May Al-Fartousi
is a Canadian Middle-Eastern educator who completed her PhD. in socio-cultural Education. She was a postdoctoral fellow in Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa from 2014–2016. Her postdoctoral research (funded by The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) examines the identity development of minority Muslim Shi’i youth within their home, community and schools locally as well as internationally. Recently, she is working on a potential book entitled, Muslim Shi’is’ Experiences of Everyday Religion in Canada. The book will share insightful analyses by exposing the daily influence of Shi’i authorities through participants’ multifaceted voices and practical implications of transnational authorities for Muslim communities in Canada.
Peter Beyer
is professor of religious studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His major areas include religion and globalization, sociological theory of religion, religion and migration, and religion in contemporary Canada. His publications include Religion and Globalization (Sage, 1994), Religions in Global Society (Routledge, 2006), Religion in the Context of Globalization (Routledge, 2013), and Growing Up Canadian: Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists (with R. Ramji, McGill-Queen’s, 2013). His current research is on the construction of religious and nonreligious identity in Canada and developing theory on religious transformation in contemporary global society.
Alyshea Cummins
is a PhD candidate in religious studies at the University of Ottawa and an instructor of religion at Carleton University. Cummins’ research interests include contemporary Islam, religion and migration, religion and society, and social change. Her doctoral thesis examines the Shi’a Ismaili Muslim community and how they are challenging anti-Muslim narratives in Canadian society. Alongside research activities, Cummins serves as the National Newcomer Lead for the Aga Khan Settlement Portfolio, steering a team to identify migrant community challenges and work towards optimal (re)settlement of newly arrived migrants into Canadian society.
Scott Craig
is a PhD Candidate at the University of Ottawa. Craig completed his master’s degree in religious studies at Wilfrid Laurier University where he studied Zen Buddhism and theories of globalization. His research areas include religion and social media, religion and globalization, and cultural appropriation. His current project explores how individuals are adapting religious concepts into hashtags on Twitter.
Reginald W. Bibby
holds the Board of Governors Research Chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge. For more than four decades, he has been monitoring social trends in Canada through a series of well-known national surveys of adults and youth, He is the author of numerous monographs and articles, along with sixteen books. The latest are Resilient Gods (2017) and The Millennial Mosaic with Joel Thiessen and Monetta Bailey (forthcoming 2019).
Spencer Culham Bullivant
is a graduate of the University of Ottawa’s PhD in Religious Studies program. His research interests are the anthropology of religion, non-religion in the Western world, and religion in North America. He has published several chapters relating to how summer camps are affecting identity creation for non-religious American youths. His current position is working as an administrator at cdi College.
Pamela Dickey Young
is Professor at the School of Religion, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON. Her research interests concern the intersections of religion, sex, gender and public policy. Her current research project (with Heather Shipley, University of Ottawa) studies “Religion, Gender and Sexuality Among Youth in Canada.” Selected publications include: Religion, Sex and Politics: Christian Churches and Same-Sex Marriage in Canada. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2012; Women and Religious Traditions. 3rd edition. edited with Leona Anderson. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2015; “Who Speaks for Religion?” Issues in Religion and Education: Whose Religion?, eds. Lori Beaman and Leo Van Arragon. Leiden: Brill, 2015, 305–320.
Paul L. Gareau
is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. His research is grounded in critical theory and methodology relating to the social and cultural impacts of religion on identity formation. His academic publications and community research projects explore the influence of Catholicism on early and late modern identity, the legacy of colonial discourses on Indigenous and ethnocultural minorities, and the experiences of rural spaces. His research focuses on the Métis, Indigenous religiosity, youth, gender, la francophonie, and rural Canada.
Anna Halafoff
is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. She is also a Research Associate of the unesco Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations – Asia Pacific at Monash University. Anna’s current research interests include: religious diversity; interreligious relations; countering violent extremism; and education about religions and worldviews. She is the author of The Multifaith Movement: Global Risks and Cosmopolitan Solutions (2013).
Laura Gobey
is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Deakin University. Her thesis examines the lives and aspirations of young migrant women, as well as the intersection between the sociology of youth and the sociology of migration. Laura’s research interests include gender, youth, migration, policy, and visual methodologies.
Marie-Paule Martel-Reny
graduated with a BA from McGill University, and completed a master’s degree in comparative education, as well as a PhD in religion from Concordia University, Montreal Quebec. She contributed to various research projects on youth, religion and diversity, and is now a part-time faculty member at the University of Montreal, where she teaches courses on child and adolescent development, and on diversity (whether religious, cultural, ethnic, or gender-related) to pre-service teachers. Her teaching and research interests also include the dynamics of bullying and ways to prevent it (including emotional literacy), and the use of mindfulness practices in classroom contexts.
Géraldine Mossière
is anthropologist and professor at the Institut d’études religieuses of the Université de Montréal where she is responsible of the academic program on spirituality. She conducts empirical research on issues related to religious diversity, religious mobility, and conversions. She has also written many articles in peer reviews on religion and migration and Pentecostal churches. She is currently heading ethnographic projects funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (sshrcc) on various dimensions of conversion, including conversions to Islam among youth, conversion and transnational experiences as well as conversion from Islam to Christianity. She has published on religious conversion, notably Converties à l’Islam, Parcours de femmes en France et au Québec, 2013, Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
Josiane Le Gall
is an associate professor in the Department of anthropology of the Université de Montreal and an investigator at sherpa. She conducts research related to migration and family, in particular on transnational and mixed families. Her current sshrc funded research (2018–2022) deals with the identity construction process of children of mixed couples. She also carries out research on religious pluralism and gender issues in hospital and community health settings. Her new work centres on good death, dying and mourning as experienced by minorities in Montreal.
Heather Shipley
is an Education and Communications Advisor at the Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion at York University and has been Project Manager for the Religion and Diversity Project, (sshrc funded initiative, University of Ottawa, led by Lori Beaman) since 2010. Her research focuses the construction, management and regulation of religion, gender, sexuality and sexual orientation as identity categories in media, legal and public discourse. Publications include: (2015) “Religious Freedom and Sexual Orientation: Equality Jurisprudence and Intersecting Identities,” Canadian Journal of Women and Law, 27(2): 92–127; Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity: Contexts, Contestations, Voices, (2014, editor) Brill Academic Press.
Dörthe Vieregge
is a senior lecturer in religion and education at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. From 2013 to 2018, she was co-leader of the international research project ‘Religions and Dialogue in modern societies’ (ReDi), at the Academy of Word Religions, University of Hamburg, Germany. She received her PhD from the University of Hamburg in 2011 with a thesis on the role of religion in the lives of socio-economically disadvantaged young people. Her research foci are on religion and education in the context of social marginalization, youth and religion, and interreligious dialogue in school and society.
Scott Wall (M.A., PhD cand.)
conducted his doctoral research at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada), exploring the intersection between the sociology of religion and sociology of immigration. In addition to his interest in religious practice among millennials, his ongoing research focuses on the vitality of conservative religious movements in North America, progressive evangelicalism, and the impact of technology on spiritual practices. He resides and works in Calgary, AB, Canada.