Barker, Eileen (b. 1938)

Eileen Barker, a longtime professor at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), is perhaps the best known sociologist of religion in the area of new religious movements (NRMs). She has produced a prodigious amount of scholarship in the area, as well as establishing in 1988 the now well-recognized INFORM at LSE. INFORM, which stands for Information Network Focus on New Religious Movements, has been an important and reliable information source on new religions for the general public, scholars, governments, and the media worldwide for many years. This very influential entity has been described in some of Professor Barker's publications, and it has been a model for the development of other such entities around the world.

Professor Barker, after having completed a career in drama and raising a family, earned her degrees from LSE, including a First Class Honors in sociology in 1970 and a PhD in 1988, after which she was designated professor of sociology with a special reference to the study of religion at LSE. She served LSE in many capacities during her tenure there, including convener of the sociology department, dean of undergraduate studies, academic governor, and vice dean. She also educated generations of students in the sociology of religion during her 30-plus-year academic career. Professor Barker has given nearly 600 presentations in more than 70 countries in her career, including at more than 200 universities around the world. Her publications number more than 250, and they have been published in at least 27 different languages.

Eileen Barker has had a special interest in the formerly Soviet-dominated nations of central and eastern Europe and has made many visits to that part of the world. She was a founding member of ISORECEA (International Study of Religion in Eastern and Central Europe Association), a thriving new scholarly organization in that part of the world, and has been a major figure in nations in that region in promoting scholarship about religion and also developing public policy toward religion.

Eileen Barker's scholarship has been recognized by many awards. The book that grew out of her doctoral dissertation, The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing, won the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Distinguished Book award in 1985. She was also awarded the Martin Marty Award for Service in the Public Understanding of Religion by the American Academy of Religion in 2000. She was the first non-American to be elected president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, serving from 1991 to 1993, and she was also elected president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in 2001. Her book New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction, published first in 1989 by Her Majesty's Stationary Office, has been reissued five times and has been translated into at least a dozen languages. This book has become perhaps the most widely circulated publication ever in the area of NRMs and has served to help educate untold numbers of students, scholars, public officials, and journalists about NRMs. She was elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1998, and in 2000, the queen of England appointed her as an Officer of the British Empire, a rare honor indeed for a scholar and academic.

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