Externally Funded Research Projects

This project is orientated towards he completion of Tom Greggs' three volume Ecclesiology. The project funds a postdoctoral researcher (Dr Sara Mannen) and an annual symposium on the topic. There will be an edited collection emerging from the symposium.

Funder: McDonald Agape Foundation

Researchers: Professor Tom Greggs (Divinity) & Dr Sara Mannen (Divinity)

‘Baggage for the Beyond’ explores ‘grave goods’ in the UK since the turn of the millennium – namely, the things people put in other people's coffins or graves when they die, knowing that they will almost certainly never get them back. The project uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative interview, survey and documentary methods to explore the scale and nature of ‘grave goods,’ and the meanings and significances attached to them. It gives particular emphasis to their relationship to environmental concerns, afterlife beliefs and identity conceptualizations.  Dr Riley was selected to give one of the TEDxAberdeen 2024 presentations about the project, and will be working in collaboration with the London-based Vagina Museum around their  ‘grave goods’ display. You can follow the project on Instagram @baggageforthebeyond. 

Researcher: Dr Jennifer Riley - Divinity (DHPA)

Funder: Leverhulme Trust (Early Career Fellowship) 

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, wherein people exhibit different patterns of attention, concentration and activity levels compared to the neurotypical population. People with ADHD often struggle to manage their time, prioritise tasks, and to maintain daily routines. However, they are also often highly creative individuals, with excellent skills in innovation and problem solving. All of these factors have an impact on how Christians with ADHD engage with church and the Christian life. This project seeks to understand that impact, and to create information and resources that will support both Christians with ADHD and those who pastor them. 

Researcher: Dr Helena Cundill - Divinity

Funder: The Hope Trust

Through an ongoing series of events, conversations, and the creation of digital “educational boxes” Teaching Arctic Environments addresses the need for multi-disciplinary and collaborative pedagogy. By developing and co-creating online and open-access visually-orientated teaching resources we aim to address the growing need and demand for critical environmental humanities pedagogy of the circumpolar Arctic. With the increasing urgency of the climate crisis, and the need to tell stories alongside scientific data, this project pairs critical environments scholarship with environmental art history and visual culture, something still lacking within the field of environmental humanities. Our hope is that these resources will be incorporated into high school and undergraduate curricula, shaping and inspiring interdisciplinary conversations around different topics and themes of importance to understanding the past, present, and future of the Arctic. 


Researchers: Dr Isabelle Gapp, Art History and Jonathan Peyton, Geography, University of Manitoba

Funders: Scottish Government Arctic Connections Fund (2023-24), University of Manitoba UIPPSF Internal Grant (2024-25), NERC-Arctic Office UK-Greenland Research Bursary (2024-25)

This project represents the UoA's foray into the digital humanities. It brings together computing sciences, advanced digital imaging methods, and ancient material cultures to create an online image-based database for research and cutting-edge digital humanities curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Researchers: Drs Nathaniel E. Greene (PI, Divinity) and Karl Kinsella (Co-I, Art History)

Funders: British Academy

The interdisciplinary project considers the ways in which political union in eastern Europe in the early modern period created an alternative model of cultural transfer to the emerging nation-states and empires of the period. It looks at how the framework of political union encouraged complex processes of entanglement and hybridity across a vast multiethnic, multinational and religiously diverse space, and considers the consequences of entanglement that left a complex legacy following the partition of the Commonwealth at the end of the eighteenth century, a legacy whose effects are still evident in the present day.We are also delivering 2 training sessions for doctoral researchers. A volume of collected essays is currently being prepared.

Researchers:  This is a collaborative project with the Jagiellonian University, Cracow, and Charles IV University, Prague, funded largely by the Jagiellonian University (ca £ 20 k), with contributions from CPLS, CEMS and Prague. It has held three workshops in Aberdeen (May 2023), Prague (January 2024) and Cracow (June 2024) and is currently preparing a volume for publication, with articles by Robert Frost, Karin Friedrich, Helen Lynch, Marcel Garboś, and Paweł Grabowski.

Funders: “Excellence Initiative – Research University” programme of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences,

Prussian Humboldt Forum and Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg.

Researchers: Dr Thomas Biskup, University of Hamburg, Dr Juergen Luh, historian and consultant at the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg, Dr Alfred Hagemann, Director of the Prussian Humboldt Forum, Prof. Karin Friedrich, Univesrity of Aberdeen

Funders: Prussian Humboldt Forum and Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg

Where do the boundaries of mind end? Traditional thinking says: at the skull and skin. But a recent and powerful idea in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science suggests that our mental life is more expansive: that cognition supervenes on loops of biological and non-biological processes that play out partly in our heads and partly in our environments. For example, consider use of a notebook or a phone, at least, in certain conditions where we outsource cognitive tasks to these artefacts; proponents of extended cognition hold that our memories and beliefs might be extracranially realised and potentially stored. A question at the intersection of extended cognition and epistemology is whether and under what conditions such extracranially realised cognition rise to the level of knowledge; the special case of this question our project pursues is the paradigmatic digital case, viz., where extended cognition might under certain conditions give rise to digital knowledge, and if so, what digital virtues best explain this kind of digital knowledge. The upshot will be a better understanding of how an updated picture of the boundaries of cognition and cognitive traits interface with the kind of knowledge we ordinarily seek out, attain and store in digital environments.

