Life and work[edit]

Graham Harvey was born in 1959.^[1] He obtained a Ph.D. title at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1991 on a dissertation about group identity in ancient Jewish literature. From 1991 to 1995 he taught religious studies in Newcastle. From 1996 to 2003 he worked as a reader and principal lecturer in religious studies at the King Alfred's College, Winchester.^[2] Since 2003 he works at the Open University where he is a professor and was head of the religious studies department from 2013 to 2017.^[3]


After being invited to do a presentation about contemporary druids, Harvey began to do fieldwork about modern Paganism which resulted in several books, notably Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism (1997) and Researching Paganisms (2004).^[3] He has written extensively about indigenous religions and animism, producing the monograph Animism: Respecting the Living World (2005) and the edited volume The Handbook of Contemporary Animism (2013).^[4][5] In the monograph Food, Sex & Strangers: Understanding Religion as Everyday Life (2013) he seeks to define religion through people's behaviours and everyday practices rather than belief.^[6]


Harvey practices modern Paganism with druid orders and as animism with ecological activists. He is married and also participates in Jewish celebrations with his wife.^[7]