Jenny Butler

Dr Jenny Butler is a Lecturer in the Study of Religions Department and a Principal Investigator of UCC's Environmental Research Institute (ERI). In University College Cork, she sits on the College Executive Management Committee (CEMC), the CACSSS Graduate Studies Committee, and on the University's Academic Council (including the AC Learning and Teaching Committee). In the Study of Religions Department, she is Director of Graduate Studies (PhD and Higher Diploma programmes). She teaches courses on Western esotericism, new and emergent religious movements, folk religion, and religions in the Irish context. She is an External Graduate Faculty Member of the University of Maine. Dr Butler is an internationally established researcher in the area of new religious movements and is a leading scholar in her field, having conducted the first ever ethnographic study of Irish contemporary Paganism. Her monograph 21st Century Irish Paganism: Worldview, Ritual, Identity is forthcoming from Routledge. She is currently the Principal Investigator for Ireland on the international collaborative project CHRYSES: Mapping Environmental Health Crises – Public Understanding through Myths and Science, supported by CHANSE and HERA [Research Ireland RI4046]. As an active scholar, she has given 125 conference presentations and invited lectures in Ireland and internationally. Among her most recent keynote addresses at international conferences were 'Invoking Ireland: Celticity, Landscape and Identity in Irish Literary Tradition' at the Landscape and Identity in Contemporary British and Irish Literature Conference, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, 10-11 May 2024 (Keynote supported by the Irish Embassy in Poland), and 'The Celtic Golden Age and My

Dr Jenny Butler's primary research interests are in the following areas: Theory and Method in the Study of Religions Contemporary Paganism New Religious MovementsWestern EsotericismFolk/Popular ReligionIntangible Cultural Heritage Pilgrimage Ritual StudiesTraditional Cosmologies, Worldviews & CulturesMythologySacred Geography/Legends & Landscapes Religion & Popular culture (Intersections)Music and Fashion Subcultures (e.g., Goth, Grunge)Film and Screen Media and Religion (e.g., Horror, Magic, Occult) Religion and Nationalism / National Identities

Dr Butler's modules and teaching areas are at the forefront, in pedagogical terms, of understanding the changing Irish religious landscape in the context of the country's cultural and social history and she currently coordinates and teaches the modules RG2309: Contemporary Religions in Ireland, RG2314: Folk Religion in a Global Age, and RG2310: Western Esotericism and New Religious Movements. Dr Butler's teaching areas include the examination of worldviews, traditional cosmologies, and ritual. Her teaching interests range from the customs and beliefs of the early modern period in Ireland to contemporary urban ethnology, popular culture, visual culture and media studies and how these areas intersect with religions. Dr Butler holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (awarded by UCC), a Certificate in Continuing Professional Development in Digital Education (awarded by UCC), a Digital Badge in Universal Design in Learning (UDL) and a Postgraduate Research Supervision Digital Badge, both awarded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. She also completed University College Cork's Connected Curriculum Digital Badge and UCC's Effective Employee Digital Badge. All of Dr Butler's courses involve research-led teaching and learning and she has been awarded the Digital Badge in Responsible Conduct of Research by UCC's Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation (OVPRI). Dr Butler has worked in the area of Adult Education through University College Cork's Centre for Adult Continuing Education (CACE) (2011-Present), and is currently the CACSSS Representative on the ACE Short Course Approval Board. She has also guest lectured on UCC's Diploma in Local and Regional Studies, UCC's Diploma in Genealogy and UCC's Certificate in Mythology. Additionally, she has worked as an instructor for the Vocational Education Committee's (VEC) Adult Educat