People

Revd Canon Prof James Walters
Director
Chaplain and Professor in Practice

Jim is the founding director of the LSE Faith Centre and its Religion and Global Society Research Unit. He leads the team in the Centre’s mission to promote religious literacy and interfaith leadership through student programmes and global engagement, along with research into the role of religion in world affairs. He is a Professor in Practice in the Department of International Relations 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 (2018) and Loving Your Neighbour in an Age of Religious Conflict (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.

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

Jess Hazrati
Centre Manager, Faith Centre & Religion and Global Society Research Unit

Jess is the Faith Centre and Religion and Global Society research unit Manager. She leads the delivery of the Beecken Faith & Leadership Programme and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Faith Centre, including its people and programmes. 

Prior to joining, Jess worked in the Interfaith sector delivering place-based community building projects and hosting events celebrating faith communities in the UK. Passionate about interfaith dialogue, she enjoys hosting spaces where religious diversity can be discussed and used to build positive relationships and effect change. 
She holds a MTh in Theology and BA in Philosophy, Religion and Ethics, both from Heythrop College, UoL, and is particularly interested in political theology and how faith engages with social justice. 

Contact: j.hazrati@lse.ac.uk 

Kristian Noll
Partnerships and Impact Coordinator

Kristian joined the Faith Centre as the Global Religious Pluralities Project Officer in September 2023. He holds a BA in political science and Norwegian from St Olaf College (Minnesota, USA) and completed his MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the LSE in August 2023. Prior to joining the LSE Faith Centre, Kristian worked in the German Bundestag as a participant in the International Parliamentary Stipend Program and as a parliamentary intern in the UK House of Commons. Kristian is interested in the intersection between faith and politics, particularly in relation to environmental and foreign policy. 

Contact: k.m.noll@lse.ac.uk 

Ella Jones
Communications and Events Officer

Ella is the Communications and Events Officer, and edits the Religion and Global Society Blog. She holds a BA in Theology, Religion, and Philosophy of Religion from the University of Cambridge, and is finishing an MSc in Social Anthropology (Religion in the Contemporary World) at the LSE. Prior to joining the LSE Faith Centre, Ella worked as a Research Assistant in the Sociology Department, a Media & Events Assistant in the Communications Department, and for global technology companies Data.ai and Twilio.

Ella is particularly interested in religion in the digital world, religion and gender, and discussions of agency, freedom, and subject formation. 

Contact: e.jones14@lse.ac.uk

Dr Hanane Benadi
Research Affiliate

Hanane Benadi is an anthropologist working at the intersection of ethics, politics, religion, and climate change in the MENA region. She is currently the Research Officer on the Global Religious Pluralities Project for the climate change and interfaith relations strand. She also the PI on the British Academy-funded Gender, Religion, and Climate Change: Women as Producers and Translators of Climate Knowledge in Egypt, also based at RGS. Previously, she was an IASH-Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Hanane received her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester in 2017. 

Contact: h.benadi1@lse.ac.uk  

Honour Astill

Interfaith Engagement Coordinator

Honour is the Faith Centre’s Graduate Intern, working to promote student engagement with Beecken Faith and Leadership Programme and interfaith practice on campus. She holds a BSc in Politics with First Class Honours from LSE. Before joining the Faith Centre, Honour undertook Research Assistantships with Hammersmith & Fulham Council, Griffith University, and LSE Phelan US Centre. 

Contact: h.s.astill@lse.ac.uk  

Dr Carmody Grey
Research Affiliate

Dr Carmody Grey is Special Professor of Integral Ecology at Radboud University (Netherlands).  Alongside her Visiting Professorship at LSE, she is Adjunct Professor of Ethics at the University of Bern (Switzerland).  She was previously Assistant Professor of Catholic Theology at Durham University.  Since joining Durham in 2018, she forged a global reputation in philosophical theology and theological ethics, with a focus on science, nature and technology.  Her monograph Theology, Science and Life was published in 2023.  She’s in high demand as a speaker and broadcaster in the UK and across the world.  Grey holds multiple degrees in theology and philosophy (Trinity College Oxford, King’s College Cambridge, the University of Bristol and the University of Nottingham) as well as a postgraduate degree in conservation biology (from Edinburgh). 

