Prof. Dr. Paul Bramadat

Paul Bramadat is Professor and Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He holds teaching appointments in the Department of History and the Religious Studies Program. He is interested in the intersections between secularism, religious radicalization, securitization, post-colonialism, and religious identity in contemporary Canada. Much of his research is interdisciplinary and policy-relevant, and revolves around emerging understandings of religious, political, and ethnic identities in rapidly evolving liberal democratic societies. Author of The Church on the World's Turf, and editor of several books, such as International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity, Religion and Ethnicity in Canada, Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond, and Public Health in the Age of Anxiety: Religious and Cultural Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy.

Most recently he initiated a (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded) project on the confluence of religion, environmentalism and bio-regionalism in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In this project, to which he will devote his time in Germany, he will use a new pool of data to provide an account of the distinctive religious and cultural context of the region. In particular, he and his colleagues in this international project are curious about why there are, for example, nearly twice the number of religious "nones" in British Columbia than in the rest of Canada. Moreover, what might we make of what he calls "reverential naturalism" in this region of North America? How is it related to other religious, economic and political shifts we can see in western liberal democracies? What kinds of practical impact might the form of secularization one sees in the region have on the provision of social services and the shaping of social norms? As well, what kinds of responses to these changes are evident within conventional forms of religion in what is often called the "Cascadia" bio-region?