Uncovering Gen Z’s religious and spiritual role models
Dr Edward David, a postdoctoral research fellow in Theology and Religion at Christ Church, has received a generous grant in support of his project investigating the religious and spiritual role models of 18- to 27-year-olds. The grant, provided by the John Fell Fund, will facilitate a workshop with young people from across the globe.
As he nears the end of his tenure as the McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow in Christian Ethics and Public Life, Dr Edward David has received a competitive grant of £14,000 to fund his latest research project. The grant comes from the John Fell Fund, the University’s chief internal research fund that supports new research areas and preparatory work leading to major external bids. The fund is financed by Oxford University Press.
Dr David’s project is entitled ‘Deepening our understanding of Generation Z’s religious and spiritual role models through participatory research’. The project makes use of mixed methods in the social sciences, as well as moral philosophy and theology, to explore young people’s perceptions of religious and spiritual role models. It does so in a context in which trends in religious demographics are rapidly changing and in which social life is becoming increasingly mediated by digital technologies.
This is an exciting opportunity to do theological research that has immediate relevance for participants and society.
This is an exciting opportunity to do theological research that has immediate relevance for participants and society.
In a crucial phase of the project, Dr David plans to use the grant to bring participants to Oxford, where they will comment on the study’s developing analysis and thereby become meaningful contributors to the research itself.
Dr David’s project is already underway and was a featured project of this year’s UNIQ+ Graduate Access Programme. Through the programme, Dr David and his collaborator Claire MacLeod (Communications Officer in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies) were able to host three research interns from underrepresented backgrounds to work on the Gen Z project, offering them insights into interdisciplinary research at Oxford.
Responding to news of the grant, Dr David said: ‘Generation Z is the first generation to have grown up with the smart phone. With the world at their fingertips, young people are exposed to ideas and people beyond their immediate communities. Such exposure has been associated with the disaffiliation of young people from traditional religions. But we don’t know much about who young people look up to, and for what reasons, given this radical demographic shift. Are their new role models anything like the saints and sages of old? What do they expect from today’s religious and spiritual exemplars?
‘The John Fell Fund grant will help us answer these questions by directly involving young people in the analysis. This is an exciting opportunity to do theological research that has immediate relevance for participants and society. I’m extremely grateful for the Fund’s support.’
Young people from all over the world, aged 18–27, can still take part in this fascinating study. Click here to learn more.
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