Linda led the UK’s $20m ‘Religion and Society’ research programme in 2007-12, founded the Westminster Faith Debates with Charles Clarke (2012-15), and was awarded an MBE by the Queen for services to higher education. She has held visiting positions in Bern, Hanover, Lucerne, Manila, Münster, Princeton, and Stanford, and holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Oslo and Uppsala.
Linda was educated at Cambridge University. She has been Chair of the UK’s Research Excellent Framework panel for theology and religious studies, Panel member of European Research Council Advanced Grants Scheme, and a member of Council for the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council.
She regularly appears in the media, including the BBC, ABC, the Economist, the Atlantic, London Guardian, Observer, Times, Sunday Times, Telegraph, Washington Post, Irish Times, Times of India, AL Jazeera. She is founder with former UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke of the ‘Westminster Faith Debates’.
Other published books include That Was the Church That Was: How the Church of England Lost the English People (Bloomsbury, 2016, with Andrew Brown), A Sociology of Prayer (Routledge, 2015, with Giuseppe Giordan), Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (2nd revised edition 2014), Everyday Lived Islam in Europe (with Nathal Dessing and Nadia Jeldtoft, 2013), Religion and Change in Modern Britain (with Rebecca Catto, 2012), A Sociology of Religious Emotions (with Ole Riis, 2010), Religions in the Modern World (2009), and The Spiritual Revolution (with Paul Heelas, 2005). Recent articles include Religion and Brexit: Populism and the Church of England. Religion, State and Society 46(3), 2018, The Rise of ‘No Religion’: Towards an Explanation. Sociology of Religion 78(3), 2017, The Rise of ‘No Religion’ in Britain: the emergence of a new cultural majority. Journal of the British Academy, 4, 2016, 245–61.
Linda is currently completing a three year research project on the beliefs, values, identities and belongings of young millennials, funded by the Knight Foundation and based at Stanford University.