Originally Published 20 July 2004

Professor Jim Beckford FBA, from the Department of Sociology, has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy. Jim teaches modules on Collective Behaviour and Social Movements and the deparment's doctoral programme core module Research Process and Research Design.

Professor Beckford's own research has focused on the theoretical and emprical aspects of religious organisations, new religious movements, church-state problems, civic religion and religious controversies in several different countries. His latest pieces of research include the Leverhulme Trust-funded "The Natition of Islam, globalisation and ethno-religious identity in British society" and a comparative study of the treatment of muslims in the prisons of France, England and Wales on which he is currently collaborating with Professor Dani?le Joy.