Dr Timothy Carroll awarded Future Leaders Fellowship

Last month the Government announced a £78 million investment, split across the Future Leaders Fellowships and 20 University Enterprise Zones. These will allow both UK researchers and small businesses to seize the vast opportunities in science and innovation and industries of the future.

A large portion of this funding was secured by a diverse range of UCL projects, tackling issues including violence against women, HIV in Africa, self-healing organic semiconductors, and the sociopolitics of religion.

Science Minister Chris Skidmore said: “These inspirational Future Leaders Fellows will generate the ideas of the future, helping to shape science and research for the 21st century. But to realise the full potential of these discoveries, their ideas need to be taken out of the lab and turned into real products and services, where they can actually change people’s lives for the better.”

“That’s why we are creating 20 new University Enterprise Zones, helping local start-ups to co-locate in universities to build the businesses of the future – all inspired by university research.”

Dr Timothy Carroll, Senior Research Fellow at UCL Anthropology, is one of 11 UCL recipients for his research on Orthodox Christian Material Ecology and the Sociopolitics of Religion.

Timothy’s project is framed in terms of three research domains, that of the body, the person, and the environment. These three areas are explored in relation to the material aspects of the sociopolitics within the global Orthodox Christian communities. Research will be undertaken amongst Orthodox Christians and religious institutions in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as local communities in Western Europe, Oceania, and the Americas. Though spread across multiple language, ethnic, and national boundaries, Orthodox Christians have a shared religious tradition and are informed by each other’s local practices. Timothy will lead a team working with community groups, NGOs, and health authorities, to disseminate findings to, and help to shape health policy around topics such as sexual health, fertility treatments, infant mortality, and refugee/migrant wellbeing.

Timothy Carroll is a social anthropologist specialising in art, material and religion, and has conducted research on Orthodox Christianity for the last decade. He completed his PhD in Anthropology at University College London, and was the Mary Douglas Teaching Fellow in Anthropology and Material Culture for four years, before taking up a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. This FLF will allow Timothy to extend this work on the role of material in religion and society, exploring the concept of ‘material ecologies’ and the way religious practice uses the properties of the material world within their social, theological, and political discourse.

Useful Links

• Dr Timothy Carroll’s academic profile
• Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
• UK Research and Innovation