Professor Eileen Barker is Professor Emeritus of Sociology with Special Reference to the Study of Religion. Her BSc (Soc) (Hons 1st class) and her PhD were obtained from the LSE. She also has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen.
Her main research interest over the past 30 years has been, and continues to be, 'cults', 'sects' and new religious movements - and the social reactions to which they give rise; but since 1989 she has spent much of her time investigating changes in the religious situation in Eastern Europe. She has also been studying the Armenian Diaspora and its relationship with the newly formed Republic of Armenia. Most of her research involves living with and/or interviewing those whom she studies, but she has conducted several surveys and was responsible for the British part of a large international study of religious and moral pluralism in Europe.
She has over 250 publications, translated into 27 languages. These include the award-winning The Making of a Moonie: Brainwashing or Choice? and New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction, which has been published in eight languages. Further information about her work is available on 3 video presentations on the LSE Fathom| site.
She has given guest lectures in over 200 universities around the world, and is a familiar commentator on religious matters on both radio and television. She serves on the editorial boards of numerous scholarly journals, and has been elected as an officer on the boards of most of the international organisations related to the sociology of religion - being the only non-American to have been elected President of the largest of these, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
In 1988, with the support of the Home Office and the mainstream Churches, she set up INFORM|, an NGO affiliated to the sociology department at LSE which supplies information about alternative religions that is as objective and up-to-date as possible. All students studying at the LSE have access to INFORM's resources.
Selected Publications
Cult-watching groups and the construction of images of new religious movements. In: Bromley, D. G, (ed.) Teaching new religions movements. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 309-330. 2007 ISBN 9780195177299
We've got to draw the line somewhere: an exploration of boundaries that define locations of religious identity. Social compass, 53 (2). pp. 201-213 (2006). ISSN 0037-7686
When heresy is treachery, and dirt is religion out of place. In:. Barker, Eileen (2005) Crossing the boundary: new challenges to religious authority and control as a consequence of access to the internet. In: Hojsgaard, Morten T. and Warburg, Margit, (eds.) Religion and cyberspace. Routledge, London, UK, pp. 67-85. (2005) ISBN 9780415357630
What are we Studying? A Sociological Case for Keeping the "Nova". Nova religio, 8 (3). (2004) ISSN 1092-6690
Why the cults? New religions and freedom of religion and beliefs. In: Lindholm, Tore and Durham, W. Cole and Tahzib-Lie, Bahia, (eds.) Facilitating freedom of religion and belief: perspectives, impulses and recommendations from the Oslo Coalition. Kluwer, Dordecht NL. (2004)
The church without and the God within: religiosity and/or spirituality? In: Jerolimov, Dinka Marinović and Zrinščak, Siniša and Borowick, Irena, (eds.) Religion and patterns of social transformation. Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Zagreb, pp. 23-47. (2004) ISBN 9789536218165
General overview of the "cult scene" in Great Britain. In: Lucas, Philip C and Robbins, Thomas, (eds.) New Religious Movements in the 21st Century: Legal , Political and Social Challenges in Global Perspective. Routledge, London, pp. 27-34. (2004) Link|
And the wisdom to know the difference? Freedom, control and the sociology of religion (Association for the Sociology of Religion 2002 presidential address). Sociology of religion, 64 (3). pp. 285-307. (2003) ISSN 1069-4404
The Scientific Study of Religion? You Must be Joking!. In: Dawson, Lorne, L, (ed.) Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 7-25. (2003)
Harm and new religious movements: some notes on a sociological perspective. Cultic studies review, 2 (1). (2003) ISSN 1539-0152
Rights and wrongs of new forms of religiosity in Europe: problems of pluralism in Europe at the beginning of the 21st century. In: Lehmann, H., (ed.) Multireligiosiät im vereinten Europa: historische und juristische aspekte. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen, Germany, pp. 215-237. (2003)
The protection of minority religions in Eastern Europe. In: Danchin, Peter G. and Cole, Elizabeth A., (eds.) Protecting the human rights of religious minorities in Eastern Europe. Columbia University Press, New York, USA, pp. 58-86. (2002) ISBN 9780231124751
Rights and wrongs of new forms of religiosity in Europe. Temenos, 37-38 pp. 13-38. (2002) ISSN 0497-1817
Watching for Violence : A Comparative Analysis of Five Cult-watching Groups. In: Bromley, D. G. and Melton, J. G., (eds.) Cults, Religion and Violence. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; New York, pp. 123-148. (2002) ISBN 9780511033339 0511033338
New religious movements. In: Smelser, Neil. J and Baltes, Paul. B and Sills, D. L, (eds.) The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier Science: Pergamon, Amsterdam, pp. 10631-10634. (2001) ISBN 9780080430768
Barker, Eileen (2001) A general overview of the "cult scene" in Britain. Nova religio, 4 (2). pp. 235-240. ISSN 1092-6690
A comparative exploration of dress and the presentation of self as implicit religion. In: Keenan, William. J. F, (ed.) Dressed to impress : looking the part. Berg Publishing, Oxford, UK, pp. 51-68. I(2001) SBN 9780585435930
INFORM: bringing the sociology of religion to the public space. In: Côté, Pauline, (ed.) Frontier religions in public space. University of Ottawa Press, Ottawa, Canada, pp. 21-34. (2001) ISBN 276030535x
Foreword. In: Fawcett, Liz and Campling, Jo, (eds.) Religion, Ethnicity and Social Change. Pelgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, UK. (2000) ISBN 9780312225674
The opium wars of the new millennium: religion in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. In: Silk, Mark, (ed.) Religion on the international news agenda. Pew Program on Religion and the News Media, Hartford, Conn, pp. 39-59. (2000)
Beyond mere toleration. American baptist quarterly, vol 19 (December). pp. 336-343. (2000) ISSN 07453698
Taking Two to Tango : The New Religious Movements and Sociology. In: Voye, L. and Billiet, J., (eds.) Sociology and Religions: An Ambiguous Relationship. Leuven University Press. (1999) ISBN 9789061869672
New religious movements: their incidence and significance. In: Wilson, Bryan and Cresswell, Jamie, (eds.) New religious movements: challenge and response. Routledge, London, UK, pp. 15-32. (1999) ISBN 9780415200509
But Who's Going to Win? National and Minority Religions in Post-communist Society. The scientific Journal Facta universitatis, 2 (6). pp. 49-74. (1999) ISSN 1820-8509