The Philosophy, Religion and Education Research Group specifically forges theoretical and empirical interconnections between the arts, humanities, philosophy and the social sciences through the common focus of education. Contributions of this research group have been made to matters such as: theories of research policy and impact; the cultural value of research in the arts and humanities; research ethics; the intersection of epistemological and ethical domains in research in schools; religion, radicalisation and counter-terrorism in schools and universities; and the creation of distinctive sub-field of study at the interface of education, security and intelligence studies.

Our research group welcomes DPhil application relating broadly to philosophical and theological perspectives across education:

* Philosophy of educational research and philosophy as educational research * Religion, worldviews and ethics in education * Philosophy, literature and education * Research on research * Research ethics and epistemology in professional practices * Law and the courts in religion and education * Political philosophy and education * Universities, security and intelligence

Convenors

The research group convener is Liam Gearon.

Co-convenors are Nigel Fancourt and Alis Oancea.

Liam Francis Gearon is Associate Professor in Religious Education in the Department of Education and Senior Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford; Docent, University of Helsinki, Finland; and Visiting Professor at the Irish Centre for Catholic Studies, MIC, Limerick, Ireland. He has also served as Conjoint Professor at Newcastle University, Australia and Extraordinary Professor, North-West University, South Africa. Liam has multidisciplinary interests in the arts and literature, philosophy of education, and the epistemological foundations of contemporary religious education. Cognate interests at the interface of religion, security and education have enabled empirical, methodological and theoretical advances on the ethics of security and radicalisation research, notably through critical analyses of the relationships between universities and the security and intelligence agencies. The author and or editor of 30 books and one hundred articles and chapters, as Principal Investigator, Liam has led funded research projects with the Academy of Finland, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the Nuffield Foundation, the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, and the Society for Educational Studies.

Professor Alis Oancea specialises in philosophy of research and in research-on-research, in particular studies of research policy and higher education governance (including work on research impact and knowledge exchange, research quality, evaluation, assessment, and rankings). She has specialist interest in the philosophy of education, including in the cultural value of research in the arts and humanities. She is Secretary of the Oxford Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.

Dr Nigel Fancourt Director of Doctoral Research in the Department of Education. He specialises in research on ways of learning at the intersections of different epistemological and ethical domains, particularly in relation to research and schools, for instance how and why teachers engage with research as well as research on religion, law and education. He is currently researching argumentation in science and religious education (with Professor Erduran and others), funded by the Templeton Foundation. He is co-convenor of the Oxford Branch of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.