I joined our lively and collegial Department in November 2010, having completed by PhD in Religious Studies from Lancaster University. My doctoral work qualitatively examined women’s spiritual reading as a third wave feminist practice, and I used this to connect religious and secular feminisms: this  became the basis for my first monograph Reading, Feminism, and Spirituality: Troubling the Waves (Palgrave, 2015) http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/Reading-Feminism-and-Spirituality/?sf1=barcode&st1=9781137549952

Prior to this, I studied Philosophy and Systematic Theology as an undergraduate at the University of Edinburgh and Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario), and completed an MA in Women’s Studies at Lancaster University.  

I am currently completing (contracted with Bloomsbury) a book called Motherhood, Voluntary Childlessness, and Christianity: Narratives of Choice that explores Christian women’s reproductive choices to have children or to be childfree, and the impact this has on their religious, gendered identities. 

I am also researching a service known as ‘Churching’ (Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth) in the Church of England, a project that is funded by the British Sociological Association (Sociology of Religion Study Group). Using participant observation and interviews, I explore the mothers’ motivations for taking part, and their understandings of the ritual.  

As part of my work in religion and gender, I am Series Editor (with Sian Hawthorne and Sonya Sharma) of The Bloomsbury Series in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/bloomsbury-studies-in-religion-gender-and-sexuality/

I really enjoy engaging with wider audiences about my work. For example, I am involved with ‘Storyhouse Women’ events like the annual festival and ‘Storyhouse Childless’, where I have curated, hosted, and chaired talks and panels. In addition, I have contributed to various print media and broadcast media programmes, like Radio 4’s Beyond Belief and Sunday to discuss my research and topics relating to gender and religion. I also consult for BBC ‘Bitesize’ on the Religious Education resources.

I am a member of several academic organisations, and regularly contribute to their annual meeting and conferences: British Sociological Association, BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group, and the British Society for the Study of Religion. As part of the Faith Lives of Women and Girls research group, I sit on their steering committee, and I co-convene the Religion and Gender Stream of the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture. I am also affiliated to The Shiloh Project (Sheffield), Sheffield Institute for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies, and Centre for Critical Inquiry into Society and Culture (Aston).