Eleanor Nesbitt
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| name = Eleanor Margaret Nesbitt
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| birth_date = 1951
| birth_place = Bournemouth, UK
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| known_for = Research in religious socialisation, Hinduism, Sikhism, Punjab Studies
| title = Professor
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| spouse = Ram Krishan
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| parents = Martha Eleanor Nesbitt, William Ralph Nesbitt
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| education = Girton College, Cambridge
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| thesis_title = The religious lives of Sikh children in Coventry
| thesis_url = https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/36286/1/WRAP_THESIS_Nesbitt_1995.pdf
| thesis_year = 1995
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| doctoral_advisor = Professor Robert Jackson
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| influences = W.H. McLeod, John Bowker, Robert Jackson
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| discipline = Religious Studies
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| workplaces = University of Warwick
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Eleanor Nesbitt (born 1951) is a British emeritus professor in Education Studies at the University of Warwick, and a founding member of the UK's Punjab Research Group and the Journal of Sikh and Punjab Studies as well as coediting Brill's Encyclopedia of Sikhism.{{cite book |last1=Burton |first1=Howard |last2=Nesbitt |first2=Eleanor |title=Exploring the Sikh Tradition: A Conversation with Eleanor Nesbitt |date=2021 |publisher=Open Agenda Publishing, Inc. |doi=10.2307/j.ctv22jnknv |jstor=j.ctv22jnknv |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv22jnknv}}{{cite web |title=Professor Eleanor Nesbitt |url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/staff/eleanor_nesbitt/#:~:text=Eleanor%20Nesbitt%20is%20Professor%20Emeritus,to%20Sikh%20and%20Punjab%20Studies. |website=warwick.ac.uk |access-date=22 January 2025}}{{cite web |title=Warwick Professor Uncovers the Untold Stories of Women in Sikh History |url=https://www.myscience.uk/en/news/wire/warwick_professor_uncovers_the_untold_stories_of_women_in_sikh_history-2024-warwick |website=myScience United Kingdom |access-date=27 January 2025 |language=en |date=8 October 2024}}
Early life and education
Eleanor Nesbitt was born in 1951 to Martha Eleanor Nesbitt and William Ralph Nesbitt.{{cite book |last1=Nesbitt |first1=Eleanor |title=Children's experience of religion: issues arising from ethnographic study of 8 - 13 year olds' perspectives |date=2000 |publisher=Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre |isbn=978-0-906165-35-5 |url=https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/420/ |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Nesbitt |first1=Eleonor |url=https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/36286/1/WRAP_THESIS_Nesbitt_1995.pdf |title=The religious lives of Sikh children in Coventry |date=1995 |publisher=University of Warwick |chapter=Acknowledgements |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250202083330/https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/36286/1/WRAP_THESIS_Nesbitt_1995.pdf |archive-date=2 February 2025}} She attended Talbot Heath School in Bournemouth before studying classics and theology at Girton College, Cambridge.{{Cite web|url=https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/christian-alternative-books/authors/eleanor-nesbitt|title=Eleanor Nesbitt|work=Collective Ink Books|accessdate=25 January 2025}}{{cite news |date=8 September 2014 |title=Talbot Heath School - A tradition of excellence |url=https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/11459626.talbot-heath-school---tradition-excellence/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250202080141/https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/11459626.talbot-heath-school---tradition-excellence/ |archive-date=2 February 2025 |access-date=29 January 2025 |work=Bournemouth Echo |language=en}}
Career
Nesbitt completed teacher training at Oxford before travelling to India. There, she taught in Nainital from 1974 to 1977. After returning to England in 1977 she spent two years teaching in a comprehensive school in Coventry, and subsequently carried out research in Nottingham. She became professor in education studies at the University of Warwick.{{when|date=February 2025}}
