Our Research Seminars

Theological Ethics Research Seminar

Spring Term 2024

1. Shawn Copeland, Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being

3-5 pm, Mondays, Humanity Manse Seminar Room, University of Aberdeen and via Microsoft Teams

Seminar Chair: David Clough (david.clough@abdn.ac.uk)

PGR seminar participants are encouraged to volunteer to introduce the readings for a particular week: please contact David to volunteer.

Text: Copeland, M. S. (2^nd ed., 2023). Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being, Second Edition. Fortress Press, available as an eBook via the library.

27^th January       Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved. (Various editions available in the library in hard copy and available for purchase online. Any edition is fine to use.)

                             Copeland, M. S. (2020). ‘Enfleshing Love: A Decolonial Theological Reading of Beloved’. In J. Drexler-Dreis & K. Justaert (Eds.), Beyond the Doctrine of Man: Decolonial Visions of the Human (pp. 91-112). Fordham University Press.

Copeland says one way to read Enfleshing Freedom is as a meditation on Morrison’s novel (p. 136). Please read the novel in advance of the first seminar, along with Copeland’s essay on it, and bring to the seminar a passage from the novel that you found of significance for theological ethics.

3^rd February       Enfleshing Freedom, Preface, Introduction, ch. 1 ‘Body, Race, and Being’

                             You may also like to watch this video lecture by Prof. Copeland from 2016.

10^th February     Enfleshing Freedom, ch. 2 ‘Enfleshing Freedom’

17^th February     Enfleshing Freedom, ch. 3 ‘Marking the Body of Jesus, the Body of Christ (Part I)’

24^th February     Enfleshing Freedom, ch. 4 ‘Marking the Body of Jesus, the Body of Christ (Part II)’

3^rd March            Enfleshing Freedom, ch. 5, ‘Turning the Subject’

10^th March         Enfleshing Freedom, ch. 6 ‘Enfleshing Struggle’

17^th March         Enfleshing Freedom, ch. 7 ‘Eucharist, Racism, and Some Bodies’ & Epilogue

(Spring Break)

14^th April            Guest speaker: Prof. Celia Deane-Drummond, Campion Hall, Oxford. Title TBA.

To attend online, you will need to join the Theological Ethics Seminar Team in Microsoft Teams. You will already be a member of the Team if you have shown interest in the past. For new attendees, in Microsoft Teams, join the team using this code: guum9ip

Thanks to Catherine Tobey and Cody Bivins-Starr for help in locating materials for the seminar.

The most up-to-date version of this document is in the Theological Ethics Seminar files on Teams.

Practical Theology Research Seminars 2024-2025

Methods and Mess

Autumn Term

Online on Wednesdays, 3:00 - 4:30pm (UK time)

Contact: Dr Jennie Riley - jennifer.riley@abdn.ac.uk

25^th September 2024 - Analysing Qualitative Data

Qualitative researchers are famously bad at explaining how they analyse data. We're going to revisit Braun and Clarke's classic paper and explore what those mysterious 'thematic analysis principles' actually mean in practice.

Encouraged reading: Virginia Braun & Victoria Clarke (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:2, 77-101, DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

9^th October 2024 - Anonymity and Ethics

It's widely assumed that the best way to protect research participants is making them anonymous - but increasingly, some are questioning this approach. We'll read Grinyer's perspective on this topic, and discuss whether anonymisation is always the best policy.

Encouraged reading: Anne Grinyer (2002) The Anonymity of Research Participants: Assumptions, Ethics and Practicalities, Social Research Update, 36, DOI: https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU36.html

23^rd October 2024 - Self-Care and Sensitive Research

Research can be isolating, hard work, and dangerous, and might involve managing sensitive subjects on a regular basis and in intimate ways. How can we care for ourselves well while undertaking such research?

Encouraged reading (NB - Content warnings for death & suicide): Ben Fincham, Jonathan Scourfield & Susanne Langer (2008) The Impact of Working with Disturbing Secondary Data: Reading Suicide Files in a Coroner's Office, Qualitative Health Research, 18, 6, DOI: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1049732307308945

As part of this session, we will begin creating a collaborative collage of our advice and wisdom about self-care throughout the research process.

13^th November 2024 - Researcher Reflexivity

Reflexivity has become an important buzzword for researchers, but what does it actually look like in practice? And how does it relate to our previous conversation about sensitivity and self-care?

Encouraged reading (NB - content warning for death): Erica Borgstrom & Julie Ellis (2020) Internalising 'sensitivity': vulnerability, reflexivity and death research(ers), International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24, 5, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1857972

27^th November 2024 - What makes a good ethics application?

Members of the university Research Ethics team and the DHPA Ethics Committee will be joining us to provide an overview of ethics applications at Aberdeen, and explore what makes a good ethics application.

11^th December 2024 - Christmas Creativity

Dr Lucinda Murphy (Durham University) will lead us in a discussion about her PhD - The Varieties of Christmas Magic: An ethnography of festivity, identity and worldview in British life - which used creative methodologies.

Systematic Theology Research Seminar

Autumn 2024

The Theology of Jürgen Moltmann (1926-2024)

This seminar will explore and engage the work of Jürgen Moltmann, one of the most significant figures in twentieth-century theology. His generative contributions to theological thinking treat core Christian themes such as the Trinity, creation, church, and ethics. But they also engage widely with liberation theologies, secular philosophies, social and political sciences, and the natural sciences. This seminar focuses on his two seminal early works on eschatology and Christology, with a view to critical resourcement. There will be an intermission to consider the new work Awake, Emerging, and Connected: Meditations on Justice from a Missing Generation (London: SCM, 2024), edited by Victoria Turner and with chapters by two Aberdeen postgraduates, Iona Curtius and Sam Murillo.

texts: Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, trans. James W. Leitch (London: SCM, 1967), and The Crucified God, trans. R. A. Wilson and John Bowden (London: SCM, 1974). These texts are both available online through the University of Aberdeen library catalogue.

sessions: week one :: Thursday 26th September :: Theology of Hope, Intro

week two :: Thursday 3rd October :: Theology of Hope, §§I-II

week three :: Thursday 10th October :: Theology of Hope, §III

week four :: Thursday 17th October :: Theology of Hope, §IV

week five :: Thursday 24th October :: Theology of Hope, §V

week six :: Thursday 31st October :: Awake, Emerging, and Connected

week seven :: Thursday 7th November :: Crucified God, Intro & ch. 1-2

week eight :: Thursday 14th November :: Crucified God, ch. 3-5

week nine :: Thursday 21st November :: --- no meeting ---

week ten :: Thursday 28th November :: Crucified God, ch. 6

week eleven :: Thursday 5th December :: Crucified God, ch. 7-8

meeting: Humanity Manse HMG01 :: from 2.30pm to 4.00pm

contact: Professor Paul T Nimmo :: paul.nimmo@abdn.ac.uk

There are a range of lectures and readings groups - open to all - this semester.

Please see here the Programme for the Classical Association of Scotland: Aberdeen and North of Scotland Centre: https://casnorthscotland.com/.

Further to this Programme of events, Sam Newington (Dr) will be hosting fortnightly reading groups in Greek and Latin. For the Greek reading group, we will be exploring Homer's Iliad 22 and for the Latin Virgil's Aeneid 6. If you are interested in joining please contact Dr Newington: s.newington@abdn.ac.uk.