Our Associate Director Barathy M.G. will be giving what’s sure to be a fascinating talk about global networks of freethought. Full details of the free webinar linked below.

There's still plenty of time to submit to the special issue I'm co-editing. JRFM 2027, 13/1 (May 2027); Deadline submissions: 1 May 2026: "To Believe or Not to Believe": Atheism and Nonreligion in Media and Popular Culture. Scroll down the link for more information jrfm.eu/index.php/oj...

Book Launch: Unearthing Lifestances: What Community Gardens Tell Us About Nonreligion YouTube video by Nonreligion in a Complex Future

Missed the recent Unearthing Lifestances book launch?? The recording is now available to watch on YouTube:

youtu.be/Ydj57K317eg

🔟 "Spare the God, Spoil the Child?" (2024) by D. Speed, K. Nason and A. Sturdy-White

Do atheists & religious parents have radically different values? This study shows that both groups overwhelmingly agree on valuing intellectual autonomy and helping others.

🔓 Read it here: doi.org/10.5334/snr....

Most international academic networks and cooperations are about research, not teaching. Therefore I am very happy that our network now has published a page with teaching resources. Examples from many different contexts.

Recent Books Rethinking Atheism in the Early Modern World – Patrick Seamus McGhee (ed.). February 2026, Palgrave MacMillan. What God Kept for Himself: Atheism, Sodomy, and Radical Dissent in Renaissance I…

Our Recent Books webpage is updated with two fresh titles from February 2026:

- Rethinking Atheism in the Early Modern World - P McGhee (ed.)

- What God Kept for Himself: Atheism, Sodomy, and Radical Dissent in Renaissance Italy - U Grassi

atheismsecularismhumanism.wordpress.com/books/

A new (Polish) article using the vocabulary of nonreligion studies - my reading plans for today have just become clear -> journal.ptr.edu.pl/index.php/pt...

🔴NEW PUBLICATION🔴

"Becoming Non-Religious: Exploring the Emotional Experiences of Apostasy and Refugee Status Determination" by Lucy Elizabeth Potter.

Read the Open Access paper here:

🔗 secularismandnonreligion.org/articles/10....

#NonReligion #RefugeeStudies #HumanRights #Sociology #AcademicSky

Secularism & Nonreligion

Findings from new study by Cragun, Rodriguez, Smith & Speed (2026) "suggest that the nonreligious are not inherently less likely to give than the religious, and that secularization in the United States has not led to a decline in charitable giving." secularismandnonreligion.org/articles/10....

What can community gardens tell us about nonreligion? How have debates over same-sex marriage revealed the boundaries between religion and nonreligion? Has there been a religious revival in the UK?

Find out about all this and more in this edition of the NCF's newsletter:

mailchi.mp/nonreligionp...

We’re looking forward to hosting a webinar with Anna Strhan on her new co-authored book "Growing Up Godless: Non-Religious Childhoods in Contemporary England," 2:30pm-3:30pm EST on March 4th. To attend the free virtual event, please register here: uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

The effect of family religious socialization on adult religiosity in the context of secular transition in five Western countries. This article investigates how family religious socialization during childhood influences adult religiosity within the context of secular transition. Using new cross-national survey data from the Tr...

New paper out by our student fellow Jacob Legault-Leclair titled "The effect of family religious socialization on adult religiosity in the context of secular transition in five Western countries": www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The NCF invites you to an upcoming virtual book launch for the newest book from our team, Unearthing Lifestances: What Community Gardens Tell Us About Nonreligion (De Gruyter, 2026).

Date: February 24, 2026
Time: 4:00 pm ET

Register here: uottawa-ca.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Catholicism Has Declined in Latin America Over the Past Decade Growing numbers of Latin Americans are religiously unaffiliated, but belief in God remains high across the region.

NEW @pewresearch.org report I led with my team on religion in Latin America! The study focuses on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, a group of countries that together make up roughly 75% of the region’s population.

pewrsr.ch/3NofOy9

A few key takeaways in the:thread:below:

1/

Is the world becoming more religious or less religious? Join this event to hear Conrad Hackett explore the conflicting narratives about religion in the UK and around the world.

Is the world becoming more religious? Is a Christian revival underway in the UK?
I'll discuss these questions in London next week:
Wed. at @ucl.ac.uk www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2...
Thur. at @brunelpsy.bsky.social students.brunel.ac.uk/whats-on/sha...
& Thur. at Kings www.linkedin.com/pulse/really...

