People

Director

Chaplain and Senior Lecturer in Practice

Revd Canon Dr James Walters

Jim is the founding director of the LSE Faith Centre and leads its work in promoting religious literacy and interfaith leadership among the LSE’s global student body, in government and to the wider public. He is a Senior Lecturer in Practice, a Senior Fellow of the LSE School of Public Policy and an affiliated faculty member at the Department for International Development. He has published a number of books including Baudrillard and Theology (2012), Religion and the Public Sphere: New Conversations (2018), A Christian Theology of Chaplaincy (2018), Religious Imaginations and Global Transitions (Nov. 2018) and Loving Your Neighbour in an Age of Religious Conflict (Jan. 2019). He was educated at Cambridge University and ordained priest in the Church of England in 2008 within which he is now a canon of Chichester Cathedral and represents universities on the General Synod, the Church’s governing body.

As chaplain to the whole School, Jim is available to speak confidentially to any student or member of staff regardless of religious affiliation.

Contact: j.walters2@lse.ac.uk 020 7955 7965

Programmes Manager

Angharad Thain

Angharad works with the Chaplain to manage the LSE Faith Centre leadership programmes, interfaith activities, dialogues and public events. She has worked for St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, leading the Community Reconciliation Programme facilitating diaspora groups to share stories of harm and transform conflicts, and leading a number of public training programmes. She was previously a UK Peaceworker for Quaker Peace and Social Witness. She read History at Cambridge University and holds an MPhil in Multi-disciplinary Gender Studies, focusing on women in leadership in third party politics in the UK. Her wider interests include feminism, disarmament, identity and narrative.

Contact: a.e.thain@lse.ac.uk  020 7955 7234

Managing Editor, Religion and Global Society

Daniel Coyne

Daniel is the Managing Editor of the Religion and Global Society blog, a partnership between the Faith Centre and the Institute of Global Affairs. The aim of the blog is to promote the latest LSE research covering religion and to encourage a productive, informed conversation about the many ways in which the influence of religion is felt in our globalised world. Prior to working at the LSE, Daniel worked in the publishing industry. He has an MA in Philosophy and Religion from the University of London and a BSc in International Relations from the University of Southampton.

Contact: d.g.coyne@lse.ac.uk  020 7107 5445

Interfaith Development Officer

Farhia Abukar

Farhia works on promoting interfaith relations on campus, liaising with student faith societies and mapping intersectional issues within the student body in relation to faith and belief. She holds an MSc in International Development and BA in Political Economy from the University of Birmingham, focussing on post-conflict reconstruction in East Africa and multicultural narratives. Her interests include economic development and aid, international political economy and Islamic finance.

Contact: f.abukar@lse.ac.uk  020 7955 3633

International Partnerships Coordinator

Cameron Howes

Cameron works to create and deepen collaborative partnerships that allow the LSE Faith Centre to model and export its leading interfaith, reconciliation and leadership expertise globally. He holds a BSc in Government and History from the LSE with a particular academic focus on Middle Eastern and Islamic history. He is currently learning Arabic. His other interests include: moral and behavioural psychology, methods and practice of mediation and reconciliation, and Scriptural Reasoning.

Contact: c.howes@lse.ac.uk 020 7955 5179

Muslim Chaplain                                    

Shaykh Sulayman Van Ael

Shaykh Sulayman studied theology, Islamic Law and spiritual care in Jordan and Rotterdam. He taught at the University of Rotterdam as a host professor, and was a teacher at the Erasmus High School in Brussels where he was appointed head of the Islam teachers of Belgium by the Muslim executive. He is a motivational speaker and spiritual leader committed to building bridges between communities. His personal website is: http://sulaymanvanael.com/

Contact: W.Van-Ael@lse.ac.uk

Jewish Chaplain

Rabbi Gavin Broder

Gavin (nicknamed Rav Gav by popular student demand!) can be found giving regular lunch and learn sessions at the centre and on campus. He is available for one-on-one chats, learning, welfare support, or to just grab a coffee, orange juice or pint! (Often providing snacks.) He represents Jewish causes within universities and is there for students of all backgrounds and affiliations. Rav Gav works with the Jewish Society and UJS helping to support and run student events. 

Contact: rabbibroder@mychaplaincy.co.uk 020 7388 1976 

Orthodox Chaplain

Fr. Alexander Fostiropoulos

Alexander is our Orthodox chaplain. He is a priest of the Deanery of Great Britain and Ireland, of the Archdiocese of Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe, within the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. He came to England in 1971 and trained as an architect in London. He was ordained by the late Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh in 1985, and has been at King's ever since. He is also a Chaplain to the LSE.

