I began my academic work in Quaker studies in the late 1980s, co-founding the Quaker Studies Research Association in 1993. I was assistant Director of the Centre for Quaker Studies at the University of Sunderland, 1994-98, and then initiated what is now the Centre for Research in Quaker Studies in 1998. I have supervised over 90 postgraduate completions.
My specialism is in the sociology of religion although I have also published in history, theology, spirituality, travel and urban studies. I teach the online Quaker studies modules at Lancaster in the history of Quaker theology and the sociology of Quakerism. I also supervise in Amish studies.
I have edited Quaker Studies for the past 25 years, and sit on Steering Group of the American Academy of Religion Quaker Studies Unit. I sit on two editorial boards.
Qualifications
BA, PhD
Research Interests
I have an ongoing interest in sects, secularisation and internal secularisation, as well as the decennial surveys of Quaker faith and practice.
Publications
Authored:
- Making our Connections: the spirituality of travel. London: SCM, 2013.
- Open for Transformation: being Quaker. London: Quaker Books, 2014.
- With Douglas Gwyn and Timothy Peat, Heaven on Earth: Quakers and the second coming. Second Edition, Createspace, 2018
- The Cultivation of Conformity: a general theory of internal secularisation, Routledge, 2019.
Edited:
- With Sylvia Collins-Mayo, Religion and Youth. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2010.
- With Margery Post Abbott, Mary Ellen Chijioke, and John Oliver, The Historical Dictionary of Friends (Quakers). Second Edition. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, Second Edition, 2011
- With Stephen W. Angell, The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, Oxford: OUP, 2013, (Paperback 2015)
- With Stephen W. Angell, Early Quakers and their Theological Thought 1647 – 1723, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- With Stephen W. Angell, Quakers, Industry and Technology: FAHE, 2017.
- With Stephen W. Angell, The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- With Rebecca Wynter The Prison Letters of Wilfrid E. Littleboy, Handheld Press, 2020.
- With Stephen W. Angell and David H. Watt, The Quakers 1830 – 1937, New Garden, PA: Penn State University Press, forthcoming.
Articles
- ‘Guarded Domesticity and Engagement with “the World”: the separate spheres of Quaker Quietism’, Common Knowledge, 16/1 (2010), 95-109.
- With Bill Chadkirk, ‘Present and Prevented 2006 and 2008: Summary Report on the survey of the 11th May 2008 and comparison with the survey of the 7th May 2006’, Quaker Studies, 15 (2010), 84-97.
- With Peter Collins, ‘Transition as Normative: British Quakerism as Liquid Religion’, Journal of Contemporary Religion 29/2 (2014), 287- 301.
- ‘Friends in Britain’, Quaker Religious Thought 123-24 (2014): 5- 23.
- ‘The British Quaker Survey’, Quaker Religious Thought 123-24 (2014): 136-40.
Chapters
- ‘The Implicit Prophet: Larry Ingle’s persistent call to rigour.’ In festschrift for Larry Ingle, edited by Charles Fager, 2011.
- ‘From God’s People to a People of God: theology and testimony as symbols of truth amongst Quakers’ in Dudiak, J., ed., Befriending Truth: Quaker Approaches and Contributions, Philadelphia, PA: FAHE 2015, pp. 82 – 106.
- ‘Quakers and “the world”: religious freedom and citizenship’ in Skeie, G. and Aarek, H. E., eds, Religious Freedom as seen from a Minority Perspective. Stavanger, Norway: University of Stavanger 2015, pp.21-32.
- With Frederick Martin, ‘ “Outcasts of Israel”: the apocalyptic theology of Edward Burrough and Francis Howgill’ in Angell, S. W. and Dandelion, P. Early Quakers and Their Theological Thought 1647 – 1723. Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, pp. 118 – 36.
- ‘The Layered Theoscape of Philadelphia: the Quaker experiment as a religious crucible.’ in Eric Nelson and Jon Wright eds Sacred Landcsapes, London: Routledge, 2017, pp.150 – 66.
- ‘Revelation 3:20’ in Timotheos Tsohantaridis and John S. Knox, eds, God in the Details: a biblical survey of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 2018, pp. 349 – 51.
- With Timothy Burdick, ‘Global Quakerism 1920 – 2000’ in Angell, S.W. and Dandelion, P., eds, The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism: CUP, 2018, pp. 49-65.
- ‘The Quakers’ in Possami, A. and Blasi, A. eds. The Sage Encyclopaedia of the Sociology of Religion, Volume 2: Sage, 2020.
- ‘Introduction: the remapping of Quakerism 1830-1937.’ in Angell, S.W., Dandelion, P., and Watt, D.H., eds, The Quakers 1830 – 1937, New Garden, PA: Penn State Press, forthcoming.