‘Ben’ Pink Dandelion is Woodbrooke’s Programme Leader for Research.
Ben began his academic work in Quaker studies in the late 1980s, co-founding the Quaker Studies Research Association in 1993. He 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. He has supervised over 100 postgraduate completions.
Ben’s specialism is in the sociology of religion although he has also been published in history, theology, spirituality, travel and urban studies. He also supervises Amish studies.
Ben edited Quaker Studies for 25 years, and spent 6 years on the Steering Group of the American Academy of Religion Quaker Studies Unit. He sits on two editorial boards and is Honorary Professor of Quaker Studies at the University of Birmingham.
Qualifications
BA, PhD
Research Interests
Ben has an ongoing interest in sects, secularisation and internal secularisation, as well as the decennial surveys of Quaker faith and practice. Ben also supervises in the areas of Amish Studies and LGBTQIA theology.
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 â 1937, New Garden, PA: Penn State University Press, 2023.
- With Stephen W. Angell and David H. Watt, Global Quakerism in a Postcolonial Context: 1938 â 2018, 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, âPresent and Prevented 2006 and 2008: Summary Report on the survey of the 11th May 2008 and comparison with the survey of the 7th May 2006â, Quaker Studies, 15 (2010), 84-97.
- With Peter Collins, âTransition as Normative: British Quakerism as Liquid Religionâ, Journal of Contemporary Religion 29/2 (2014), 287- 301.
- âFriends in Britainâ, Quaker Religious Thought  123-24 (2014): 5- 23.
- âThe British Quaker Surveyâ, Quaker Religious Thought  123-24 (2014): 136-40.
- With Rhiannon Grant. ‘When two or three are gathered’ in a Zoom Room: The Theology of Online Unprogrammed Quaker Worshipâ Quaker Studies 26, (2021): 279-290.
- âQuakers and Host Cultures: towards a theory of accommodation.â Quaker Studies  27 (2022): 203 â 213.
- âBelieving and Belonging in Britain Yearly Meeting: the use of serial quantitative studies.â Quaker Studies  28 (2023): 61 â 77.
 Chapters
- âThe Implicit Prophet: Larry Ingleâs persistent call to rigour.â 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 Quakersâ in Dudiak, J., ed., Befriending Truth: Quaker Approaches and Contributions, Philadelphia, PA: FAHE 2015, pp. 82 â 106.
- âQuakers and âthe worldâ: religious freedom and citizenshipâ 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, â âOutcasts of Israelâ: the apocalyptic theology of Edward Burrough and Francis Howgillâ in Angell, S. W. and Dandelion, P. Early Quakers and Their Theological Thought 1647 â 1723. Â Cambridge; Cambridge University Press, pp. 118 â 36.
- âThe Layered Theoscape of Philadelphia: the Quaker experiment as a religious crucible.â in Eric Nelson and Jon Wright eds Sacred Landcsapes, London: Routledge, 2017, pp.150 – 66.
- âRevelation 3:20â 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 â 51.
- With Timothy Burdick, âGlobal Quakerism 1920 â 2000â in Angell, S.W. and Dandelion, P., eds, The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism: CUP, 2018, pp. 49-65.
- âThe Quakersâ in Possami, A. and Blasi, A. eds. The Sage Encyclopaedia of the Sociology of Religion, Volume 2: Sage, 2020.
- âTestimony as Consequence: the reinvention of traditionâ in Daniels, W and Grant, R, eds, The Quaker World. Â London: Routledge, 2022.
- âIntroduction: the remapping of Quakerism 1830-1937.â in Angell, S.W., Dandelion, P., and Watt, D.H., eds, The Quakers 1830 â 1937, New Garden, PA: Penn State Press, 2023.
- âTime Journeys in Quakerism: Itinerance and the Spiritual Searchâ in Brunn, S., ed., Time Journeys. Waco, Tx: Baylor Press, 2024.