Nesbitt published studies on Sikh children in Coventry in 1991, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2004, and 2009.{{cite book |last1=Singh |first1=Jasjit |editor1-last=Jacobsen |editor1-first=Knut A. |editor2-last=Myrvold |editor2-first=Kristina |title=Young Sikhs in a Global World: Negotiating Traditions, Identities and Authorities |date=2016 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=978-1-134-79081-4 |page=15 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V3O1CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA15|language=en |chapter=1. Family values: the impact of family background on the religious lives of young British Sikhs}} Her 1993 book, titled Hindu children in Britain and co-authored with Robert Jackson, is considered by several scholars in religious studies, including Dermot Killingley, as important in that field.{{cite book |title=Handbook of Hinduism in Europe (2 vols) |date=2020 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-43228-4 |page=714 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rAT1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA714 |language=en}}{{cite journal |last1=Killingley |first1=Dermot |title=Book Reviews : Hindu Children in Britain by Robert Jackson and Eleanor Nesbitt |journal=South Asia Research |date=1 March 1995 |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=150–152 |doi=10.1177/026272809501500113 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026272809501500113?download=true&journalCode=sara |language=en |issn=0262-7280|url-access=subscription}}{{cite book |last1=Langlaude |first1=Sylvie |title=The Right of the Child to Religious Freedom in International Law |date=2007 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers |location=Leiden |isbn=978-90-04-16266-2 |pages=23–25 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVmwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |language=en |chapter=1. Religious children}} In 1998 she published an article on British, Asian, and Hindu identity.{{cite book |last1=Erricker |first1=Clive |editor1-last=Erricker |editor1-first=Clive |editor2-last=Erricker |editor2-first=Jane |title=Reconstructing Religious, Spiritual and Moral Education |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |isbn=0-415-18946-2 |page=28 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r8Uxj9aQ2WsC&pg=PA28|language=en |chapter=2. A critical review of religious education}} In 2001 she published her research on what Hindus in the UK believed.{{cite book |last1=Alberts |first1=Wanda |title=Integrative Religious Education in Europe: A Study-of-Religions Approach |date=2012 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-11-019661-0 |pages=155–156 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xvwKWS3VKfcC&pg=PA155 |language=en |chapter=2. Current approaches to RE in England}}{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Robert |editor1-last=Souza |editor1-first=Marian de |editor2-last=Durka |editor2-first=Gloria |editor3-last=Engebretson |editor3-first=Kathleen |editor4-last=Jackson |editor4-first=Robert |editor5-last=McGrady |editor5-first=Andrew |title=International Handbook of the Religious, Moral and Spiritual Dimensions in Education |date=2007 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-5246-0 |page=300 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KbdDAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA300|language=en |chapter=Introduction to section 2: religious education and debates about plurality and culture}}
Her 2024 book, titled Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women's Art & Writing, documents Sikh history through western women's encounters with Sikhs and their culture.{{cite web |title=warwick_professor_uncovers |url=https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/warwick_professor_uncovers/ |website=warwick.ac.uk |access-date=27 January 2025}}{{cite web |title=New book on encounters between Sikhs and western women |url=https://centralenglandquakers.org.uk/2024/09/19/new-book-on-encounters-between-sikhs-and-western-women/ |website=Central England Quakers |access-date=2 February 2025 |date=19 September 2024}}
Awards and honours
In 2003 Nesbitt delivered the Swarthmore Lecture, and in 2009 gave the George Richardson lecture.{{cite book |last1=Geaves |first1=Ron |editor1-last=Chryssides |editor1-first=George D. |editor2-last=Geaves |editor2-first=Ron |title=The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods |date=2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=978-1-4725-6732-1 |page=260 |edition=2nd |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gULSAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA260|language=en |chapter=9. Fieldwork in the study of religion}}
