Who needs religion? | Andrew Copson and Linda Woodhead on the rise of the non-religious

Linda Woodhead specialises in the religious studies and sociology of religion. She was appointed F.D. Maurice Professor at King’s College London in 2022, where she is also Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Previously she was Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University. She is best known for her work on religious change since the 1980s, and for initiating public debates about religion and belief. She has been described by Matthew Taylor, head of the Royal Society of Arts, as 'one of the world's leading experts on religion'.

Linda co-founded the Westminster Faith Debates with former Home Secretary Charles Clarke in 2011. The debates were originally created to publicise findings from the Religion and Society programme, but have since become an annual series. They bring researchers into conversation with prominent figures in public life and have included former Prime Minister Tony Blair, ethnologist, author, and Humanists UK patron Richard Dawkins, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The debates have been covered by BBC Radio, LBC, the Guardian, Independent, The Times, the Evening Standard and other UK and international media.