RELIGION, EDUCATION AND SOCIETY SIG

The Religion, Education and Society (RES)—formally known as Religion and Education—is a Special Interest Group (SIG) that exists to stimulate interest among researchers, education & government officials, non-governmental organizations, religious bodies, students (masters and doctoral), and colleagues in academia and schools and indeed anyone interested in how religion, education and society engage with each other and the issues that this dynamic engenders in helping young people make sense of an otherwise polarised world.

The SIG comparatively explores the links between religion, education, and society across national, historical, and civilizational contexts. It fosters a critical and interdisciplinary dialogue focusing on the implications from the study of religion, education, and society and how these links not only to relevant fields of educational inquiry and practice but also society’s engagement with religion and education.  Its key areas of focus include the following:

• Religion and Critical/Controversial Issues in Society
• Religion and Education in Secular Schools
• Religion and Education in Religious Schools
• Religion and Education in Teacher Education
• Public Debates about Religion and Education
• Religion Education School Curriculum (confessional and non-confessional/secular) 

• Bruce Collet, Bowling Green State University, USA: Co-Chair, Unit Planner. [email protected]
• Yonah Hisbon Matemba, University of the West Scotland, UK: Co-Chair, Unit Planner/Program Chair [email protected]

• Oakleigh Welply, Durham University: Co-Chair/Unit Planner. [email protected]

The CIES Special Interest Group (SIG) directory (https://members.cies.us/page/SIGs) provides a complete list of the mission, officers, and work of our 37 SIGs, which are sorted by region or topic.

You must be a member of CIES to join a SIG, which can be done any time during the year.

There are three ways to join a SIG:

1. Online, any time of the year, when renewing your CIES membership including the SIG dues. Please go to, https://members.cies.us/page/meminfo.
2. Online, when registering as a presenter for the CIES Conference, which requires CIES membership. A specific link will be available for each conference.
3. By mail or phone. Please contact the Office of the Executive Director (OED) Membership Coordinator by email at, [email protected], or by phone during business hours at (412) 383-3945.

• Organize and facilitate the CIES annual conference for the RES SIG.
• Conduct the annual members’ business meeting at the annual CIES conference.
• Promote members’ research outputs and other scholarly contributions in the SIGs quarterly newsletter and in other media formats such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Celebrate and promote members’ scholarly contributions in key academic journals in the field of Religion, Education and Society.
• Elect SIG officers according to the stated objectives of the SIG and process of CIES.
• Provide a copy of the annual business meeting minutes to members at or before the annual CIES conference.
• Create and distribute to members a minimum of four newsletters per year
• Encourage members to work joint projects related to the objectives of the SIG. Such recent projects include the co-edited book by Yonah Matemba and Bruce Collet: The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religious Education in the Global South (2022)