PHD STUDENTS
Sarah Callista
The Significance of Power within Jesus' Identity as the Son of Man, Viewed from an Indonesian Peranakan Perspective.
Sarah is motivated by the lack of representation in biblical interpretation from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, and is driven by a desire to amplify voices that have long been overlooked. Her research interested includes postcolonial criticism, language analysis, and contextual reading in the Gospel according to Mark.
Supervisors: Rev Associate Professor Monica Melanchthon // Rev Associate Professor Robyn Whitaker // Dr U-Wen Low
Sarah is a Joan Margaret Gilchrist scholarship recipient.
Kyle Moffitt
Place, Violence And The Sacred: Developing A Contextual Theology Of Pilgrimage In The Light Of René Girard’s Mimetic Theory.
Kyle is researching contemporary Christian pilgrimage and its renewal in the Western world. He aims to develop a contextual theology of pilgrimage with the help of René Girard’s mimetic theory.
Supervisors: Professor Katharine Massam // Associate Professor Michael Kirwan, SJ // Rev Professor Stephen Burns
Kyle is a recipient of the Robert James Brown Postgraduate Scholarship.
Mac Ice
The Church, the Falling Away, and the Restoration: James Walton Shepherd and the formation of Churches of Christ (USA)
Mac uses archival expertise to examine how J.W. Shepherd was both a product of the Stone-Campbell Movement and a shaper of one its major component divisions, the Churches of Christ, especially through the publication of his influential history book.
Supervisors: Associate Professor Kerrie Handasyde / Professor Doug Foster / Professor Katharine Massam
Wendy Elson
Agency, Voice, and Personhood: Finding liberational space through Interrogating Biblical and Institutional responses to Disability.
This project engages contemporary stories told through the Disability Royal Commission, in order to hear dissonant voices and explore the liberative re-telling of several New Testament stories of healing.
Supervisors: Rev Associate Professor Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon // Rev Dr Andy Calder
Jeremy Holt
Might the concept of the metamodern widen the liminal space for re-imagining the sacred?
In an era marked by interconnected crises, traditional notions of the sacred seem inadequate to address our deepest existential and spiritual concerns. Anchored by the meta-fictional text, Everything That Stands as a performative instantiation, this project explores how metamodernism, oscillating in the liminal space between modernist rationalism and postmodernist fragmentation, might offer fertile, theopoetic ground to re-enchant our understanding and experience of transcendence.
Supervisors: Prof Katharine Massam // Rev Dr John Martis SJ
Elizabeth Lee
A Contemplative Participative Theological Inquiry Articulating a Trauma-sensitive Theology and Practice of Hospitality in a Faith Community.
This contemplative participatory inquiry will explore how contemporary trauma-sensitive theology can inform and guide a faith community’s practice of hospitality in a post-Royal Commission Era.
Supervisors: Associate Professor Liz Boase // Associate Professor Lorna Hallahan // Dr Cathryn McKinney.
Tim Payze
A Biblical Examination of Theological Anthropology: Genesis 1:26-8, Job 10:8-12, and Psalm 139:13-16, in Conversation.
This project explores how two accounts of God's creative work in-utero, in dialogue with the Genesis One cosmic creation of fully functioning adults in the image of God may expand and enrich our understanding of what it means to be human.
Supervisors: Rev Associate Professor Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon // Dr Rachelle Gilmour.