Ursula King (elected 2013)

Ursula King received her PhD in 1977 from King’s College, University of London, and has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Edinburgh, Oslo, and Dayton, Ohio as well as research awards from the University of Delhi and Sorbonne, Paris. She is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts. She has started her intellectual career with her work on Pierre Theilhard de Chardin, subject of her thesis and followed by many publications related to the personality of de Chardin. Beside her interest in mysticism and spirituality, Ursula King has made the cause of women an important part of her intellectual life. She has widely published on the subject and contributed to the Gender-critical Turn in the field of the Study of Religions, publishing groundbreaking articles on women and religion.

Ursula King is Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, where she held the Chair of Theology and Religious Studies from 1989-2002. Before that she taught for many years at the University of Leeds, in London, and in India. Currently she is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bristol; Professorial Research Associate in the Department of the Study of Religions, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; and Vice President of the World Congress of Faiths

Ursula King was also Visiting Professor in Feminist Theology at the University of Oslo (1998-2001), and in 1999 she held the Brueggeman Chair in Interreligious Studies at Xavier University, Cincinnati. In the fall of 2005 she was the distinguished Bingham Professor of Humanities at the University of Louisville, KY.

With the nomination to the honorary membership, the EASR would like to thank her for her lifelong dedication to central questions in the field of the study of religions.