The Faculty of Theology and Religion is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Susanna Snyder as Departmental Lecturer in Applied Theology.
Dr Snyder is a leading scholar in the fields of Christian social ethics and practical theology, with a strong commitment to interdisciplinary, practice-based research. Her academic career spans institutions in both the UK and the USA, including Emory University, Episcopal Divinity School, and the University of Texas at Austin. More recently, she served as Academic Dean at Ripon College Cuddesdon and Director of Research at Sarum College in Salisbury. She holds degrees from the University of Cambridge and the University of Birmingham, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
She is currently a Research Associate of the Susanna Wesley Foundation and has been an associate member of the Faculty, teaching and supervising on the MTh in Applied Theology. Her current work includes a collaborative qualitative project exploring experiences and practices of hope. Dr Snyder is also academic coordinator for the Ecclesiology and Ethnography Network Conference in Durham and serves on the editorial board of Studies in Christian Ethics.
Professor Luke Bretherton, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, warmly welcomed her appointment:
I am thrilled that Susanna Snyder is the new Departmental Lecturer in Applied Theology. She brings a wealth of experience in teaching and research, both in the UK and the USA. Her work combines constructive theology, qualitative methods, and on the ground church-based experience. Her own integration of pastoral, practical, moral, and political theology makes her ideally suited to the position and the needs of the MTh in Applied Theology as well as aid the integration of these fields at the University of Oxford. Given her background, and her prior knowledge and experience teaching on the programme, her appointment represents a new chapter in the MTh in Applied Theology, one that will greatly strengthen it, integrate it into the heart of the department, and connect it to the needs of those the programme serves who work in churches and faith-based organisations.
Dr Snyder also expressed her enthusiasm:
I am very much looking forward to joining the Faculty of Theology and Religion, and to working with others to develop the MTh in Applied Theology. I am passionate about research and teaching that explores interconnections between lived experience, theology and practice, and so am delighted to have an opportunity to contribute to this important programme as well as to creative, interdisciplinary conversation within and beyond the faculty.
