Dear all,



It was nice to see so many of you in attendance at this year’s Socrel conference on 

Youth and Religion. The presentations were top class, and the discussions over 

coffee were very stimulating. It was nice to catch up with old friends, and also 

meet new faces.



However, the AGM brought us some bad news, as I shall outline below. 



Socrel has always existed on a budgetary shoestring, but unfortunately funds have 

rapidly deteriorated over the last few years. For postgraduates this means that 

Socrel will not be able to afford to run Burwalls next year (January 2009) as the 

Socrel committee heavily subsidise this, and the PG conference is Socrel’s largest 

annual expense. Let me stress that this is a temporary measure, and is basically a 

chance to let reserve funds build up for a year. It is very much anticipated that 

the PG conference will take place in 2010. 



In the interim period, Linda Woodhead and I are proposing to hold two events that 

will help our postgraduate community to continue to be in communication over the 

year that Burwalls will not take place. The first is a one-day practical workshop, 

to be run by Linda, on the PhD as it relates to scholars in religion. This workshop 

will be applicable to those at all stages of the PhD. It is due to be held in 

London in December, and would be free to Socrel postgraduate members (so you’d only 

have to pay for your travel to London). If you require overnight accommodation, 

this cost would need to be met by the attendee (please see 

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/news-and-events/events-for-award-holders for 

more details). 



I am also proposing to organise something in January/February time, perhaps at 

Nottingham, where postgraduates get a chance to present their work to each other – 

so it would be the traditional ‘presenting’ element of Burwalls. I may also be able 

to organise a plenary speaker. This would be a one day event, and would incur a 

minimal cost (maybe £10 for lunch). Can you indicate whether this would be 

something of interest to you, to see whether it is worth pursuing?  



All of these changes have also meant that perhaps now is the time to reflect on how 

PG events are organised and run, so I am in the process of creating a questionnaire 

to field opinion from the PG community. I hope to get this survey to you in the 

next month or so.



The other implication for the PG community from the AGM is the fact that fees have 

gone up slightly for postgraduates. It is now £15 to be a PG member of Socrel, and 

we are also bringing in a £10 charge for those who are BSA members. The fees have 

not gone up for a number of years, so an increment was to be anticipated. If you 

are not a paid-up member, can you please get in contact with Philip Richter (our 

newly elected convenor – [log in to unmask]) in order to obtain a membership 

form.



I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Linda and I are trying hard to put 

something of quality in place as a substitute for Burwalls, that doesn’t incur 

costs for the committee.  I hope you find these suggestions acceptable.



Best wishes,



Sarah








SOCREL-PG is the Postgraduate e-mail list of the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group.
To  join SOCREL-PG, send the following one-line message:
join socrel-pg YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME
to: <[log in to unmask]>
Send contributions to the list by
sending messages to: [log in to unmask]
To leave SOCREL-PG, send the following one-line message:
leave socrel-pg YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME
to: <[log in to unmask]>