Researchers: Jesper Kallestrup (Philosophy), Josh Thorpe (Philosophy), Matt Jope (Philosophy)

Funder: AHRC 

Race & Class in UK Religious Studies and Theology is a project funded by the Susanna Wesley Foundation aiming to provide an institutional platform for monitoring and challenging ways in which the disciplines of Religious Studies and Theology in UK Higher Education operate to exclude and disadvantage UK Minority Ethnic, Global Majority Heritage, and Working Class students and staff (recognising the overlap between each of these groups). Its initial term will run from September 2024 for five years. The project will review available quantitative data on applications, admission, progression, and achievement of students and staff, convene focus groups to identify key issues, conduct a large qualitative survey of staff and students, publish a report, and then hold workshops in universities and subject associations to discuss the project findings and recommendations in dialogue with existing research as it applies to particular contexts.


Researchers: Prof. David L. Clough, Dr Samantha Newington, & Prof. John Swinton;  Divinity

Funder: Susanna Wesley Foundation

The project is a collaboration between Dr Hönes and Dr Emilie Oléron Evans (QMUL). The project aims to reassess the role of women for the disciplinary formation of art history in post-war Britain. This collaborative project will contextualise art historiography from an interdisciplinary  perspective, and explore ways to present in-depth archival work through Digital Humanities approaches.

Researcher: Hans C. Hönes (Art History) 

Funder: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

This project seeks to listen to autistic people and their communities – especially non-speakers and Black people – who are marginalised both in society and in autism research. This project researches their spiritual and religious lives. It has been demonstrated that spirituality and religious participation enhance the quality of life of autistic people and their carers, and that both are especially important in Black communities.  Stories by autistic people of experiencing the Divine or other spiritual experiences abound, yet there is a persistent claim in the literature that autistic people are less inclined to be spiritual. Access to spirituality and religion is denied, so to speak, to autistic people in various ways: by autism theories, by theologies, by religious culture and religious practices.  The project hopes to contribute to the quality of life of autistic people by highlighting their wishes and needs regarding spirituality and religion to their communities. Also, this project aims at facilitating the dialogue between Autism Theology and other disciplines. 

Researchers: Dr Armand Léon van Ommen and Dr Sheila Akomiah, Divinity, Centre for Autism and Theology

Funder: AHRC

To illuminate the research of the overall project on “God, Language, and Diversity” (PI: Dr Joanna Leidenhag, University of Leeds) this subproject addresses the question: What does it mean to participate in a religion that is highly verbal when you do not have, or have limited capacity for, speech? This project will research the spiritual and religious lives of Christian non- or limited speaking autistic people (NLSAP). Even though it is estimated that 25%-35% of autistic people do not use speech as their primary way of communicating, NLSAP make up only 2% of autistic participants in autism studies. Our research hopes to address this and to understand more about this often ‘forgotten’ population. In doing so, we hope to make NLSAP more central in the lives of their churches. Apart from academic journal articles, a major output of this study will be a digital storybook in which NLSAP tell their stories of engaging with spirituality and religion. 

Researchers: Dr Armand Léon van Ommen & (PI: Dr Joanna Leidenhag, University of Leeds) 

Funders: John Templeton Foundation

This study, led by Prof. John Swinton, aims to deepen the understanding of dementia care by exploring indigenous and Afro-Caribbean perspectives on caregiving. Traditionally, dementia care research has focused on Western models, overlooking the rich insights from non-Western communities. Prof. Swinton’s research will involve the Gunadule people in Panama and the Afro-Caribbean diaspora in the UK. Both groups share a strong sense of kinship and caregiving, often prioritising community-based care over institutional options, a value shaped by their histories and cultural beliefs.  The project will explore how these culturally distinct approaches to love, kinship, and spiritual care can enrich global practices and theological understandings of dementia care. It aims to provide a platform for voices often marginalised in mainstream dementia discussions, enhancing practical theology and pastoral care. Outcomes will include publications, conference presentations, and training materials, with practical applications for care organisations like HammondCare and churches worldwide.

Researcher: Prof John Swinton

Funder: AHRC

The project is a five-year collaborative research initiative. It focuses on the community of Lyn’s House, Cambridge, an ecumenical Christian setting that fosters friendship and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities. The study explores how a mixed-ability community impacts personal growth, faith development, and social change, providing a model for reducing social isolation and stigma. By involving community members as research collaborators, the project aims to share findings through academic publications, practical applications, and creative dissemination methods.

Researcher: Prof John Swinton

Funder: The Cambridge Friendship Trust.

This five-year programme at the University of Aberdeen, under the direction of Professor John Swinton, aims to advance interdisciplinary research in theology, mental health, and disability, with a particular focus on dementia and severe mental health challenges across diverse cultural contexts. The project seeks to examine the theological implications of living with these conditions and how they reshape understandings of theological anthropology globally. The research will generate two theological monographs, journal articles, and an accessible website, alongside hosting international colloquia to foster scholarly dialogue. Key objectives include forming an international network of scholars, fostering collaboration with institutions like Duke Divinity School, and contributing to professional associations, thereby extending both academic and public discussions on these crucial issues.

Researcher: Prof John Swinton

Funder: The McDonald Agape Foundation

This project uses the tools of applied philosophy and works with healthcare improvement practitioners and researchers to help elucidate and address the conceptual, ethical and practical challenges they face. 

Researchers: Alan Cribb, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, King's College London; Vikki Entwistle, Philosophy (and Institute of Applied Health Sciences), University of Aberdeen 

Funder: Wellcome Trust