Contact: carmodytsgrey@googlemail.com 

Rabbi Gavin Broder
Jewish Chaplain

Gavin (affectionately nicknamed ‘Rav Gav’) 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

Fr. Alexander Fostiropoulos
Orthodox Chaplain

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 LSE and King's ever since.

Contact: fostiropoulos@clara.net 020 7722 1663

Catholic Chaplain
Fr Philip Miller

Fr Philip grew up in Kent, and then in St Albans, Herts, where he attended Nicholas Breakspear Catholic Secondary School. He studied Natural Sciences (Physics) at Cambridge as an undergraduate, and then for a PhD in radio-astronomy at the Cavendish Laboratory. He attended the Venerable English College, Rome, for his seminary formation, and was ordained in St Albans in September 1999. Since then, he has served in parishes and hospital ministry in Westminster diocese, as well as Senior Chaplain at Newman House. 

Contact: frphilip@universitychaplain.net 020 7387 6370 

Izabela Hanifah Was
Muslim Chaplain

Izabela's roles and objectives are to assist staff members and students with their spiritual needs and personal development by encouraging them to make meaningful use of their beliefs and attitudes, placing their well-being first while supporting them on their spiritual path in a society that is frequently secularised and very politicised. In addition, Izabela can help with private and delicate matters that might keep you from fully utilising the prospects that education has to offer. Izabela works in a multifaith organisation, where duties include cooperating and fostering better relationships across different beliefs. 

Contact: freedomee2@gmail.com 

Jon Cruddas (Chair)

Jon Cruddas was Labour MP for Dagenham for 23 years before standing down at the last election. He has been active in the trade union and labour movement for 44 years, and has been head of the office of the party General Secretary, Deputy Political Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair, a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, and a member of the Shadow Cabinet. He is the author of numerous articles and pamphlets. In 2021 his book The Dignity of Labour explored the economics and future of work and in January 2024 published A Century of Labour to mark the centenary of the first Labour Government. He is an Honorary Fellow of Nuffield College Oxford, a Visiting Professor at the University of Leicester, and Honorary Professor at the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtue at the University of Birmingham.  

David Beecken

David Beecken 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. David 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 Number 10 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 social media following of 1.5 million. 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 and second Law degrees from the LSE and 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, 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 the UK 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. Katie 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.

Tomiwa Owolade

Tomiwa Owolade is a writer and journalist. He has written for various publications, including the Times, the Sunday Times, the New Statesman and the Evening Standard. He is author of the book This is Not America.

Dr Mukulika Banerjee

Mukulika Banerjee is the inaugural Director of the LSE South Asia Centre and is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Anthropology at LSE. Mukulika‘s new monograph Cultivating Democracy: Politics and citizenship in agrarian India ( OUP New York) was published in October 2021. Her last book Why India Votes? (Routledge 2014) examined the reasons why despite varying odds, India’s voter graph continues to rise, making India the largest electoral democracy in the world. Mukulika also prepared a BBC Radio 4 documentary on ‘Sacred Elections’ for the Indian national elections in 2009.She also edited Muslim Portraits: Everyday Lives in India (Indiana University Press, 2008), a volume of essays by renowned scholars, which presents 12 portraits of Muslims in contemporary India. A complete list of titles published is available here.

Dr Luca Tardelli

Dr Luca Tardelli is Associate Professor (Education) in International Relations at the LSE. His research focuses on international security, military intervention, and US foreign policy. Luca has taught various undergraduate and postgraduate courses on International Relations both at the LSE and at the University of Westminster. From 2013 to 2018, he was the Course Convener and Tutor of the executive MSc International Strategy and Diplomacy at LSE. Prior to joining the LSE, Luca worked at the Middle East Division of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, jointly for the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), and at LSE IDEAS.