My research and knowledge transfer work centres on the public relevance of the study of religions, spirituality and the secular. I research a variety of responses to anxiety and dislocation associated with modernity, especially in relation to the phenomenon of recovery from addiction. I am also interested in the interface between religion, society and education.

I am Director (Research) of Chester Studies of Addiction, Recovery and Spirituality Group, and Principal Investigator of the Higher Power Project, which explores the language of religion and spirituality in recovery from substance use disorders and other addictions. The outcomes of this research are used in CSARS Group training projects for people seeking recovery and for substance misuse treatment professionals.

Having studied for a joint degree in English Literature and Religious Studies, I explored an interest in Buddhism at PhD level, whilst living at a Pure Land Buddhist Temple in Tokyo. My PhD analysed the ways religions in general, and Buddhism in particular, tend to be categorised by scholarship according to an ‘essence and manifestation' model, which produces distorted presentations. On my return from Japan I trained as a secondary school Religious Education teacher, and spent the following six years involved in the training of secondary RE teachers and running a Religious Education Resources Centre. As a teacher by vocation, I've been particularly interested in the interface between secondary and higher education in the field of RE/RS. Some of my published work and the training I provide for teachers seeks to engage teachers and their students with the methods and insights of academic Religious Studies.   I am also interested in wider theoretical questions about the relationship between religious education, religions, worldviews, non-religion and society.

I have two decades of experience as an A level principal examiner (Asian Religions and Religion in Contemporary Society) for one of the four Public Examination Boards, writing A level syllabuses, setting papers, leading marking teams, and providing CPD for teachers. I was for a decade the Secretary of the Shap Working Party for Religions in Education, a lobby group of RE/RS professionals from all sectors and faith communities, founded in 1969 by Ninian Smart and others, to ensure that education in religions considered religions in general, and not only the religion of the British establishment. I now represent TRS-UK (the body representing all UK HEI departments of TRS) on the RE Council of England and Wales.

In my previous post at the University of Wales, Lampeter, I was a director of the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre, which houses the well-known archive of more than 6,000 accounts from the general public of religious and spiritual experiences. I've supervised the research work of numerous students and scholars in the archive, and I'm interested in the ways in which such experiences are reported by people who do not identify with formal religious traditions.

I have a particular interest in the range and variety of Buddhist approaches to addiction recovery. I have trained as a mindfulness teacher through Bangor University, and the use of mindfulness in treating substance use disorders is a particular focus, but I am interested in wider theoretical questions around the relationship between mindfulness and Buddhism; the disconnect between traditional Buddhist soteriologies and the aims of mindfulness; and the presentation of mindfulness as secular.

In 2010-11 I spent a year working with people seeking recovery in a residential drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation centre. This provided first-hand experience upon which to build my research in spirituality and addiction recovery.