This book grew out of my experience directing a £12m research programme and listening to PIs and researchers talk about problems with their research projects and methods. I wanted to gather together honest reflections from experienced researchers in order to humanise the research process and reassure readers that things hardly ever go according to plan, whatever it tells you in the textbooks.
Professor Linda Woodhead, F.D. Maurice Chair in Moral and Social Theology
22 April 2025
Embracing and learning from the messiness of researching religion
Professor Linda Woodhead and Dr Nicole Graham explore methods and mistakes when researching religion in new book.
Co-edited by Professor Linda Woodhead and Dr Nicole Graham from King’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies and Dr Louisa Cadman (Sheffield Hallam University), Messy Methods in Researching Religion investigates the real-world complexities, challenges, and mistakes that are often encountered when researching religion, values, and culture. The book aims to acknowledge the messiness of empirical research, to humanise and improve it. Its honest reflections will reassure researchers and help them avoid some common mistakes.
Featuring the reflections of researchers from across the social sciences and humanities, some chapters describe in detail the process and rationale behind methodological decisions, including challenges, adaptations, and revisions. Others reveal how things went wrong in the research process, even past the point of recovery, and what was learned.
As an ECR it is easy to get the impression that everyone else knows exactly what they are doing and that nothing ever goes wrong! I hope this book offers reassurance to scholars at all stages of their career that all research projects have their challenges, that mistakes will happen, but that together we can reflect on and learn from our mistakes and messes to improve future research on religion, values, and culture.
Dr Nicole Graham, Lecturer in Ethics and Values
In this story
Lecturer in Ethics and Values
F.D. Maurice Professor in Moral and Social Theology