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Prof David Chalcraft

Humanities and Social Science

Faculty of Arts Professional and Social Studies

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ORCID

Overview
I joined Liverpool John Moores as Professor of Sociology and Head of Department/Subject Head of Sociology on September 1st, 2014. In 2022, my role was extended to be Head of People, Politics and Communication which brings together into one department, Sociology, Media, Culture and Communication, and International Relations and Politics.

Prior to coming to LJMU I held the Chair of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield (2011-14) before which I was Professor of Classical Sociology at the University of Derby (2002-2011), having previously served as Head of Department of Sociology at Derby (1996-2002). During my time at Derby I spear-headed the formation of the Society, Religion and Belief Research Group which is now a fully –fledged Research Centre at the university. I began my research and teaching career at Oxford Brookes University (1990-1996), which I joined whilst completing my graduate studies in the Faculty of Social Studies (I began in the Faculty of Theology) at Oxford University (Hertford College, 1985-1992). For my Master of Letters at Oxford I was supervised by Dr Bryan Wilson of All Souls. My first degree was in Biblical Studies from the University of Sheffield where I also received the Epworth Prize for Greek and Hebrew Translation and Exegesis.

I had the good fortune to be an undergraduate during one of the most exciting periods of the Biblical Studies department at the University of Sheffield: my teachers included David J. A. Clines, Philip R. Davies, David Gunn, David Hill, John W Rogerson, Bruce Chilton and Anthony Thiselton, and contemporary students in the graduate school included for example Mark Brett, Stephen Fowl , Stanley E Porter, and Gerald West. The interest in interdisciplinary work with the social sciences and literary studies, with global hermeneutics, and academic publishing, was a major influence on my future work.

Throughout my career I have researched in the interface between sociology and the humanities, particularly between biblical studies and the social sciences, and the history of sociology. I have held Chairs in both Biblical Studies and in Sociology during my career. My PhD (Derby) was entitled: ‘Reading Max Weber and Developing Neo-Weberian Sociology with specific reference to ancient biblical social worlds’. It was examined by Philip R Davies and John Scott.

Put simply, within sociology I make use of hermeneutics and close textual study in my analysis of the life and work of classical sociologists (especially Max Weber, Herbert Spencer, W.E.B. Dubois), combining an interest in their biographies, cultural settings, travels, and written output when researching their sociological ideas in context. I am interested in the relation between sociological, theological and literary imaginations, and the sociology of the text, both its materiality and the socio-cultural context of writers and readers.

Within biblical studies I use sociological concepts, methods and theories to reconstruct the ancient biblical social worlds and, more significantly, to sociologically examine the role of the Bible in contemporary society and culture (in the UK, in India, China and in the Pacific Islands). In the latter area I promote the development of sophisticated research methods for working in the field, including ethnography, life story capture, and visual documentation and interpretation. More recently, I have turned my attention to re-writing the history of the development and reception of the higher criticism in England and India in the light of contextual and decolonial approaches, with a particular focus on the life and work of Thomas Kelly Cheyne (1841-1915), and the works of European missionaries and Indian scholars, and educationalists like Charlotte Mason.

Current Projects
Most of my current projects are related to the history of sociology, and much of my current research is archive based, making full use of original manuscripts, diaries, maps, and letters to reconstruct detailed and embodied accounts of the sociological imagination. I am also a private collector of materials relating to the history of sociology. My most recent publications in this area include a study of Herbert Spencer’s travels in Egypt 1879-1880 (see publications). I have also recently published work on the educationalist Charlotte Mason and her attitudes to religious education.

Past Projects
I was the founder of the Max Weber Study Group of the BSA in 1989. From the networks established I was co-founder of the international journal Max Weber Studies, and co-edited the first 3 volumes before moving to the editorial board to concentrate on the editing of the monograph series, Rethinking Classical Sociology, and the International Library of Classical Sociology (edited with Alan Sica) for Ashgate (now discontinued after some 14 volumes). I also have served on the editorial board of The Journal of Tribal Studies, the only non-Indian to do so. I also am the series founder and editor of the Phoenix Press monograph series, The Bible and Social Science (now discontinued)

Some of the published output relating to these projects include: D.J. Chalcraft and Austin Harrington (eds.) The Protestant Ethic Debate: Max Weber’s Replies to Critics, 1907-1910, (Liverpool University Press, 2001); D.J. Chalcraft (ed.), Sectarianism in Early Judaism: Sociological Advances (London: Equinox, 2007); D.J. Chalcraft et al (eds.), Max Weber Matters (Ashgate, 2009), and Chalcraft, Uhlenbruch and Watson (eds.), Methods, Theories, Imagination: Social Scientific Approaches in Biblical Studies (Sheffield Phoenix 2014).

I was PI on the British Academy project (2013-2016) Developing Ethnographic Methods for Biblical Studies In India (The International Mobility and Partner scheme). The findings are now published in Chalcraft and Angami eds. Encountering Diversity in Indian Biblical Studies (Routledge, 2023)- an earlier version was published in India by Christian World Imprints, New Delhi in 2021. Both volumes carry over 30 photographs taken in the field, a somewhat new departure for biblical studies, with the Indian edition printing colour photographs and the English edition black and white.


International Perspectives and Comparative Work
I have always been interested in promoting international perspectives in my work and pursuing comparative work, often working with colleagues from overseas. Global hermeneutics in biblical studies is a major concern.

I have held a Leverhulme Advanced Studentship to be visiting professor at the University of Heidelberg (improving my German language skills and researching the novels of Max Weber’s maternal uncle and Professor of Church History at Heidelberg, Adolf Hausrath), have been a guest of the Collegium for Advanced Studies at University of Helsinki, held a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Zhejiang University, China and been Visiting Professor at United Theological College in Bangalore, India. I have delivered invited lectures in New York at New School for Social Research, and in India, including at UTC, Bangalore, the University of Madras, Chennai, and Eastern Theological College, Assam. In China I have given invited lectures at Nanjing University, at Shanghai University, and given a keynote address to the Oceania Biblical Studies Association Conference in Samoa.


Doctoral Supervision
I have supervised doctoral students, and examined a number of doctorates (at Oxford, Glasgow, Sheffield), in a range of areas related to my research interests and welcome applications to work with me in the following areas in particular:
-the history of sociology
-life, work and legacy of classical sociology
-classical sociologists and death
-death, dying and bereavement
- sociology of religion
- ethnography of reading sacred scriptures
- researching the personal
- social scientific biblical criticism
-global hermeneutics

Languages

German
Hebrew

Degrees

2010, University of Derby, United Kingdom, PhD
1992, University of Oxford, United Kingdom, Master of Letters
1985, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, BA (Hons) Biblical Studies

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