My research centres on how societies understand and memorialise events of suffering. Much of this has focused on responses to the Holocaust, but I am currently researching emerging memorialisation of the Covid-19 pandemic.

My current AHRC-funded project is partnered with the Marie Curie charity and their ‘National Day of Reflection’ initiative. Looking at the wider picture of how memorialisation of the pandemic is beginning to develop in Britain, and drawing comparatively on historic precedents, the project considers the social, political, and religious elements of how we begin to develop new public rituals and memorial spaces amidst experiences of Covid-19.

My most recent book is Holocaust Memory and Britain’s Religious-Secular Landscape, published with Routledge in 2020. It was based on a Leverhulme Trust fellowship held during 2019-2020 and is the first study to examine Holocaust remembrance and British religiosity/secularity in relation to one another. Its first half gives attention to the varied meanings of public Holocaust memory for Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and post-Christian communities. In its second half, focus turns to the ways in which state-supported Holocaust remembrance activities are intertwined with perceptions of sacredness. This incorporates the study of ritual memorialisation events, the creation of new sacred space, and the curation of pilgrimage to Holocaust sites. The monograph breaks new ground as an interdisciplinary treatment of Holocaust studies and religious studies, arguing that critical consideration of this interface is necessary for a better understanding of both contemporary British public life and for a sustainable culture of remembrance and national self-examination.

My earlier 2012 monograph, The Book of Job in Post-Holocaust Thought, was situated at the interface of biblical studies and Holocaust studies. It considered the use of Job’s archetypal story amidst Jewish reflections on persecution during the Nazi period, highlighting the extent to which interpretive traditions, contemporary politics, and debates about history shape the meaning given to the biblical text. 

I am currently director of the Network for Religion in Public Life at the University of Exeter.