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Inside Theology & Religion

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Dialogue magazine focuses on one of the departments that shone in this year’s QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023: our Department of Theology & Religion, which ranked sixth in the world and is consistently recognised internationally as a leading department.

Every year our subjects are highly rated in global league table rankings - a credit to the outstanding teaching and research carried out at our University. This year, we performed very strongly in the prestigious QS World University Rankings by Subject 2023, with 12* of our subjects ranked in the world top 50.

Uniquely situated on a World Heritage Site and right next to Durham Cathedral, our Theology & Religion department is one of the largest in the UK. Dialogue spoke to Professor Mathew Guest, Head of Department, to find out more about the department’s success.

Our Department of Theology & Religion
Our Department of Theology & Religion

Can you tell us a little about your department?

We’re rooted in one of the oldest academic disciplines – theology – and yet nowadays we pursue a much wider range of religious concerns, and from a range of disciplinary perspectives. What unites them is our concern for religion as an enduringly important dimension of human life. Whether you’re interested in its relationship to politics, culture, ethics or the most profound truths of the human condition, this is the place to study theology and religion.

Human life is driven by beliefs and values and for many people across the world, religion plays a crucial part in shaping them; it gives meaning to people’s lives. We frequently see public opinions concerning faith and morality that spill over into fractious argument. In the department, we work on challenging misconceptions within a context of respect and critical dialogue.

More than 70 undergraduates join us each year, attracted to our cutting-edge research, our high-quality teaching, and our vibrant community. The department is also home to 150 postgraduate students and a team of 50 academics. Our alumni are heavily in demand in a very wide range of jobs and professions.

What does it mean for the department to be ranked sixth in the UK in the QS Rankings by Subject?

We’re often recognised as a leading research department but the QS Rankings are especially important.

They are not based purely on research impact, they’re a combination of academic and employer reputation, citations per academic paper, impact and quality of research and international research collaboration factors. For us it is especially gratifying to be ranked so highly as it reflects the esteem in which we’re held among our academic peers across the globe.

Can you tell us a little about how you’ll expand on this success?

One thing we’re focusing on is ensuring our fantastic teaching speaks to contemporary questions and reaches a wide audience. We’re about to launch a distance learning MA in Catholic Theology, which we hope will attract students from across the world into our international community of postgraduates. We’ve been reviewing our undergraduate curriculum and asking how it speaks to the interests of emerging generations. This has generated several new modules that we look forward to launching at the start of next academic year, including on Queer Theology, De-colonising the Bible, and Religious Diversity in European Society. 

Our research continues to engage new audiences and stakeholders, reflecting our commitment to scholarship that has a genuine impact on society. We have a colleague on a prestigious Vatican secondment who is applying her theological scholarship within ongoing work that will have a major influence on the future of global Catholicism. Another collegue is just about to launch a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Durham University and representatives of the UK funeral industry, the first KTP in the Arts and Humanities Faculty. Our newly established International Centre for Moral Injury is focused on examining the impact of war on military personnel. We’re rooted in traditions that have a long history, but we’re driven by questions of the utmost contemporary relevance.

Find out what it is like to study Theology & Religion in our video below.

*12 of our subjects were ranked in the QS World Rankings by Subject world top 50 in 2023. The others included Classics & Ancient History (8th), Archaeology (10th), Geography (14th), Anthropology (23rd), Philosophy (32nd), History (38th), English Literature (38th), Geology (46th), Earth Sciences (46th), Law (46th) and Geophysics (47th).

 

 

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