(Con)spirituality

(Con)spirituality, Science and the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia: Material and Digital Practices

The (Con)spirituality project aimed to investigate the nexus between (con)spirituality and science in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a deeper understanding of this phenomenon and the processes of radicalisation occurring within spiritual communities. It illuminated internal diversities and complexities within these communities, and interrogated the full spectrum of how Australian self-identified spiritual persons and groups engage with science through material and digital practices. Research outputs included a (Con)spirituality Colloquium, an ABC op-ed series and a Special Issue featuring articles by the project team and international scholars.

Research Team: Anna Halafoff (Deakin University), Cristina Rocha (Western Sydney University), Andrew Singleton, Enqi Weng, Alex Roginki, Ruth Fitzpatrick and Emily Marriott (Deakin University)

This project was funded by the International Research Network for Science and Belief in Society, based at the University of Birmingham and funded by the Templeton Religion Trust.

Publications

The Special Issue on ‘(Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19’ has been published with the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion. This Special Issue was guest edited by Anna Halafoff, Enqi Weng, Alexandra Roginski and Cristina Rocha. All publications can be accessed here. The open access publications and publications from the research team are provided here:

Halafoff, A; Weng, E.; Roginski, A. and Rocha, C. (2022), ‘Introduction to the Special Issue: (Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19’, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 35(2), 133-140.

Halafoff, A; Marriott, E.; Fitzpatrick, R. and Weng, E. (2022), ‘Selling (Con)spirituality and COVID-19 in Australia: Convictions, Complexity and Countering Dis/misinformation’, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 35(2), 141-167.

Roginski, A. and Rocha, C. (2022), ‘The Body as Evidence of Truth: Biomedicine and Enduring Narratives of Religious and Spiritual Healing’, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 35(2), 168-191.

Doherty, B. (2022), ‘‘A chain of deep-laid and premeditated villainy’: The Roman Catholic Culture of Conspiracy from the Abbé de Barruel to Radical Traditionalism’, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 35(2), 245-268.

ABC Blog Series

This is a series of opinion pieces published on the ABC’s Religion & Ethics, arising from this (Con)spirituality in Australia project.

11 May 2022: Dr Tyson Yunkaporta wrote an opinion piece on ‘Black-pilled: Conspirituality, backlash, and Indigenous online radicalisation’.

21 Oct 2021: A/Prof. Matthew Sharpe has published an opinion piece on ‘Understanding the appeal of the extreme right is key to preventing its resurgence’.

5 Oct 2021: Dr David G. Robertson has written an opinion piece on ‘How new are vaccine conspiracy theories — and how worried should we be about them?’.

13 Aug 2021: Prof. David Voas has published an opinion piece, as part of this project, on ‘Conspirituality — populism in the spiritual supermarket’.

28 Jun 2021: Dr Alexandra Roginski published an opinion piece on ‘The “Uluru prophecy” and New Age conspiracy: Between a rock and a golden age’.

13 Oct 2020: A/Prof Anna Halafoff and colleagues wrote ‘The pandemic has provided fertile conditions for conspiracy theories and “conspirituality” in Australia’.

Podcast

23 Nov 2021: A/Prof Anna Halafoff spoke on ‘Science, (Con)spirituality and COVID-19’ on the Science & Belief in Society Podcast.

(Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19 Colloquium

25-26 March 2021 Hosted by Deakin University and Western Sydney University

This colloquium was the first to bring together leading scholars and practitioners from the UK, EU, USA, Canada and Australia – including Professor David Voas (University College London), Professor Paul Bramadat (University of Victoria), Associate Professor Mar Griera (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona), Professor Cristina Rocha (Western Sydney University), and Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, and Julian Walker of Conspirituality.net – to examine themes of (con)spirituality, science, QAnon, the Far Right, vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19.

Colloquium Recordings

Day 1 – 25th March 2021

Keynote Panel 1: Conspirituality and COVID-19

Featuring Prof David Voas (University College London), A/Prof Mar Griera (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and Dr David Robertson (Open University).

Day 2 – 26th March 2021

Keynote Panel 2: Conspirituality.net

Featuring Derek Beres, Matthew Remski and Julian Walker from Conspirituality.net

Keynote Panel 3: Vaccine Hesitancy and COVID 19

Featuring Prof. Paul Bramadat (University of Victoria), Dr Naomi Smith (Federation University of Australia) and Dr Tom Aechtner (University of Queensland)

Keynote Panel 4: (Con)spirituality, Science and COVID-19 in Australia

Featuring: A/Prof. Anna Halafoff (Deakin), Prof. Andrew Singleton (Deakin) and Prof. Cristina Rocha (Western Sydney), Dr Alexandra Roginski (Deakin), Dr Enqi Weng and Emily Marriott (Deakin)

Keynote Panel 5: (Con)spirituality, QAnon and the Far Right I

Featuring A/Prof. Matthew Sharpe (Deakin), A/Prof. Geoff Boucher and Dr Helen Young (Deakin) and Sarah Wilson (sarahwilson.com)

Keynote Panel 6: (Con)spirituality, QAnon and the Far Right II

Featuring: Lydia Khalil & Dr Vivian Gerrand (Deakin) Dr Kaz Ross (Independent Researcher) and Dr Bernard Doherty (Charles Sturt University).