Born in Preston, United Kingdom, 1998, Brandon Taylorian is a Research Fellow at the University of Lancashire specialising in freedom of religion or belief, qualitative research on law and religion, and the governance of religious diversity.
He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Lancashire in 2025 with a thesis entitled “Religious Freedom and State Recognition of Belief: To what degree do recognition and registration issues impact conditions of freedom of religion or belief?” His doctoral research developed three analytical frameworks — the Spectrum of Religious Recognition (SRR-1), the Spectrum of Religious Registration (SRR-2), and the Scale of Rights Violations (SRV) — designed to assess the impact of state recognition and registration regimes on religious communities in democratic and authoritarian contexts.
He previously obtained an MA with Distinction in Religion, Culture and Society (2020) and a First Class BA (Hons) in Business and Marketing (2019) from the University of Lancashire.
Dr Taylorian teaches across the fields of law, religion, and human rights, having convened modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Religion, Public Law, and the history of human rights. He has delivered invited lectures at international conferences and at academic institutions across the UK on issues concerning recognition and registration of religious organisations, state oversight of religion, the history of religious dissent and the protection of minority belief communities.
His research has been published in journals including the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, Nottingham Law Journal, Religion & Human Rights, and the Journal of Law, Religion and State. His work combines doctrinal legal analysis with qualitative research involving members of minority religions and human rights professionals.
He is a peer reviewer for several academic journals in the humanities field, and he serves as founding editor of the Journal of Astronist Studies. In 2024 he became an alumnus of the Young Scholars Fellowship on Religion and the Rule of Law at Oxford hosted by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies. In 2026 he was elected an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Dr Taylorian’s research focuses particularly on the interaction between administrative governance and religious freedom, examining how recognition policies, registration requirements, and regulatory oversight shape the lived experiences of religious communities across Europe and beyond.