of supported open learning.

Its research underpins the teaching delivered to almost 170,000 students as the UK’s largest university. It informs the high-quality free open educational resources provided to learners worldwide. It feeds into the TV and radio programmes made in partnership with the BBC, which reach an audience of 40 million viewers annually. Its Religious Studies department has previously led pioneering and high-profile public engagement projects on religious diversity amongst non-academic stakeholders, including schools, in London.

The Open University will bring together colleagues in the Religious Studies discipline with those in its Open Media and Informal Learning unit, combining the academic insights of the former with the technical and dissemination expertise of the latter.

Key personnel

John Wolffe, Professor of Religious History and Associate Dean (Research Scholarship and Enterprise) in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He is a historian of religion since the late eighteenth century, with particular interests in Protestant Evangelicalism, religious conflict, and religion and national identities. Earlier publications include The Protestant Crusade in Great Britain 1829-1860 (1991), God and Greater Britain: Religion and National Life in Britain and Ireland 1843-1945 (1994) and (with Mark Hutchinson) A Short History of Global Evangelicalism (2012). Recently he has led several major funded projects (see below), which have sought to apply insights from religious history to enhance understanding of contemporary issues. John Wolffe has been Head of the Department of Religious Studies from 1998 to 2001 and from 2006 to 2007. Between 2009 and 2011 he has led the initial development of the Digital Humanities thematic research network. He currently has significant external roles as President of the Ecclesiastical History Society and a member of the REF sub-panel for Theology and Religious Studies.

Simon Budgen, Head of Editorial & Engagement within The Open University’s Open Media & Informal Learning department, leads a small team developing a wide range of online learning content aimed primarily at the educationally underserved – including videos, games and quizzes to support the OU’s partnership with the BBC. Amongst recent projects he has commissioned are Exploring Religion in London and A Safety Net, a video project aimed at supporting people with mental health issues.

John G. Maiden, Lecturer in Religious Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, is a historian of twentieth century religion. His previous research has focused on issues of inter- and intra-religious relations, particularly in the British context, including controversies concerning Church and State, Protestant and Catholic rivalries and debates around Christianity and multiculturalism. He is author of the monograph National Religion and the Prayer Book Controversy, 1927-28 (2009), various book chapters, and articles in Parliamentary History, Journal of Religious Studies and Journal of American Studies. He was co-leader of a public engagement project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) between 2012 and 2013 on religious diversity in London; and in 2015 was awarded the university’s Engaging Research award for its impact. John Maiden is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a council member of the Church of England Record Society and committee member for the Religious Archives Group.

Stefanie Sinclair, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Originally from Germany, she began her studies at the University of Heidelberg, and has been living, studying and working in the UK for the past 22 years. Her research is concerned with relationship between religious, gender and national identities, with a particular focus on representations of Muslims in contemporary party-political discourses on education in Germany and the UK. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was awarded a Teaching and Learning Fellowship by the British Association of the Study of Religions this year in recognition of her educational research and publications on teaching and learning in higher education. She has led a number of research projects critically evaluating the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning in higher education, including a project on ‘Assessing oral presentations at a distance’ funded by the Higher Education Academy. Together with her colleague Graham Harvey, she has acted as academic consultant on the BBC/OC co-produced TV-series ‘Divine Women’, first broadcasted on BBC 2 in April 2012. She is book reviews editor of the journal Culture and Religion, and has been a Research Associate and Visiting Fellow at the University of Lancaster, the University of Chester and the University of Turin (Italy).

Relevant publications and/or other products and services

Stefanie Sinclair (2012), ‘National identity and the politics of the ‘headscarf debate’ in Germany’, Culture and Religion, Vol. 13 (1), pp. 19-39.

John Wolffe ed. (2014) Irish Religious Conflict in Comparative Perspective: Catholics, Protestants and Muslims, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 265 pp. ISBN 978-1-137-35189-0, with sole authored Introduction (pp. 1-19) and Conclusion (pp. 242-60).

Stefanie Sinclair (2016) ‘The introduction and refinement of the assessment of digitally recorded oral presentations’, Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, Vol. 31 (2), Special issue on Assessment in Open, Distance and e-Learning: Lessons from Practice, pp. 163-175. DOI 10.1080/02680513.2016.1190640

John Wolffe (2017) ‘Towards the Post-Secular City? London since the 1960s’, Journal of Religious History, 41:4 (December 2017), early view available online DOI 10.1111/1467-9809.12447.

John Maiden (forthcoming, 2017). ‘Integrating history and contemporary religions: the Building on History projects’ in Linda Woodhead (ed.), Innovative Methods in the Study of Religion. Oxford University Press.

Relevant previous projects or activities

2008-12: From Sunday Schools to Christian Education: Young People and Christianity in Britain since 1900 (funded collaborative PhD studentship under AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme) Wolffe was lead supervisor of the student, Naomi Stanton.

2008-11: Modern Religious History and the Contemporary Church (Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellowship (£233,547). Wolffe was PI and Maiden Research Associate. The project explored the history of the Church of England in London and applied insights to inform its current activity.

2012-13: Building on History: Religion in London (Arts and Humanities Research Council Follow-On Funding £95,071). Wolffe was PI and Maiden Co-I. This project built on the success of the previous one, extending its work to other Christian traditions and to Jews and Muslims.

2013-15: Assessing Oral Presentations at a Distance (Higher Education Academy Individual Teaching Development Grant – GEN 962). Sinclair was PI.

2013-15: ‘Religion, Martyrdom and Global Uncertainties 1914-2014’, (AHRC/ESRC Global Uncertainties Leadership Fellowship, £287,682). Wolffe was PI.