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Matthew Wilkinson

Professor Matthew Wilkinson

Professor of Religion in Public Life

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

Overview

Matthew is a philosopher and social scientist of religion in public life, whose work has made a practical difference to understanding the nature and effects of religious faith in the law courts, schools and prisons.

Matthew speaks Spanish, Arabic and French. 

Matthew believes that:

  • well-understood religious faith can bring success to people's lives, just as badly-understood religious faith causes harm;

  • the contemporary world is suffering from an absence of well-understood religious faith, and this absence has contributed to extremism, environmental degradation and geo-political injustices;

  • proper theoretical and empirical research into religious faith can address these absences of understanding in order that institutions of public life can promote human flourishing;

  • human flourishing cannot be achieved without stewardship of the natural world.

Practically, Matthew has shown how faith - using Islam as an example - can be understood in a rational and systematic way that is suitable for life in Western contexts by developing the philosophy of Islamic Critical Realism.

Islamic Critical Realism has been made useful in public life in three key areas:  (1) law courts (2) schools (3) prisons. 

     

  • Based on these findings, Matthew and his team are designing innovative training for Correctional Staff, Prison Chaplains and for Incarcerated People for the UK Prison Service (HMPPS) and other prison services, accredited by Cardiff University:

PRIMO

Matthew has Advanced proficiency in Arabic and French, and Fluent proficiency in Spanish.  He also has Advanced proficiency in 2 ancient languages: Latin and Classical Greek.

 

LANGUAGES  Spanish - Fluent

ACTFL: Distinguished

CEFR: C2 Mastery

ILR: Bilingual Proficiency Level 5

LANGUAGES  Arabic - Advanced 

ACTFL: Advanced Higher

CEFR: Vantage

ILR: Professional Working Proficiency Level 3

LANGUAGES  French - Advanced

ACTFL: Advanced Higher

CEFR: Vantage

ILR: Professional Working Proficiency Level 3

LANGUAGES  Latin - Advanced

Intermediate High I-5: ACTFL ALIRA

LANGUAGES  Classical Greek - Advanced

University of Cambridge Advanced New Testament Ancient Greek.

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2018

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

Articles

Book sections

Books

Monographs

Research

Matthew's theoretical and empirical research has focussed on: (1) law courts (2) schools (3) prisons:

(1) Law Courts

Matthew developed the only widely accepted definition of Islamist Extremism:

(2) In Schools

Through the UK Government's National Curriculum Review for History, Matthew showed how alienated Muslim school pupils could be re-connected to the national community by removing the 'absent' curriculum of Islamic civilization and integrating it into the National Curriculum for History. 

(3) In Prisons

Matthew and his team conducted the largest international study on Islam in prison. The findings of the 3-year research have been published in Islam in Prison: finding faith, freedom and fraternity.  

Based on these findings, Matthew and his team are designing innovative training for the UK Prison Service (HMPPS) for accreditation by Cardiff University through PRIMO:

  • For Incarcerated People: PRIMO is using Islam to help them process their guilt and re-engage with a productive life.
  • For Correctional Staff: PRIMO is building their religious literacy to give them confidence in their dealings with Muslim incarcerated people.
  • For Prison Chaplains: PRIMO is enhancing their pastoral care by improving their theological and criminological awareness.
  • The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, USA have asked Matthew to give them the same programme and he has agreed in principle.

Biography

I am often asked, "Why are you interested in religion and why do you research religion in prison?”

I believe that religious faith, defined as worldviews of metaphysical belief and ultimate value that inspire behavioural outcomes, deeply motivate humans and shape the institutional cultures in which we live. Unlike Freud, I believe that religion is rational behaviour and that human beings cannot live fully without finding meaning in this spiritual dimension. My own life has been inspired by a quest to integrate religion and rationality and retain a space for reasonable faith in secularizing cultures. 

In 1989, I won a scholarship in Theology & Religious Studies at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, against a backdrop of family tragedy when my father, a renowned Nature Conservationist, went blind. At Cambridge, I became fascinated by the Protestant philosophical theology of Schleiermacher, and Barth. As a result, I became gradually convinced of the need for Divine revelation and principles to guide humanity. This conviction engendered a fascination for Islam since, inexplicably, Islam, the third Abrahamic faith and the world’s second largest religion of 2 billion people, was at that time completely absent from the Theology degree course at Cambridge University.

I met Muslims and was impressed by their discipline and dignity in performing five daily prayers and the doctrinal simplicity of the core Islamic belief in one Omnipotent God. To deepen my understanding of Islam, I embarked on a seven-year period of travel to study The Quran, Islamic Law and Arabic in the UK, Spain, Morocco and West Africa, where I also enhanced my French and Spanish to fluent levels.

My desire to share a love of scholarship led me to qualify as a QTS History teacher, I taught History, Citizenship, and Islamic Studies in London secondary schools for ten years. Inspired to investigate how Islamic principles of excellence and faithful integration could be accessed by young people through the school curriculum, in 2011 I completed an ESRC-funded PhD in Education at King’s College London, examining how history curriculum might help under-achieving Muslim boys engage better with education and engage more fully with British life.