Cover of Callum G. Brown’s NINETY HUMANISTS AND THE ETHICAL TRANSITION OF BRITAIN The Open Conspiracy 1930-80

Ninety Humanists and the Ethical Transition of Britain by Callum Brown: a brilliant piece of social and intellectual history which re-writes the 1960s in particular and means you'll never look at the twentieth century in the same way again. Can't recommend highly enough. Genuinely transformative.

Kevin Flatt's IRCSF Book Launch YouTube video by Institute Religion, Culture and Societal Futures

Missed Kevin Flatt's launch of his new book "Secularization, Social Order, and World History: Toward a Global Perspective" at the IRCSF last week? Here's the recording of the event, for free viewing anytime: youtu.be/jfDP0x9HXjA

Still time to register for this free online event on Friday!

New Publication alert "Appropriating the ‘Soul’: Evolving Understandings in Canada and the United States” Canadian Review of Sociology (2025) Dana Gaudette NCF Student Researcher University of Tampa Ryan Cragun NCF Co-Investigator University of Tampa Lori Beaman NCF Principal Investigator University of Ottawa

Are there individuals who hold no supernatural beliefs yet still believe in a soul? Find out the answer (and more) in the latest article from the NCF team.

Read here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I wrote a book about the many ways emotion is necessary for science, secularism, and atheism

NB free digital version available too: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon...

A cover of the book, Unearthing Lifestances, and a description that says: Drawing on interviews from community gardeners in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, Norway, Northern Ireland, and the United States, this book explores themes of community-building, ritual, ethics, and relationships with humans, non-humans, and the natural world, arguing for their conceptualization as ‘lifestances’

We're excited to announce the publication of Unearthing Lifestances: What Community Gardens Tell Us About Nonreligion (co-edited by Lori Beaman, Ryan Cragun, and Douglas Ezzy), the first in our open-access book series with De Gruyter.

Read here for free: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: What do Secular Voters Believe In?. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting. It's a harmful myth that nonreligious people don't believe in anything. Researchers have shown that secular Americans have distinct beliefs about science and how to know the world, as well as what hap...

Excited to participate in this Zoom event about WHAT SECULAR PEOPLE BELIEVE and why it matters more than ever. Hosted by @thesecularvote.bsky.social, in conversation with @juhemnr.me, Sarah Levin, and Shakir Stephen. bit.ly/secularvoter...

Nonreligion, Past and Present: Interdisciplinary Conversations Science and Nonreligion Renny Thomas (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal), Stephen Weldon (University of Oklahoma), Bernard Lightman (York University, Toronto), and Lauren Strumos (University of Alberta).

Happening this Wednesday!

Register for the latest webinar in our series, Nonreligion, Past and Present: Interdisciplinary Conversations, a collaboration with @ishash.bsky.social. This webinar will focus on science and nonreligion.

Oct 29, 1pm ET

Register here: uottawa-ca.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Nonreligion, Past and Present: Interdisciplinary Conversations Science and Nonreligion Renny Thomas (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal), Stephen Weldon (University of Oklahoma), Bernard Lightman (York University, Toronto), and Lauren Strumos (University of Alberta).

Register now for the latest webinar in our series, Nonreligion, Past and Present: Interdisciplinary Conversations, a collaboration with @ishash.bsky.social. This webinar will focus on the relationship between science and the natural world.

Oct 29, 1pm ET

Register uottawa-ca.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Another edition of the Days of Secularity has just ended in Krakow. This relatively small-scale event intended for Polish secularists has been organized annually since 2011

www.facebook.com/events/polsk...

#ethnography #nonreligion #secularism #secular #atheism

Beyond Belief | Exploring India's Humanist Heritage Get an email that automatically logs you in:

Discover India's rich humanist traditions - from ancient Charvaka philosophy to modern secular ideals. Join our expert panel exploring how India's diverse #HumanistHeritage helped to shaped the world on 16 October, online. humanists.uk/events/explo...

Anna Strhan and Rachael Shillitoe's "Growing Up Godless" Anna Strhan is reader in sociology at the University of York. She is the author of The Figure of the Child in Contemporary Evangelicalism ...

'Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you' - Ford Madox Ford

Marshal Zeringue asked us to put Growing Up Godless to the Page 99 test @princetonupress.bsky.social

page99test.blogspot.com/2025/08/anna...

Very happy to have my copy of Ting Guo's new book in hand! I reviewed it for the Journal of the @aarweb.bsky.social a few months back (link below) and it's an amazing piece of scholarship, brilliantly connecting affect theory, secularism/religious studies, and Sinophone studies. Beautiful cover too!

Happening tomorrow!! 👀