Research Projects

• Confidential Inquiry into Drug-related Deaths for Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool Drug and Alcohol Action Teams
• Preventing Violent Extremism: Lancashire Prevent Commissioning Group Forum
• Children Workforce Development Council, Senior Manager Peer Support Programme

Other Research Interests

• Recovery oriented practice within communities & drug/alcohol and mental health services
• Religion, drugs and the social construction of reality
• Religion & identity (part. national, ethnic and gender identities)
• Religion as cultural heritage
• Tradition & social change
• Religion & education
• Islam in the 'West'
• Representations of national & religious identities in party political discourse and in the media (part. in Germany & Britain)
• The 'headscarf debate' (part. in Germany, though also in other European countries)
• Blended learning and tuition in higher education (pedagogic use of media tools; effective ways of 'blending' online, face-to-face and telephone tuition and learning practices)



I am involved in the maintenance and development of a range of distance learning modules within the Open University's Religious Studies Department, including AD252 'Islam in the West: The Politics of Co-existence', A217 'Introducing Religions', AD317 'Religion Today: Tradition, Modernity and Change', the MA in Religious Studies as well as the new level 3 module in Religious Studies.

I am also teaching AA100: 'The Arts Past and Present', AD317 'Religion Today' and A880 'Part 1 of the MA in Religious Studies' in the OU's North West region.