Contact: fostiropoulos@clara.net 020 7722 1663

Catholic Chaplain

Fr Stephen Wang

Fr Stephen is a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Westminster. As Senior Chaplain he coordinates the work of Catholic university chaplaincy around the Diocese. He has worked in parish ministry and as Academic Dean and Lecturer in Philosophy at Allen Hall Seminary.

Contact: swang@universitycatholic.net 020 7387 6370

Chair of the Advisory Board

Professor Kevin Featherstone

Kevin Featherstone is Eleftherios Venizelos Professor of Contemporary Greek Studies and Professor of European Politics at LSE. He is Head of the European Institute and Co-Chair of LSEE - Research on South-East Europe within the European Institute.

David Beecken

David is the founder and Managing Director of Beecken Petty O’Keefe & Company Healthcare Private Equity. Prior to this he was an investment banker specializing in the healthcare industry. Dave serves or has served on the board of directors of many organisations including Dentsply Sirona Inc. (Nasdaq "XRAY") and numerous BPOC portfolio companies. He holds degrees from the University of the South, an M.B.A. degree in finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and an M.S. degree in economics from the London School of Economics.

John Casson

John Casson recently returned to the UK after four years as British Ambassador in Egypt. He spent two decades as a British diplomat and senior leader in Whitehall. He was David Cameron’s foreign policy lead in No10 from 2010 to 2014. In Egypt he was a high profile public figure, launching innovative initiatives in education, social enterprise and interfaith issues, and building a 1.5 million social media following. John’s career has also seen diplomatic postings in Brussels, Washington and Jordan, research at Cambridge University on African religion and politics, experience as a parliamentary researcher and a volunteer teacher in Kenya. He studied undergraduate History and postgraduate Theology at Cambridge. He is married to Kathryn, and his joys include poems, baseball, mountains and Christian discipleship. John was awarded a CMG in The Queen’s 2014 Birthday Honours.

The Rt Rev. and the Rt Hon. Lord Chartres KCVO

Lord Chartres was the 132nd Bishop of London from 1995 to 2017. He now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbench member and continues to serve as Dean of Her Majesty’s Chapels Royal. Lord Chartres is a respected voice on a range of issues including the environment, relations with the Orthodox Churches and interfaith relations, founding and serving as life president to St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace.

Adrian Cohen

Adrian Cohen is a partner in the finance practice of international law firm Clifford Chance LLP. In 2006 he helped to establish the London Jewish Forum, which he chairs, to engage with the Mayoralty of London. Adrian has first & second Law degrees from the LSE & QMUL and taught Commercial Law at LSE for two years.

Professor Grace Davie

Grace Davie is Professor Emeritus in the Sociology of Religion at the University of Exeter. In 2000-01 she was the Kerstin-Hesselgren Professor at Uppsala, where she returned for extended visits in 2006-7, 2010 and 2012.  She has also held visiting appointments at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (1996) and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (1998 and 2003), in Paris, and is a member of the Academia Europaea.  

Katie Harrison

Katie Harrison is Director of the ComRes Faith Research Centre – the first commercial centre of expertise in this country set up to help improve the quality of knowledge about religion and belief by providing robust and impartial evidence of current religious identity, belief, practice and behaviour. Katie has a long track record of leading communications  and external relations  in  international  development  and local  government,  and of working on faith-specific projects, and is also an Honorary Fellow of the Cadbury Centre at the University of Birmingham.

Sohail Younus Nakhooda

Sohail Younus Nakhooda is Executive Director of Kalam Research & Media, UAE and is Private Secretary of the Ambassador of Libya to the UAE, Dr Aref Ali Nayed. At KRM he is a Co-Leader of the Islamic Analytic Theology project in association with the Sir John Templeton Foundation, coordinating research with leading scholars and academic and research institutions from around the world. An LSE alum, he was LSE Islamic Society President and is founder of the award-winning Islamica Magazine which he started during his time at the School.

David Powell

David Powell is the chief euro-area economist at Bloomberg Intelligence. He holds a master’s degree from LSE and is the author of “The Trader's Guide to the Euro Area: Economic Indicators, the ECB and the Euro Crisis”, which was published by Wiley. He is also the Vice-Chair of the LSE London Alumni Group.

Mandip Sahota

Mandip is Director of Strategies & Stories, a strategic planning & communications agency for charities and social changemakers. Mandip works with organisations to share their impact, identify partnerships, and increase funding opportunities. With over 20 years experience in the private, public and third sector, Mandip has provided strategic advice to Foreign & Commonwealth Ministers on international approaches to religion, gender parity and human rights, and developed national employability programmes as the Chief Executive of the Baroness Warsi Foundation, a social inclusion non-profit. Mandip is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Birmingham’s Edward Cadbury Centre for Public Understanding of Religion.