Linda Woodhead is a writer and academic. She was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and her first job was as lecturer at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford. After Oxford, she went to Lancaster University where she is now Professor of Sociology of Religion. Her main interest is in documenting and analysing religious change in modern societies, relating it to wider social changes, and thinking through practical and political implications.
She has carried out empirical research in Britain, the USA, India and parts of Europe, and has written about Christianity, spirituality, neo-Hinduism and Islam in Europe. Her work as Director of the Religion and Society Research Programme has involved her in a range of public activities, aimed at bringing the latest research into the public debate and raising the level of conversation about religion. Her books include Christianity: A Very Short Introduction, The Spiritual Revolution and, most recently, Religion and Change in Modern Britain (edited with Rebecca Catto).