ProfessorJay Johnston

Project Opportunities

Title: Studies in Religion

Summary of opportunity:

Studies in Religion offers a rich scholarly environment for the critical study of religion.

* If you are interested in this research opportunity, please see the profiles of the Department of Studies in Relgion staff and contact your preferred supervisor directly to discuss your proposed project.

Opportunity synopsis:

Academic staff have a wide variety of interests that include world religions; religion, media and popular culture, esotericism, spirituality and new religious movements.

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Project Opportunities

Title: Religion and Natural Heritage

Summary of opportunity:

Jay Johnston is trained in religious studies, wildlife conservation, cultural heritage of Scotland and Scandinavia, curatorial and museum studies, art history and theory and continental philosophy. A cross-disciplinary specialist her work demonstrates the importance of Religious Studies scholarship for the fields of heritage studies, wildlife conservation and environmental humanities, art history, Norse and Celtic studies. She works at the interface of religion/ arts/philosophy examining visual and material culture with a particular focus on the interrelationship between ethics and aesthetics, concepts of materiality, embodiment, and epistemology.

Well-known for her contributions to the subfields of aesthetics of religion and subtle body studies, her current projects focus on (i) biocultural knowledge, wildlife conservation and human–animal–environment relations; (ii) concepts of place, identity and nature in Cornwall and the Scottish Highlands and Islands, particularly the interrelationship between local belief and natural heritage; (iii) and the project, “Faith and Fleece: Sheep as Spiritual, Cultural and Ecological Guides.”

Opportunity synopsis:

Research interests

----------Current Research Projects----------

In addition to continued research on the body, health and religion and interdisciplinary research methodology, Jay Johnston is currently engaged in three areas of research:

Reviving the Wild: Conservation Cultures and Multispecies Aesthetics
This interdisciplinary project investigates the direct and indirect use of spiritual discourse in contemporary environment conservation programs and their foundation in aesthetic experience. The project aims to assess the role and effectiveness of the secular presentation of such beliefs about ‘sacred’ nature in the production of meaningful connection to local environment and perception of community

Affective Images: Insular, Late Antique and ‘Esoteric’ Art & Aesthetics
This research topic encompasses a number of collective and individual projects. Its concern is the perception and interpretation of images and design elements found in manuscripts and on a variety of material culture from Late Antique Mediterranean and Insular contexts (especially early Christian manuscripts and material culture of the Picts). Analysis is extended to consider the reuse of such motifs in early modern and contemporary esoteric sources.

This topic includes the collaborative project "The production and function of art and design elements in ancient texts and artefacts of ritual power from Late Antiquity in the Mediterranean region." ARC Discovery Project. Role: Primary Chief Investigator with Iain Gardner, Julia Kindt (Sydney); Erica Hunter (SOAS) and Helen Whitehouse (Oxford). 2012-2016. Publication forthcoming.

Fleece and Faith: Sheep as Cultural and Ecological Guides
As a ‘poster’ species for unintelligent group conformity (‘sheeple’), sheep are a common source of derision. Such popular scorn belies the significance of the species for the development of human societies. This interdisciplinary research aims to explicate how sheep continue to have their ‘hoof on the pulse’ of social, cultural and ecological debate and innovation.
Utilising multispecies ethnographic and critical animal studies methodologies it investigates two conservation agendas and the cultures which ensue from their practice (i) Rare Breed Conservation and their use in restoring biodiversity (ii) Organic and Small Flock Fibre Production. Both are embedded in sustainability, agricultural regeneration, health (personal and planetary) and spiritual discourses that advocate for a return to pre-industrial production methods as potential solutions to global resource limitations and biodiversity loss.