Religion, Martyrdom and Global Uncertainties 1914-2014

领导力方案建议将重点放在宗教概念上，将其作为一个支点，将更广泛的问题集中在全球不确定因素的意识形态和信仰链本身以及AHRC和ESRC的相关方案中。自9/11事件以来，宗教问题在大众和新闻记者对安全的看法以及学术调查中都很突出，但关于宗教相对于其他因素的重要性的知情综合仍然缺乏。领导活动将寻求结合相关项目的重要见解，探索对宗教和准宗教(与民族主义和伊斯兰主义等意识形态有关)的不同理解，并将其重要性与其他非宗教因素进行权衡。该方案将实现大量和多样化的专业知识的权威性汇集，并以可接触和参与的方式向宗教领导、公共和非政府组织的政策和做法的用户以及媒体提供。工作将分三个阶段进行。首先，将对研究人员进行电话采访，旨在强调他们工作中的关键见解，并阐明互补和反差的观点。这些约谈的结果将在一份初步工作文件中总结。第二，将分发工作文件；通过两次研讨会和项目网站收集用户的答复；选定的研究人员将参加一个专题讨论会，旨在为用户提炼见解和影响，并以便于查阅的形式介绍这些意见。第三，将向用户提供广泛分发的成果摘要硬拷贝和在线视频资源，用户将受邀参加将在英国各地举行的一系列研讨会之一，在这些研讨会上，将进一步讨论和发展这项工作的影响。该研究项目将考察自第一次世界大战爆发以来英国和爱尔兰殉难和牺牲概念的发展。这样的调查将有助于平衡2001年9/11事件以来研究人员的注意力与伊斯兰教关于殉难/自杀式袭击的观点，重点放在基督教和基督教文化背景上，而这一时期对基督教背景的研究仍然不足。主要有两种方法。首先，将对历史资料进行档案、图书馆和基于网络的研究，包括书籍和小册子、报纸和在线数据库，并在必要时进行实地访问。特别的焦点将是第一次世界大战，包括1916年复活节在都柏林兴起，1920年无名勇士在威斯敏斯特大教堂下葬；第二次世界大战，包括纳粹对欧洲基督徒的迫害；以及1980年代初，包括爱尔兰共和军绝食抗议和马岛战争。其次，将与贝尔法斯特的冲突研究所合作，在英国和爱尔兰的四个不同的地点--贝尔法斯特、布拉德福德、都柏林和伦敦--对政治和宗教活动人士进行一系列半结构化的采访。他们将探索当代对1914年和1916年百年纪念之前的历史性“殉难”事件的看法；对20世纪80年代初的回忆；以及对今天自杀式袭击、北爱尔兰的宗派谋杀和阿富汗的伤亡的反应。这些成果将纳入上文概述的领导力活动方案，并将通过网站公布，并在方案研讨会上进行讨论。它们还将产生期刊文章、学术专著和有助于公众辩论的文章。第一次世界大战爆发一百周年(2014年8月4日)将在项目的最后几个月举行，这将提供传播和媒体兴趣的特殊机会。该计划将由一个咨询小组指导，该小组将提供广泛的公众参与经验和强大的网络，以确保非学术影响。

The leadership programme proposes a focus on concepts of religion as a pivot for bringing together wider issues in the Ideologies and Beliefs strand of Global Uncertainties itself, and in related AHRC and ESRC programmes. Since 9/11 religious issues have been prominent both in popular and journalistic perceptions of security and in academic enquiry, but informed synthesis regarding the importance of religion relative to other factors remains in short supply. The leadership activities will seek to integrate key insights from relevant projects, exploring both the various understanding of religion and quasi-religion (in relation to ideologies such as nationalism and Islamism), and weighing their importance against other non-religious factors. The programme will achieve an authoritative pooling of substantial and diverse expertise, distilled and presented in an accessible and engaged manner to users in religious leadership, public and NGO policy and practice and the media. Work will proceed in three phases. First, there will be telephone interviews with researchers designed to highlight key insights from their work and to elucidate complementary and contrasting perspectives. The outcomes from these interviews will be summarized in an initial working paper. Second, the working paper will be disseminated; user responses gathered through two seminars and the project website; and selected researchers will attend a symposium intended to distil insights and implications for users and to present them in an accessible form. Third, a widely-circulated hardcopy summary of the outcomes together with online video resources will be made available to users, who will be invited to attend one of a series of seminars to be held at various locations around the UK at which the implications of the work will be further discussed and developed. The research project will examine the development of the concept of martyrdom and sacrificial death in Britain and Ireland since the outbreak of the First World War. Such an enquiry will help to balance the preoccupation of researchers since 9/11 in 2001 with Islamic views of martyrdom/suicide attacks by a focus on the Christian and culturally Christian context, which remains under-researched in this period. There will be two main methods. First, there will be archival, library, and web-based research on historic sources, including books and pamphlets, newspapers and online databases, supplemented as necessary by site visits. Particular focal points will be the First World War, including the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, and the 1920 interment of the Unknown Warrior at Westminster Abbey; the Second World War, including Nazi persecution of European Christians, and the early 1980s, including the IRA hunger strikes and the Falklands War. Second, there will be a series of semi-structured interviews with political and religious activists, carried out in partnership with the Institute for Conflict Research in Belfast, in four contrasting locations in Britain and Ireland - Belfast, Bradford, Dublin and London. They will explore contemporary perceptions of historic 'martyrdom' events in the run up to the centenaries of 1914 and 1916; recollections of the early 1980s; and responses to present-day suicide attacks, sectarian murders in Northern Ireland, and casualties in Afghanistan. The outcomes will feed into the programme of leadership activities outlined above, and will be publicised through the website and discussed in the programme seminars. They will also result in journal articles, an academic monograph, and articles contributing to public debate. The centenary of the outbreak of the First World War (4 August 2014) will occur in the final months of the project and offer particular opportunities for dissemination and media interest. The programme will be guided by an advisory group which will offer wide experience of public engagement and strong networks for securing non-academic impact.