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Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Lincoln Theological Institute, University of Manchester

I specialise in the study of theology and posthumanism. Posthumanism explores what it means to be human when technologies are enhancing and possibly dehumanising us. As such, it involves a questioning of different approaches to and understandings of 'the human' against, for example, nature, animals, and even aliens and machines. My research focuses on the ways that technologies are theorised and problematised in both theology and posthumanism, which is an interdisciplinary endeaour that engages theology with insights from social sciences and cultural studies.

My previous doctoral work explored theological anthropology, which is the study of how the human has been understood by religious doctrine such as Genesis 1-2. I considered this through the notion of the 'cyborg', which has been popularised in science fiction and has come to represent our fears and hopes about new technologies and the ways to 'stay human' in an increasingly uncertain and technological age. This work has been published by I.B.Tauris under the title Cyborg Theology: Humans, Technology and God.

Currently, I am researching how 'love' can be used to characterise and problematise human-machine relations. I interact developments in AI and robot ethics with models of love presented by theologians in order to investigate the role of theology in popular culture, and our attitudes to love in a world dominated by rational machines that are also somewhat enchanting to us.

Experience

  • –present
    Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Lincoln Theological Institute, University of Manchester

Education

  • 2016 
    University of Manchester, PhD Religions & Theology