Researchers

Prof Sally Munt, University of Sussex
Principal Investigator

Sally has been researching in LGBT Studies and Queer Theory for over 20 years and has previously published 8 books in Cultural Studies, primarily in sexuality, class, and emotion. She grew up in Huddersfield, Yorkshire and has lived in Brighton (the 'gay capital of Europe') since 1985. She is Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Queer Spiritual Spaces project. Sally is also training and practising as a Cognitive Psychotherapist.

Dr Andrew Yip, University of Nottingham
Research Co-Investigator

Andrew is Associate Professor & Reader in Sociology, at the University of Nottingham. He comes from Malaysia, and has been living in England for 18 years, partly because of its weather (he is serious!). He has published widely, among others, in the area of lesbian, gay, and bisexual Christian and Muslim identities and relationships. He is the author of Gay Male Christian Couples: Life Stories (1997), A Minority within a Minority: British Non-heterosexual Muslims (2003), and co-author of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Lives Over 50 (2003). His articles have appeared in journals such as Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, British Journal of Sociology, Sociology, Sociological Review, and Sexualities.

Dr Kath Browne, University of Brighton
Research Collaborator

Kath is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton. She has worked in Geographies of Sexualities for five years, publishing on a range of issues from women who are mistaken for men to Pride events. Kath works with Spectrum in the community – university project Count Me In Too and has authored/co-authored six reports in the area to date. She is currently working on a paper from her Michfest research which examines Womyn's Separatist Spaces: Beyond Paranoid Ways of Knowing.

Dr Amna Khalid, Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies
Postdoctoral Fellow

Amna is a historian of medicine and South Asia. Her doctoral thesis investigates the link between Hindu pilgrimage and epidemics in nineteenth century northern India, and the colonial state's regulation of pilgrimage sites. She is particularly interested in the study of sacred spaces and how they shape identity; and is currently in the process of developing her own research project on Sufi shrines in India and Pakistan as queer spiritual spaces.

Dr Sharon Smith, Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies
Postdoctoral Fellow

Sharon Smith is a sociologist of religion whose current research interests are in notions of 'difference' and diversity, (particularly multiculturalism, class, gender and sexuality) and their implications for faith communities and spiritual practitioners. Her PhD research was a feminist study of Western Buddhism in East London, UK and its interfaces with people who are minoritised on account of being people of colour and/or working class. As part of this and other studies she has explored and made a range of presentations on the issue of how spaces and identities are taken up and become racialised, classed, gendered or otherwise inscribed by 'difference'. As part of the Queer Spiritual Space(s) project she will be investigating Buddhism in connection with LGBTQI people in London, UK.

Dr Heather White
Postdoctoral Fellow

Heather White received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2007 and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in religion and women's studies at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. She is an historian of American religions by training, and has overlapping interests in gender, sexuality, and LGBT studies. Her doctoral thesis examined a history of U.S. churches' discussions of homosexuality in the mid-twentieth century, a project now in progress as a book, (tentatively) titled American Churches and the Rise of Gay Rights. A chapter from this project was recently awarded a paper prize from the LGBT Religious Archive Network. Her research for the Queer Spiritual Spaces project examines "non-aligned spiritually curious" LGBTQI individuals on the Internet.

Dr Liz Dinnie
Postdoctoral Fellow

Liz recently completed her PhD at the University of Aberdeen where she is currently a teaching assistant on introductory sociology courses and the 3rd year Sociology of Religion course. Brought up in Birmingham she moved to Aberdeen in the mid-80s and completed her undergraduate degree in Sociology there. Her PhD looks at the 'problem' of social organization and commitment in alternative spirituality focusing particularly on the Findhorn Community, a well-known holistic and spiritual education centre and ecovillage in north-east Scotland. Aside from hugging trees as part of her research Liz enjoys the great outdoors and can be seen here at the top of Ben Nevis on a particularly busy bank holiday Monday.

Patrick James
Digital Media Project, Research Assistant

Patrick's background is in television and radio. He was born in Belfast in Ireland and one of his early projects was a documentary on the history of the LGBT community in Northern Ireland for BBC Radio Ulster, he's always liked its name Queer and Here. Patrick also produced many feature items for BBC radio including the religious affairs programme Sunday Sequence in Northern Ireland. While in television he worked on the second series of the BBC's Gaytime TV. In 1999 Patrick moved to Hove, beside Brighton on the south coast of England where he now lives. In 2005 Patrick became fascinated by Buddhism and for that year studied the religion/teachings and made meditation a significant part of his life. 2006 brought a return to the practicalities of living, however Patrick looks forward to maybe returning to Buddhism in some way in the future. Patrick is currently doing an MA in Digital Media at Sussex.