Professor of the Anthropology of Religion, Faculty of Divinity

Joseph Webster is Professor of the Anthropology of Religion, having first taken up his position in the Divinity Faculty in 2019. Previous to this he held the position of Lecturer in Anthropology at Queen's University Belfast (2013-19), and Isaac Newton - Graham Robertson Research Fellow in Social Anthropology and Sociology at Downing College, Cambridge (2011-13).

His MA(Hons) in Sociology and Social Anthropology, and his MRes and PhD in Social Anthropology were all obtained at the University of Edinburgh (2003-12). Professor Webster won a Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2020 to conduct new ethnographic research on 'The Morality of Millenarianism' (research leave from October 2021 until October 2023).

Professor Webster's primary research interest concerns the Anthropology of Religion, with a particular focus on Protestantism in Scotland and the global north. His first monograph, The Anthropology of Protestantism (2013), is an ethnography of apocalyptic sign searching within an Exclusive Brethren fishing community in Northeast Scotland. This book was featured on BBC Radio 4, in an episode of Thinking Allowed. His second monograph, The Religion of Orange Politics (2020), is an ethnographic account of ethno-religious nationalism within the Orange Order, Scotland's largest Protestant-only fraternity. His fieldwork among Rangers Football Club fans sparked a research interest in free speech. His work played a key role in repealing the Scottish Parliament’s controversial Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, which banned certain football chants and aimed to curb sectarianism in Scottish football.

Professor Webster's specific research interests include:

• Protestant fundamentalism, millenarianism, apocalypticism

• Ethno-religious nationalism, unionism, loyalism, the Orange Order

• Personhood, fraternity, hate

• Sectarianism, football fandom, and debates about free speech

• North Atlantic, Britain, Scotland, Northern Ireland

• The relationship between Anthropology and Theology