Selected publications
=Books=
- Listening to Hindus Harper Collins 1990 ISBN 9780044481218 (coauthored with Robert Jackson)
- {{cite book |title=Hindu children in Britain |date=1993 |publisher=Trentham |isbn=978-0-948080-73-9 |url=https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/53687/}} (Co-authored with Robert Jackson)
- {{cite book |title=Guru Nanak |date=1999 |publisher=Bayeux Arts Incorporated |location=Calgary |isbn=1-85175-192-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/gurunanak0000nesb}} (Coauthored with Gopinder Kaur)
- Interfaith Pilgrims Quaker Books 2003 ISBN 0852453477
- {{cite book |title=Intercultural Education: Ethnographic and Religious Approaches |date=2004 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-83624-082-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FgwZEQAAQBAJ|language=en}}
- {{cite book |title=Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction |date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/actrade/9780198745570.001.0001 |isbn=9780198745570 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/568 |language=en |last1=Nesbitt |first1=Eleanor }} (2nd edition 2016)
- {{cite book|title=Pool of Life: The Autobiography of a Punjabi Agony Aunt |date=2014 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-78284-067-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4V6VEAAAQBAJ|language=en}} (Co-authored with Kailash Puri)
- Making Nothing Happen: Five Poets Explore Faith and Spirituality Routledge ISBN 9781409455158. (coauthored with Gavin D'Costa, Mark Pryce, Ruth Shelton and Nicola Slee)
- {{cite book |title=Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women's Art and Writing |date=2024 |publisher=Kashi House |isbn=978-1-911271-20-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EgteuwEACAAJ |language=en}}
- {{cite book |title=Quaker Quicks: Open to New Light: Quakers and Other Faiths |date=2023 |publisher=John Hunt Publishing |isbn=978-1-80341-324-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1YDwEAAAQBAJ|language=en}}
=Articles=
- {{cite journal |title=Panjabis in Britain: Cultural History and Cultural Choices |journal=South Asia Research |date=1 September 1995 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=221–240 |doi=10.1177/026272809501500203 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026272809501500203 |language=en |issn=0262-7280 |last1=Nesbitt |first1=Eleanor }}
- {{cite journal |title=British, Asian and Hindu: identity, self-narration and the ethnographic interview |journal=Journal of Beliefs & Values |date=1 October 1998 |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=189–200 |doi=10.1080/1361767980190203 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1361767980190203 |issn=1361-7672 |last1=Nesbitt |first1=Eleanor }}
- {{cite journal |title="My Dad's Hindu, my Mum's side are Sikhs": Issues in Religious Identity |journal=British Journal of Religious Education |date=2004 |volume=20 |issue=2 |page=113 |doi=10.11588/xarep.00000234 |url=https://fid4sa-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/234/ |last1=Nesbitt |first1=Eleanor }}
- {{cite journal |title=Young People's Identity Formation in Mixed-Faith Families: Continuity or Discontinuity of Religious Traditions? |journal=Journal of Contemporary Religion |date=1 January 2010 |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=67–87 |doi=10.1080/13537900903416820 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13537900903416820 |issn=1353-7903 |last1=Arweck |first1=Elisabeth |last2=Nesbitt |first2=Eleanor }}
Nesbitt, Eleanor, (2015) '"The Fools Argue about Flesh and Meat" Sikhism and Vegetarianism', Religions of South Asia, 9, 1, 81-101.
Chapters in edited volumes
'"Deg tegh fateh!" Metal as Material and Metaphor in Sikh Tradition' in Fabrizio Ferrari and Thomas Dahnhardt (eds) Soulless Matter, Seats of Energy - Metals, Gems and Minerals in South Asian Traditions, London: Equinox, 174-200, 2016.
'Sikhism in Mainland Europe' in Pashaura Singh and Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair (eds) The Sikh World, London: Routledge, 160-170, 2023.
References
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External links
- {{YouTube|SL59St-3Vp8|Explore India in the 70's with Prof. Eleanor Nesbitt}}
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Category:21st-century British women writers
Category:Academics of the University of Warwick
Category:British ethnographers
Category:Writers from Bournemouth
Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge