About us
An independent research centre
The Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (CSRS) is a leading centre in Canada for scholarly interdisciplinary research on topics at the intersection of religion and public life. We host several national public policy research networks, sponsor visiting fellowships for senior and junior scholars and members of the community, and produce a dynamic annual program of public lectures and seminars.
Current areas of research at the centre include:
- Religion and securitization post-9/11
- Religion and hospice care
- The ethics of animal biotechnology
- Religion and ethnicity in Canada
- Globalization and the academic study of Islam
- Religion in India
- The role of religion in immigrant and refugee settlement in Canada
- Religious resistance to immunization
Some history
The centre was established in 1991 with the help of a generous gift from local philanthropists Allen and Loreen Vandekerkhove. This helped to attract further donations from individuals and religious communities, creating an endowment that today funds the majority of the centre's operations. The purpose of the centre was and is to "foster the scholarly study of religion" at the University of Victoria and to serve as a catalyst for dialogue between the university and the community.
The first director of the centre was Harold Coward, a scholar of comparative religion, who served from 1992 to 2002. Conrad Brunk, a philosopher of science and religion, served as the second director from 2002 to 2008. In July 2008, Dr. Paul Bramadat, a specialist in contemporary religion in Canada, took up leadership of the centre.
Getting involved
Most of the researchers at the CSRS are the recipients of fellowships awarded through our visiting fellowship program. Some of the fellowships, especially those for UVic faculty members and UVic graduate students, have some funding attached. The majority however are unfunded - the applicants must be able to finance their own travel and living expenses while visiting Victoria. In addition to professional academics, we also have fellowships for community researchers and working artists - check out our fellowship guidelines.
If you're not an academic but are interested in our work, we invite you to join the Friends of Centre, a group of community supporters who receive regular notice of all public lectures and events and access to special fieldtrips and programs organized exclusively for our Friends.
Not a teaching department
The CSRS is not a teaching unit. We do not grant degrees or diplomas, nor do we hire faculty or instructors. We are entirely focused on research and the dissemination of research through lectures, conferences and publications. To find out more about being a student or professor at UVic, see the links bar at the top of this page.