Professor Rachel Muers
- Position: Professor of Theology
- Areas of expertise: Modern Christian thought; feminism, gender and theology; theological ethics; environmental ethics; Quaker theology; food and theology.
- Email: R.E.Muers@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 6748
Profile
I came to Leeds in 2007. I studied Theology and Religious Studies at Cambridge, and held the Margaret Smith Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge from 2001 to 2003. I was then Lecturer in Theology at the University of Exeter from 2003 to 2007.
My academic interests and major publications centre around the relationships between modern Christian doctrine and ethics.
I was the principal investigator on the AHRC-funded research project 'Vegetarianism as Spiritual Choice in Historical and Contemporary Theology' , on a British Academy project 'Women Reading Difficult Scriptures', and on the AHRC 'Everyday Lives in War' collaborative project 'Re-Imagining a True Social Order', working with Quakers in Britain. I am a member of the World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission and the current president of the Society for the Study of Theology.
Research interests
- Modern Christian theology
- Theological ethics, especially intergenerational issues
- Feminism and theology
- Vegetarianism, diet and theology
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer's thought
- Biblical interpretation, particularly in connection with Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations
- Quaker thought, particularly ethics and decision-making processes
- Theology and the environment
- Theology and social class
- Interdisciplinary work between theology and ethnography
Research supervision
My current and recent research supervision includes projects on feminist theology and embodiment; gender and leadership in Pentecostal churches; the history of Quaker spirituality; theology and silence in music; contemporary Christian vegetarianism; Christianity and political liberalism; religious language and contemporary Quakerism; the theology of intersex conditions.
I would welcome applications from students wishing to conduct research in feminist theory and theology, Quaker theology, twentieth-century Christian thought (particularly Dietrich Bonhoeffer), theological ethics, food and theology, and theological aspects of Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations.
Student education
My core areas of current teaching include human rights and religion; study of Christianity, especially modern Christian theology; and religion and public life. I'm enthusiastic about collaborative teaching, and often lead or develop courses that help students to bring together insights from different academic disciplines. I also teach on modules that involve external placements for students - for example in local schools.
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for Religion and Public Life
- Theology and Religious Studies
- Centre for Philosophy of Religion and Theology