This PhD led to a watershed moment when I attended a lecture given by Professor Roy Bhaskar (1944-2014). Bhaskar was the founder of the philosophy of critical realism, whose brilliant schema of dialectical philosophy to explain the transformation of Being prompted me to realise that Islamic principles of worship, justice and excellence could be integrated into fields of research, education and law. As Roy’s postdoctoral student, I developed an original educational philosophy called Islamic Critical Realism specifically designed to provide a space for rational inquiry at the interface of personal faith and institutional public life. This was published in A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-faith World: a philosophy for success through education which was awarded the Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize as the most “creative and innovative” work of critical realist philosophy.

For schools, using the philosophy of Islamic Critical Realism, I developed the Concept of the Absent Curriculum based on research of 400 Muslim boys’ experience of school history. This study showed how the absence of the Muslim contribution to the history of humanity generated bad history for all pupils and that school history that included the contribution of Islamic civilization at natural moments, such as the History of Science, would be more accurate and useful for all pupils. This concept has been used for teaching training at the University of Cambridge, UCL Institute of Education and the University of Oxford.

For courts, as an Expert Witness in 35 Terrorism and Hate Crime cases, I have used this theological philosophy to distinguish between the worldviews of Islam, Islamism, and Islamist Extremism and to characterize other types of extremism, such as Satanist and Christian Identity extremism. This work has included the Manchester Arena Inquiry where I was instructed to describe and explain the radicalization of the bomber of the Manchester Arena. The Chair of the Manchester Arena Inquiry, The Hon Sir John Saunders, commended my evidence as follows,

"I hope that his [Matthew's] evidence to this Inquiry will be considered carefully by the authorities, as it could enhance their ability to identify signs of radicalisation and the appropriate level of importance to be attached to them."        Volume 3, Clause 25.8, p. 104       

In the 2016 case of S. Begg v. BBC, my Expert Witness Report was taken almost verbatim by the Judge to give a 10-point definition of Islamist Extremism which has now become the only widely accepted legal definition of Islamist Extremism. I have published my full methodology in The Genealogy of Terror: how to distinguish between Islam, Islamism and Islamist Extremism.

As for prison, my work in the law courts made me aware that Muslims are disproportionately represented in prison and that prisons are unusually religious spaces. For example, in the UK 18% of the prison population is Muslim compared with 6.5% of the general population. Of this 18%, 29% are converts to Islam. Therefore, from 2018-2021, my research team and I conducted the largest study of Islam in prison building on the earlier pioneering work of Beckford, Gilliat-Ray and Quraishi. This was independently funded and involved research in ten prisons in England, Switzerland and France and showed that choosing to follow Islam in prison presents some criminogenic risk and significant rehabilitative opportunities. The findings are published in Islam in Prison: finding faith, freedom and fraternity.

Based on these research findings, I established at Cardiff University the independently funded programme PRIMO to develop innovative training for incarcerated people, correctional officers and Muslim Prison Chaplains. PRIMO aims to reduce reoffending by maximising the rehabilitative potential of faith to help prisoners engage in work, education, and the avoidance of crime. This work will also be carried out in the USA from 2024, where there are more than 150,000 incarcerated Muslims, making up c.10% of the US prison population.  In future, the education of PRIMO, based around the Abrahamic ideal of Stewardship, will be broadened to meet the spiritual and rehabilitative needs of chaplains, professionals, and people in prison of other faiths and worldviews.

I feel most fortunate to be married to Lucy, a partner in my life and research, and to have been blessed with a son.

Honours and awards

2021-2026 - Awarded £2M grant by the Dawes Trust as Principal Investigator of Prison-based Interventions for Muslim Offenders (PRIMO).

2017-2021 - Awarded £840k grant by the Dawes Trust as Principal Investigator of Understanding Conversion to Islam in Prison (UCIP).

2015-2017 Awarded £190k grant by the charity Curriculum for Cohesion for a Senior Research Fellowship at SOAS, University of London.

2014 - Awarded 2014 Cheryl Frank Memorial Prize for, A Fresh Look at Islam in a Multi-faith World: a philosophy for success through education as the most “creative and innovative” work of critical realist philosophy.

2011-2015 - Awarded £276k grant by the charity Curriculum for Cohesion as Principal Investigator of Curriculum for Cohesion

2007 - Awarded ESRC-King's College London CASE PhD studentship to complete PhD research entitled History Curriculum, Citizenship and Muslim Boys: learning to succeed?

1989 - Awarded Undergraduate Scholarship in Theology & Religious Studies by Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

Professional memberships

Member of the Expert Witness Institute.

Member of the European Society of Criminology.

 

Academic positions

2022-present - Professor of Religion in Public Life, Cardiff University.

2020-2021 - Reader in Religion & Criminal Justice, Birkbeck, University of London.

2017-2020 - Senior Research Fellow in Contemporary Islam, SOAS, University of London.

2015-2017 - Research Fellow in Contemporary Islam, SOAS, University of London.

2013-2015 - Research Fellow for Islam and Muslims in Education, UCL, Institute of Education.

2012 - Visiting Lecturer on Islam in Education, UCL, Institute of Education.

2011-2015 - Visiting Lecturer on Islam in Education, University of Cambridge.

2011-2013 - Research Fellow, Cambridge Muslim College.

2010 - Visiting Lecturer in Education, Anglia Ruskin University.

2010 - Visiting Lecturer in Education, London Metropolitan University.

Contact Details

Email WilkinsonM8@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29225 11806
Campuses John Percival Building, Room Room 2.64, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU

Specialisms

  • Religious education in schools and prisons
  • Distinguishing between mainstream, politicized and extremist worldviews
  • Mapping religious communities in prison
  • Relationships between religious and secular cultures