Kristin Aune

Kristin Aune joined Coventry University in 2014, having taught on sociology and youth work and theology programs at the University of Westminster, Ridley Hall Cambridge and the University of Derby. At Derby she became reader in sociology and director of the Center for Society, Religion and Belief. She has been a visiting fellow at Grinnell College, Iowa, and Uppsala University.  She leads the Center’s Faith and Peaceful Relations research group. She has undertaken pioneering work on gender, religion and feminism. Her book on single women’s marginalization in the church led to a PhD on gender in evangelical Christianity, the findings of which were widely published. Fascinated by how women’s changing lives are affecting their faith commitments, she co-edited Women and Religion in the West: Challenging Secularization, which traces the disaffiliation of women from religious institutions, exploring differences between Christianity, Islam and alternative spirituality. Her book with Catherine Redfern, Reclaiming the F Word, was a ground-breaking study of the resurgence of feminism in Britain and attracted major public attention. Several articles about feminists’ approaches to religion and spirituality emerged. In 2015 she ran, with colleagues at Uppsala and Coimbra universities, the “Is secularism bad for women?” workshops. Religion and higher education is her other research area. From 2009-2012 she was co-investigator on Christianity and the University Experience in Contemporary England, a three-year AHRC & ESRC project with Durham and Chester universities exploring Christian students’ experiences of university and how faith shapes, and is shaped by, university life. From 2016-2018 she is co-directing, with Canterbury Christ Church and Durham universities, the project Chaplains on Campus, exploring university chaplaincy in UK universities.

Biography and photo from the Coventry University website.