Professor James Beckford FBA

James A. Beckford was Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Warwick since 2008. He had a PhD in Sociology and a DLitt from the University of Reading. He taught sociology at the University of Reading, the University of Durham, Loyola University of Chicago and the University of Warwick. He also held visiting positions at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris, 2000 and at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, 2004. He was elected President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in 1988-89, Vice-President of the International Sociological Association from 1994 to 1998, President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion from 1999 to 2003, and President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2010-11. Since 1991 he was also a Governor of Inform (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements). The University of Lausanne conferred on him the title of Docteur ès Sciences des Religions honoris causa in 2014.