Religion in the modern world, with a special focus on Japan; Religious decline and secularisation; Pilgrimage in cross-cultural contexts- with a special focus on the transformations and developments of pilgrimage in recent times; Buddhism in contemporary Japan; Religion and violence, with special focus on how religious doctrines and practices may give rise to and provide legitimations for violent actions; New religious movements in Japan; Millennialism; Religion and the media, especially how religious groups use media forms to market themselves.

I did my undergraduate studies at the University of Reading in History, graduating in 1970. I then spent most of the next decade travelling around the world (Middle East, India, West Africa, North and Central America), and worked at various jobs (building sites, school teaching, gardening) before getting into academic work- partly because I was not very good at the other jobs I tried. My MA was on African religious practices and my PhD was on Buddhism in Japan.

I started learning Japanese in 1979, and worked for five years at Japanese universities, initially teaching English but later Religious Studies,  from 1984-1989 before coming back to the UK.

In 1989 I was appointed Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Stirling. I stayed there until 1999 but during that period I was:

1992-1993 Visiting Professor, Department of Religion, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA

1995-1998 Senior Research Fellow, NOrdic Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen, Denmark.

In 1999 I became Professor of Religious Studies at Lancaster (and served as Head of Department here).

In 2007 I left Lancaster to become the inaugural Profesor of Japanese Studies at the University of Manchester, where I was hired to establish a Japanese Studies degree programme. I stayed there for five and half years, serving as  Head of East Asian Studies and building up the department and Japanese programmes there.

I planned to retire from full-time university work in 2012 but have instead been persuaded to return to  Lancaster as Professor of Religious Studies- but on a part-time basis. My next career move will be to get a life.

I live in Lancaster with my wife,  Dorothy, whom I met in 1979 in a Japanese language class. We have lived in various parts of the world (Japan, Scotland, Hawaii and Denmark) before moving to Lancaster in 1999. Our children, Rosie (now 23) and Phil (20) both went to school in Lancaster before going off to university. Dorothy and I still live here and like it as a town (despite the weather).  Dorothy is a translator,  initially of Japanese, but since 1999 she has worked as a translator of Swedish, Danish and Norwegian and she co-runs a translation partnership with three other translators of Scandinavian languages  that is based in Lancaster.

Outside of work my interests are my family, my vegetable and fruit garden, walking, discussing matters of deep philosophical importance in pubs,  and sport (spectating mostly these days and especially cricket and  football).

I am now part-time at Lancaster and teach in Lent Term. 

In Lent Term I   teach the following two courses:
PPR362 Religion and Violence

PPR484  Pilgrimage

I am currently working on a book titled 'Pilgrimage in the Marketplace' which draws on research in Japan and other places over several years. I am co-editor of a series on Religion, Travel and Tourism (Routledge) and am involved with a network of scholars who work on studies of pilgrimage in different parts of the world. 

I am also working on various projects related to religion and violence and am a senior researcher in the Canadian Network on Terrorism, Security and Society (TSAS): www.tsas.ca

I have been  working with Dr Erica Baffelli (currently University of Otago, New Zealand, but as of 2013 University of Manchester) on various projects related to Japanese new religions, media and society; together with Birgit Staemmler (University of Tuebingen, Germany) we published an edited book on religion and the internet in Japan, and recently Erica and I have have co-authored articles on millennialism in Japanese new religions and co-edited a special edition of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (2012) on the Aftermath of the Aum Affair in Japan. We are currently working on a book together on Japanese new religions in the 1980s and 1990s.

I also work closely with colleagues at the Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan on various projects (including the academic journal the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies) and am a member of the Research Project on ‘Religious Studies in Modern Japan. A re-examination from an International Perspective’' based at the Nanzan Institute of Religion and Culture  and funded by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT).