The Digital British Islam team had the pleasure of being invited to deliver a keynote session at the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) annual conference this year. Team members Prof Gary R. Bunt (UWTSD), Prof Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (Coventry University), Dr Sadek Hamid (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Laura Jones (University of Edinburgh) delivered the closing session of the event on Tuesday 1st July at the University of Cambridge.
The team provided an overview of the project which included a background to the study, a discussion of the broad multimodal methodology, and a detailed look at the Digital British Islam web archive and associated data visualisations. The team gave a comprehensive exploration of project findings including the tensions between connection and distance in online spaces, the popularity of different platforms, search tools, and religious figures, and discussions of digital safety. The presentation also discussed key findings in relation to changes in religious authority, gendered expressions of emancipation and vulnerability online, and political agency and activism. This included preliminary findings from the project’s survey on digital activity around the Gaza conflict.
Despite the heat, around 50 attendees attended the session including academics from the UK and international institutions. The presentation prompted positive engagement from the audience during the Q&A session and requests for further information on project findings. The event was a fitting opportunity to mark the end of the Digital British Islam project in July 2025, although work will continue on a project book and other publications. Keep an eye on our website for further updates.
The team would especially like to thank all those who attended the session, our chair Dr Omar Anchassi (University of Bern), and Tom Lea (University of Edinburgh) and the BRAIS conference team for giving us an opportunity to present at one of the highlights of the calendar for Islamic Studies and associated fields.
