Appointment of First Kirby Laing Postdoctoral Fellow

The School of Divinity, History and Philosophy is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Katherine M. Hockey as the first Kirby Laing Postdoctoral Fellow in New Testament Studies. Dr Hockey completed her PhD at Durham University in 2016, under the supervision of Professor John Barclay, and is presently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Exeter. Her research has focused particularly on the representation of emotions in the New Testament and the relevance of this for Christian self-perception. Her doctoral thesis, “Seeing Emotionally: An Investigation of the Role of Emotion in the Rhetorical Discourse of 1 Peter” is expected to be published later this year in a prestigious academic series. She has also co-edited two significant volumes due to be published in 2017/18 by Bloomsbury T&T Clark: Muted Voices of the New Testament: Readings in the Catholic Epistles and Hebrews, co-edited with Madison N. Pierce and Francis Watson, and Ethnicity, Race, Religion: Identities and Ideologies in Early Jewish and Christian Texts and in Modern Biblical Interpretation, co-edited with David Horrell.

This Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Aberdeen was made possible by a generous endowment of £1.2 million by the Kirby Laing Foundation, who also endowed the Chair of New Testament Exegesis at the University, a position presently filled by Professor Grant Macaskill. The Fellowship will support Dr Hockey’s continuing research into the representation of emotions in the New Testament, in a way that is sensitive to its relevance for contemporary Christian life. In particular, she plans to examine the representation of anger and the call to non-retaliation, a theme that intersects with the research of several colleagues at the University who work in the related fields of pastoral theology and theological ethics. The theme will also be of widespread public interest and Dr Hockey is keen to build links with non-academic partners, such as churches, that may wish to engage with her research. She will take up the position on 1^st of September 2017.

Professor John Barclay, who supervised Dr Hockey’s doctoral research at Durham University, said: “I am delighted by the appointment of Dr Katy Hockey as the Kirby Laing Postdoctoral Fellow.  Dr Hockey’s research is innovative, interdisciplinary and highly significant both for New Testament scholarship and for the church, and her presence in the University of Aberdeen will further strengthen the research environment of the School of Divinity.”